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OTLs are no gift, just bad ties Posted: Monday December 09, 2002 3:39 PM
During this season of gift-giving, the thought of what has gone out of fashion got me thinking about such things in the NHL -- things that once were in vogue but are now best shelved in the back of the closet. You know, like bad ties. Which is exactly what the Overtime Loss (affectionately called the OTL) has become. The novelty of a 4-on-4-bonus game being a valid reason to stage the five-minute extra session -- even with the assurance of a single point in the standings for 60 minutes of even-Steven work -- is passé. No, where once not so long ago, a four-column standings (W-L-T-OTL) held sort of a designer, one-of-a-kind, funky-but-hardly-practical, look-at-me appeal, the feeling is gone. Just listen to the postgame platitudes emanating from locker rooms around the league. Barely a "well, at least we got a point" reference to be heard. For further proof that the luster is lost, check out the reactions of the players immediately following an OT game-winning goal. The winning team is in jubilation and the losing team is despondent. Those are exactly the appropriate responses from competitors given the outcome. Except that isn’t the outcome, exactly. The winners didn’t dispose of their rivals entirely, unable to shun them a point in the standings. As victors, they earn the two-point spoils yet fail to move up two points in the standings on their vanquished victim. What does it all mean? The NHL standings are becoming a convoluted mess. The early rationalizations/justifications are wearing thin. Now in its fourth season, the original intent of the 4-on-4 in overtime -- to reduce the number of tied games -- is meaningless in the face of competitor response and the confusion it brings. Again, back to the four columns. While overtime losses count the same as overtime ties, overtime wins count the same as regulation wins. But for goalies, it is still only wins, losses and ties when computing their records. Not an OTL found anywhere. Why? Probably because the three columns make a heck of a lot more sense. Mind you, at least the OTL standings configuration reflects the appropriate games-played total, unlike in its original incarnation. Anybody remember regulation ties? How about the necessary algorithm required to tabulate total points? Didn’t think so. Obviously, the league’s conundrum is not bad ties, rather that ties are bad. And looking around the sporting world, you can understand the dilemma. Everywhere, leagues go to great lengths to declare a winner at the conclusion of competition. Even in college football, where one would think the need to declare victory would be less important -- that hard-fought athletic endeavor would be reward enough for student athletes -- they line up over and over again until one team scores more points than the other. In the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons tied -- the first tie in the league in five years --and suddenly fans and announcers alike became befuddled by terms like "undefeated" and "winless." Of course, "undefeated streaks" and "winless streaks" are part of the hockey vernacular. All because of those confounded ties. Now, though, with the OTL, a team can lose five in a row yet still pick up five of a possible 10 points, which used to signify .500 hockey. But the OTL devalues .500 hockey when your opponent takes away twice as many points with an overtime win. And with the advent of the OTL, an anomaly like two teams having identical 3-2-0-1 winning records against each other is possible. How in the name of Aurel Joliet can two teams sport winning records in head-to-head matchups, you ask? It defies competitive logic, if not mathematical principles (hint -- the teams each have one win against the other in OT). Maybe the NHL should adopt the three points for a win and one for a tie formula that is favored in British football leagues. Of course, that system doesn’t get rid of all ties, just bad ones. It would, however, eliminate the OTL column from the standings, restoring order in the form of W-L-T. And at least the league would be back in sync with the goaltenders' records -- not a bad place to start. Darren Eliot, a former NHL goaltender, is a hockey analyst for CNNSI.com.
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