No discussion involving the Vancouver Canucks of 2015-2016 can be complete without mention of the Lose Point, the point the NHL gives teams who fail to win but make everyone wait a few extra minutes to find out.
You see, the Loser Point is the vestigial tail of the NHL’s past iterations that allowed ridiculous events such as completing a match with the game tied. The point system as a whole, really, belongs to that era but changes have been made: It’s evolved. Still, the point that was originally given out for ties, the NHL no longer has ties, and yet the point is being given out anyway.
Of course it doesn’t make sense to have extra points in a league where a winner and loser is defined every night. Why should some games be worth more than others in terms of points awarded on the night? Why is a 2-1 game that ended at 60:00 minutes played have a total of 2 points awarded but a 2-1 game that ended at 60:10 minutes is worth a total of 3 points awarded?
The answer to that question, whatever it might be, doesn’t hold any water at all. It’s arbitrary and only exists because it “always… has. The system as it is now rewards losing after an extra few minutes is played disproportionately more than it rewards winning. This has lead some to argue in favour of the 3 point system. 3 points for a Regulation win, 2 for an OT win, 1 for an OT loss, and 0 for a regulation loss.
Balderdash!
I’ve always hated unnecessarily complex systems. Professional sports shouldn’t need a graphing calculator to determine regular season standings or Playoff seeding. And if we’re willing to change the point system at all then we should do the right thing and kill it altogether. It deserves no quarter. It has no place on this Earth.
Win-Loss records are sufficient enough in the modern NHL with tiebreakers going to Regulation Wins. It doesn’t have to be more complicated. The winner gets credit. The loser gets nothing extra, even if it delays a loss by 5 minutes.
Back to Vancouver! The Canucks have picked up 12 loser points this year in a season where they have only won 27 times. Vancouver has won a game this season more times than only the Toronto Maple Leafs. They are, by all measures aside from points in the standings, one of the worst teams in the NHL (Don’t worry Canucks fans, Edmonton is terrible too). They don’t score much, their defense is porous, their goaltending is iffy, they arent good. We get it.
Still, despite winning less than all but 1 team in the NHL, they are ahead of 6 teams in the standings. Why? Because they extended the inevitable loss an extra few minutes on 12 occasions? This makes no sense.
The 3 point system would have the Canucks in 27th place right now. Win-Loss would have them in 29th. The current system has them 24th. If you’re at all interested in seeing how the NHL would look right now under the three different systems here they are:
Yes, Vancouver would be near the bottom of the standings in the NHL under the W/L system. Edmonton would be just 1 spot higher than they are today. But before Canuck fans think I’m picking on them, just remember that under a W/L system that rightfully rewards winning and never rewards losing their lottery chances increase dramatically.
Today the Canucks have just a 6.5% chance of winning the NHL Lottery and drafting first, even though they are legitimately terrible, objectively or otherwise. If they weren’t shooting themselves in the foot with Loser Points they would have a 13.5% chance of winning the lottery. They would more than double their odds and there is no legitimate argument that answers why they shouldn’t be recognized as one of the worst teams in the league.
As for the 3 point system, we already have a team right now that would have 145 points on the season. Once upon a time 100 points was a great year. Now 90 something wont even guarantee you a playoff spot. In a 3 point system 100 points is a bad year. If we’re moving the goalposts that much then let’s just remove them altogether.
LINEUP
Talbot plays tonight and LB will play on Sunday.
Hall Draisaitl Pakarinen Maroon McDavid Eberle Korpikoski RNH Yakupov Hendricks Letestu Kassian
Sekera Fayne Nurse Clendening Reinhart Oesterle
Talbot
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Three Centers. Edmonton is very interested in the future of the team with the big three centers they have in Draisaitl, RNH, and McDavid. As per Todd McLellan they were able to get the matchups they wanted against the Blues and it created the mismatches they desired. With RNH handling the tougher minutes it leaves the other two to create offensively. Even if they arent scoring they might be using speed mismatches to draw penalties. In the even they want to condense the offense to 2 lines then McLellan has said repeatedly that centers can transition to the wing quite easily. The Oilers plan on testing how far the Canucks can stretch out their top defensive unit. The more exhausted they get the better for McDavid who is going to get his looks.
2) Power Play. In one game the Oilers PP went from a 27th rank to the 20th. It was one goal away from matching a team record and they could have done it too (if it wasn’t for those meddling kids and their dog). They need to ride that success forward. They have too many talented players for the PP to struggle as it has. If they can continue to get shots through from the point then having the quick hands of Eberle, Hall, and McDavid down low is going to result in goals. They made some tweaks before the last game but now I’m going to watch to see if they try to replicate the exact same plays that worked against the Blues or if they’re going to keep it loose.
3) Pressuring Blue. It was mentioned above but the Oilers have to really pressure the Canucks defenders. They brought in newcomer “freak… Tryamkin and the Oilers need to test him out. He’ll be playing with Hamhuis and Hutton will be with Tanev. There’s a weak link on both of their top 2 pairs and the 3rd pair of Biega and Bartkowski are their worst two regular possession defenders while Sbisa is out. Edmonton has to identify the weak links and go after them. They really need to make Tryamkin’s life hell tonight. Maroon, Kassian, and Pakarinen have to be all over them on the forecheck and at the front of the net.
Puck drops tonight at 7PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet West. Game On!
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