How the league works
Updated
Independent desk. Figures are traced to named sources and corrections are logged — see the editorial policy.
A win is worth two points, an overtime loss one, and a regulation loss zero. That asymmetry is the reason three-on-three overtime exists.
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The NHL standings can confuse a new viewer because teams that played the same number of games have different point totals, and a team can lose and still gain a point. The system is simple once the three possible outcomes of a game are listed.
What each result is worth
- Win in regulation, overtime or shootout: 2 points.
- Loss in overtime or shootout: 1 point.
- Loss in regulation: 0 points.
Every game therefore distributes either two points (a regulation result) or three (a game that reached overtime), which is why teams that go to overtime more often have more points in the standings than their record suggests.
How overtime works in the regular season
If a game is tied after 60 minutes, teams play a five-minute sudden-death overtime with three skaters per side. The first goal wins. If the score is still tied, the game goes to a shootout of three rounds, and then to sudden-death rounds until one team has scored and the other has not. Only one goal is added to the score of the winner; the shootout goals themselves do not count in a player's statistics.
Playoff overtime is different
In the playoffs there is no shootout. Overtime is played in 20-minute periods, five skaters a side, with sudden death, until someone scores. This is the reason some playoff games last well past midnight.
The tiebreaker that matters
When two teams finish with the same number of points, the first tiebreaker is regulation wins: the number of games a team won in the first 60 minutes. The rule rewards finishing the job within regulation, since an overtime or shootout win counts for the same two points but not for the tiebreaker.