Glossary of Basic Terms and Standings Columns
3-pt Game Pctg.: the percentage of NHL games thus far in the season which went to overtime or a shootout, resulting in a Three Point Game (two points for the winner, one point for the loser). Also see “True .500” below.
Division (Div): the division in which a team plays (Eastern Conference: Atlantic, Northeast, and Southeast; Western Conference: Central, Northwest, and Pacific). This is noted with its own column in the TrueStandings because the leader of each division receives one of the top three seeds in the conference, regardless of whether a team in second place in its particular division has a better record than the leader of another division. Thus, sometimes the fourth-place team will have a better record than the third-place team.
Games Back (GB); the “games back” column on this site is just like the one the MLB and NBA standings employ to give you an idea of how far one team trails behind another. Essentially, if team A is “one game back” of team B, team A must win a game and team B must lose a game (in regulation) for the teams to be tied. A win by itself will gain a half game, a regulation loss will lose a half game, and an overtime or shootout loss will not affect the “games back” column. Sometimes a team can have a better record by percentage and still be a “game back” because of games in hand, but priority is given to the better percentage here. An example would be where one team is 3-0-0 (1.000) and another is 5-1-0 (.833). The 3-0-0 team is a “half game back” because it is 3 games above .500 whereas the latter team is 4 games above .500. The “games back” column is based on the record relative to .500 (as it is in the NBA and MLB), so the team with the better record can still be “behind” in the games back column even though it has a better record by percentage.
Loss (L): in the standings, this refers only to a regulation loss and does not include overtime and shootout losses. A regulation loss is worth zero points in the standings.
Overtime/Shootout Loss (OTL): the total number of games a team has lost in overtime or in a shootout. An overtime or shootout loss is worth one point in the standings.
Pace: the number of points a team will accumulate at the end of the season if it continues playing at its current points percentage.
Pctg.: the number of points a team has earned divided by the total number of points it could have possibly earned (the latter of which is simply twice the number of games played, i.e. two points for a win in every single game).
Points (PTS): the number of points a team has accumulated thus far. This number is determined by adding two points per win with one point per overtime/shootout loss (OTL).
Regulation/Overtime Wins (ROW): this is the number of non-shootout wins (i.e. the total number of regulation and overtime wins) earned by a team. At the end of the season when all teams have played the same number of games, two teams who have the same number of points in the standings will be seeded according to which team has the greatest number of non-shootout wins. In the unlikely scenario that the teams are tied in points and non-shootout wins, the teams will go through further tiebreakers per NHL rules.
Shootout Wins (SW): the number of games a team won in a shootout. A shootout win is worth two points in the standings but does not count for the NSW tiebreaker.
Three-Point Game: any NHL game which goes to overtime or a shootout. The winner gets 2 points and the loser gets 1 point (for a total of 3), whereas in a regulation finish, the winner gets 2 points and the loser gets zero points. If you’re a fan of a particular team, you should loathe a three-point game between two conference rivals, especially if it finishes in overtime rather than a shootout (if it was in a shootout, it wouldn’t count toward the NSW tiebreaker).
True .500: the average record by percentage of all NHL teams. In sports leagues that don’t have a 3-point game (see above) such as the NBA or MLB, .500 is always average. Thus, being “above .500” in those leagues means “above average”. To be above average in the NHL, a team’s record must be better than the “True .500” listed here. The reason that the current standings system will probably never leave is that it gives far more organizations a chance to market the idea that they were “above .500″ to their fanbase even though they were well below average. In 2010-11, 22 out of 30 teams were “above .500″, whereas only 18 teams had a record above the league average (you’d expect 15, but last year a few bad teams were exceptionally bad, dragging down the average below the median record).
Wins (W): the total number of games a team has won, including regulation, overtime, and shootout wins. All wins are worth two points in the standings.
