Standings without the Shootout

The shoot out was brought into the NHL to pressure teams to go for the win in overtime and to make sure that there is a clear cut winner of every game. However, I was looking at the Eastern Conference standings and wondering if the shoot out had not been implemented would the standing have been that much different? As well would the playoff match ups been that different.

So let’s take a look

Standings with the shoot out

Team	PTS
1. Buffalo *	113
2. New Jersey *	107
3. Atlanta *	97
4. Ottawa	105
5. Pittsburgh	105
6. NY Rangers	94
7. Tampa Bay	93
8. NY Islanders	92
9. Toronto	91
10. Montreal	90
11. Carolina	88
12. Florida	86
13. Boston	76
14. Washington	70
15. Philadelphia	56

Team	PTS
1. Detroit *	113
2. Anaheim *	110
3. Vancouver *	105
4. Nashville	110
5. San Jose	107
6. Dallas	107
7. Minnesota	104
8. Calgary	96
9. Colorado	95
10. St. Louis	81
11. Columbus	73
12. Edmonton	71
13. Chicago	71
14. Los Angeles	68
15. Phoenix	67

So now say that every game had ended before the shoot out and teams did not get the winning points. Here is what the standings would look like.

Team	PTS	PTS diff	Position move
1. Ottawa *	103	-2	+3
2. New Jersey *	97	-10	0
3. Atlanta *	90	-7	0
4. Buffalo	103	-10	-3
5. Pittsburgh	95	-10	0
6. Carolina	88	0	+5
7. Toronto	87	-4	+2
8. NY Rangers	85	-9	-2
9. Montreal	84	-6	+1
10. Florida	84	-2	+2
11. NY Islanders	84	-8	-3
12. Tampa Bay	83	-10	-5
13. Washington	69	-1	+1
14. Boston	67	-9	-1
15. Philadelphia	55	-1	0

Team	PTS	PTS diff	Position move
1. Detroit *	111	-2	0
2. Anaheim *	106	-4	0
3. Vancouver *	100	-5	0
4. San Jose	105	-2	+1
5. Nashville	104	-6	-1
6. Dallas	98	-9	0
7. Minnesota	94	-10	0
8. Calgary	93	-3	0
9. Colorado	90	-5	0
10. St. Louis	75	-6	0
11. Edmonton	68	-3	+1
12. Columbus	68	-5	-1
13. Chicago	65	-6	0
14. Los Angeles	64	-4	0
15. Phoenix	62	-5	0

So what we can see is that the Western Conference would have changed very little and there would have been not match up changes for the playoffs.

However, let’s look at the Eastern Conference, without the extra shoot out point the standing would look much different. Tampa Bay and The New York Islanders would not have made the playoff. While the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs would have joined the quest for the holy grail of hockey. As well, the match ups would have looked quite different.

Ottawa vs. New York Rangers

New Jersey vs. Toronto

Atlanta vs. Carolina

Buffalo vs. Pittsburg

It is interesting to see what the standings would have been if the NHL had not adopted the shootout. However, after seeing these results I am glad that we have the Shootout if not only for the excitement, but, it also kept the Maple Leafs from being in the playoffs.

Edit to post: I used the NHL.com tie breakers to find standings after new point calculations and I used the NHL.com shoot out list to take points away to calculate the new standings