The Impact of the Bonus Point

Well, the NHL regular season is over. The field of 16 is set. A lot of people* have been wondering though: how would the field look if we didn't have those 3 point games? What impact does the shootout have. Certainly, teams have more wins than they used to have before the shootout was implemented.

*Well, "a lot" may be an overstatement.

Well, luckily for those few people, I have no life and decided to find the answer. I went through the 2009-10 NHL regular season and looked at all the 3 point games played and then adjusted the standings to what they would have been if the 3 point game didn't exist. In other words, I took away a point for losing in overtime (the "loser point") and I took away a point for winning in the shootout (the "skills competition point"), since shootout games would have been ties in years past.

First, here's the standings as they are right now:


Now, here are the adjusted standings:



The top of the standings stayed the same, but there were some shufflings down below. Notably, the Rangers are now in the playoffs as a 7 seed while Montreal drops out, and the Calgary flames sneak into the playoffs as the 8 seed, knocking Colorado out.

All in all, the impact on the standings is actually not that great, but what it does do is inflate the total number of points by about 10 points for every team. Also, I want to point out that there is no way to factor in how much strategy change effects the outcome of the games. This year, a record number of overtime games were played, suggesting that teams are trying to get to overtime in order to get that guaranteed point. So, take this all with a grain of salt.

Pat is crazy. Go Sharks.