What Now?

Hockey really doesn't matter in the big picture. The Covid-19 Pandemic has canceled pretty much all sport (among many other things) worldwide. But this is a hockey blog, so let's talk about how this affects hockey.
IF this indeed the end of the season and IF the NHL does have a post-season, how will they proceed? How exactly will the standings and therefore playoff match-ups be finalized? It's highly unlikely the standings are based on the points each team has accumulated to this point. Teams have played anywhere from 68 to 71 games, it would be unfair to simply rank them by Points. The likeliest scenario would be going to Points Percentage.

STANDINGS BY POINT PCT.
Atlantic
1. Boston        .714
2. Tampa Bay .657
3. Toronto       .579

Metropolitan
1.Washington   .652
2. Philadelphia .645
3. Pittsburgh     .623

WC1 Carolina        .596
WC2 NY Islanders .588

Central
1. St. Louis          .662
2. Colorado          .657
3. Dallas               .594

Pacific
1. Vegas               .606
2. Edmonton        .585
3. Vancouver        .565

WC1 Nashville  .565
WC2 Calgary     .564

Columbus misses out on the 2nd Wild Card by .009 percentage points to the Islanders and Vancouver takes 3rd in the Pacific over Calgary by a mere .001. In turn, Calgary takes the last Wild Card over Winnipeg and Minnesota by .001 and .007 percentage points.

Another option for the league would be getting each team to the same amount of games played, say 72. This is fairly impractical as some teams would need four games, others only one. Also, how would a fair schedule be constructed? Next to impossible. I've heard a few mentions of basically rolling back the standings to where every team has played 68 games. Removing games that have already happened seems extremely unlikely. Perhaps the stats from those games would be kept, but the Won/Loss records not. Anyway, here's what that would look like. Tiebreakers as per the NHL are Regulation Wins (RW) then Regulation and Overtime Wins (ROW).

ROLLBACK TO 68 GAMES
Atlantic
1. Boston          98
2. Tampa Bay   91
3. Toronto         79

Metropolitan
1. Washington   89  (31 RW, 37 ROW)
2. Philadelphia  89  (31 RW, 36 ROW)
3. Pittsburgh      81

WC1 Carolina        81
WC2 NY Islanders 80

Central
1. Colorado   90  (37 RW)
2. St. Louis    90  (30 RW)
3. Dallas        82

Pacific
1. Vegas         82
2. Edmonton  80
3. Calgary      77

WC1 Nashville 76   (31 RW)
WC2 Vancouver 76 (26 RW)

In this scenario, the Eastern Conference remains the same. In the West, Colorado takes top spot from St.Louis on the basis of Regulation Wins. Calgary takes 3rd in the Pacific from Vancouver (who drops to the 2nd Wild Card.
Overall, the same 16 teams make the playoffs. The one thing the Rollback scenario would give us a battle of Alberta which Percentage Points wouldn't. For that reason alone, I say let's do it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Played for Both Bruins & Blues, All-Time Team

Image
 Here's a fun thing I like to do every once in a while, assemble a squad of players who played for two distinct franchises. I did it for Leafs/Wings when they played in the Winter Classic a few years back. Also, I'm working on a squad of guys who played for both the Canucks and Leafs that includes such names as Vaive, Benning, Butcher and Kurtenbach. What follows is the all-time team of players who at some point in their careers, suited up for both of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finalists Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues. The fact that goaltender Hannu Toivonen is pictured at the top may seem a strange selection, but he is  the only retired player to play his entire career ONLY for Boston and St. Louis. Currently playing, David Backes has done the same, playing for only St.Louis and Boston. Toivonen came up with the Bruins in 2005/06 playing behind Tim Thomas and Andrew Raycroft, during the summer of 2007 he was dealt to the Blues for Carl Soderberg. He would back-up Manny Legace
Read more