Columbus has more than its share of seasoned hockey fans. However, there are many who are still catching up on the sport, its rules and traditions. 1st Ohio Explainer is a series for those fans.
There's a battle raging in the NHL's Metropolitan Division.
The league's three best teams – the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets – are vying for the President's Trophy, awarded to the team that finishes the season with the most points, and more importantly, playoff seeding.
Last time out on 1st Ohio Explainer, we reviewed how to read the NHL standings table like a winner. Today, we're going to cover the league's tiebreaker procedures for playoff seeding.
First, here's a look at how the Metropolitan standings look right now:
| Team | GP | W | L | OTL | PTS | ROW | GF | GA | DIFF | Home | Away | S/O | L10 | STRK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASHINGTON | 73 | 48 | 17 | 8 | 104 | 46 | 234 | 162 | +72 | 3–6–2 | 18–11–6 | 2–5 | 5–4–1 | W3 |
| PITTSBURGH | 73 | 46 | 17 | 10 | 102 | 43 | 253 | 201 | +52 | 29–4–3 | 17–13–7 | 3–4 | 7–1–2 | OT1 |
| COLUMBUS | 73 | 47 | 19 | 7 | 101 | 45 | 231 | 171 | +60 | 26–10–1 | 21–9–6 | 2–2 | 7–2–1 | OT1 |
If the season ended today, all three teams have played the same number of games, so the Washington Capitals would win the Metropolitan.
However, if two or more teams tie in points at the end of the season, the NHL's tiebreaker procedures kick in.
The first tiebreaker is regulation and overtime win total, or ROW in the standings—It's important to note that shootout wins do not factor into ROW. Despite currently sitting third in the Metro, the Blue Jackets are in great shape here, with 45, trailing only Washington's 46.
If two teams are tied in points and ROW, the next tiebreaker is points earned in head-to-head games during the season. Columbus is 2–2 against Washington, with one game to play, and and 2–1 against the Penguins, with one game left in that series.
Your superior arithmetic skills tell you that the Blue Jackets play five games against the Capitals and four games against the Penguins this season. The NHL has a rule for this, too! If an odd number of games occurred between the teams, points collected in the first game in the city that hosted the extra game will be discounted.
The Jackets will play three games in Washington and two in Columbus against the Capitals, so should the teams reach this point, the first game in Washington will be thrown out – and that's a shame, because the Blue Jackets took that one, 2-1. Conversely, the Blue Jackets have two games at home and two on the road against the Pens this season.
Finally, if things are still knotted up, goal differential is used. At +72, the Capitals have a pretty healthy cushion over the Blue Jackets +60 and Pittsburgh's +52.
Now, here's why all of this is important: in short, NHL playoff seeding is stupid.
When it comes time to seed playoff teams, the top three from each division make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in addition to two wildcard teams from each conference. In theory, it's possible for both wildcard teams to come from the same division, leading to one division fielding five teams while the other fields just their three auto bids.
That's fine. Here's where it gets awful.
The NHL pits the two division winners against the two wildcard teams in the first round of the playoffs, with the teams finishing second and third in each division facing each other. In most years, this works out fine, but following a season like this one, in which the top three teams in the NHL will all likely hail from the Metropolitan, it's a disaster.
If the current standings hold, the Capitals will face the No. 8 seed, or the second wildcard team to get in, while the Blue Jackets and Penguins will do battle in the first round. Imagine finishing with the third-best record in the league and not having home ice in the first round. That's what the Blue Jackets are staring down.
So, Columbus has some more winning to do.
With nine games to play, they're still within striking distance of Washington for the league's best record. If they're unable to catch the Caps, the Blue Jackets must still battle down the stretch to try to jump Pittsburgh for home ice in their first round series.
