An OTL Compromise
Posted by
tgirsch
Any of you who read this blog’s NHL posts know that Kevin and I despise the OTL point. The problem is, it’s not going away any time soon, because teams and players really, really want some consolation for at least taking a game to overtime. This got me to thinking about a compromise solution. So here’s mine:
Keep the OTL stat but do away with points completely.
Bear with me here. The idea is that instead of an OTL giving you a point in the standings, it gives you a tiebreaker advantage. In my scenario, most wins would be the first stat to determine playoff seedings. In the event that two or more teams have the same number of wins, the tiebreaker would go to the team with the fewest regulation losses, with the reasoning being that a team that went to overtime in more of its losses was on balance more competitive than the others.
Another possible compromise:
The original idea behind the OTL point, of course, was to try to get teams to go for the win in overtime when ties were still an option. With the advent of the shootout, this seems like it’s no longer needed, but I do see a potential use for it. Most hockey fans see a win in overtime as more legitimate than a shootout win, since it’s “real” hockey rather than a skills competition. So you could use the OTL point to encourage teams to avoid going to a shootout, by simply denying the OTL point to teams that lose in a shootout. You only get the OTL point if you lose in overtime. In theory, this should work even better than the OTL point in the tie era, because in that era, you got the point whether you lost or tied. With this method, you only get the point if you lose in OT, so there’s plenty of incentive to sell out and go for the win in OT and not let the game get to a shootout.
Of course, the best answer is to scrap the damn OTL idea completely and just have winners and losers, like any other sport. Hell, I didn’t even mind the tie all that much, except that there were too many of them. Use the shootout to minimize the number of ties, but if you’re tied after three shooters in a shootout, just call it a tie and split the two points. Heck, the NFL still has ties, albeit infrequently (and any time a game goes to overtime in the NFL, I actually root for the tie).
What about 3 points for a win? FIFA did that for World Cup qualifying a ways back, and that seemed to eliminate, for the most part, those dreadful 0-0 matches.
Personally, I’m not sold on the shootout. But I’m willing to see what happens this season.
Comment 12/1/2005
[…] That’s right, the NHL regular season has ended, and our loyal readers know what that means: it’s time for me (and probably Kevin) to bitch about the OTL point again. For prior OTL hatred, see here; here; and especially here and here and here. […]
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