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!

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