Hello again, another update on the 3-2-1 Point System.  For the history of this thread, check out the following links.

1st Quarter

2nd Quarter

To begin with, I'll show the current point system standings, and follow it up with the 3-2-1 Point System.

Current Point System

Eastern Conference
Pos GP Pts Team
 01   62  90   Washington Capitals
 02   61  77   New Jersey Devils
 03   63  76   Ottawa Senators
 04   62  76   Pittsburgh Penguins
 05   60  75   Buffalo Sabres
 06   60  67   Philadelphia Flyers
 07   60  65   Boston Bruins
 08   63  64   Montreal Canadiens 
 09   61  63   New York Rangers
 10   61  63   Tampa Bay Lightning 
 11   60  62   Atlanta Thrashers
 12   63  58   New York Islanders 
 13   61  58   Florida Panthers
 14   61  55   Carolina Hurricanes
 15   61  49   Toronto Maple Leafs

Western Conference
Pos GP Pts Team
 01   62  89   San Jose Sharks
 02   61  87   Chicago Blackhawks
 03   61  76   Vancouver Canucks
 04   63  79   Phoenix Coyotes 
 05   61  78   Los Angeles Kings
 06   61  76   Colorado Avalanche *
 07   61  71   Nashville Predators
 08   62  69   Calgary Flames 
 09   61  68   Detroit Red Wings
 10   61  68   Dallas Stars
 11   62  67   Anaheim Mighty Ducks
 12   62  65   St. Louis Blues
 13   61  64   Minnesota Wild
 14   63  60   Columbus Blue Jackets
 15   61  44   Edmonton Oilers 


3-2-1 Point System

Eastern Conference
Pos GP Pts   Team
 01   62  122   Washington Capitals
 02   63  107   Ottawa Senators
 03   61  107   New Jersey Devils
 04   60  102   Buffalo Sabres
 05   62  102   Pittsburgh Penguins
 06   60   95    Philadelphia Flyers
 07   61   85    New York Rangers 
 08   63   84    Montreal Canadiens 
 09   61   83    Tampa Bay Lightning 
 10   60   82    Boston Bruins
 11   60   79    Atlanta Thrashers
 12   61   75    Florida Panthers 
 13   61   73    Carolina Hurricanes
 14   63   73    New York Islanders 
 15   61   58    Toronto Maple Leafs

Western Conference
Pos GP Pts   Team
 01   62  120   San Jose Sharks
 02   61  120   Chicago Blackhawks
 03   61  110   Vancouver Canucks
 04   63  108   Phoenix Coyotes 
 05   61  107   Los Angeles Kings
 06   61  105   Colorado Avalanche
 07   61   97    Nashville Predators
 08   62   92    Calgary Flames 
 09   61   90    Minnesota Wild 
 10   62   90    Anaheim Mighty Ducks 
 11   61   88    Detroit Red Wings
 12   61   88    Dallas Stars
 13   62   83    St. Louis Blues
 14   63   82    Columbus Blue Jackets
 15   61   56    Edmonton Oilers 

The next (last) quarter I will really break things down so that people can adjust the scores for their own point systems.  I will do this as I know that a lot of people seem to disagree with my 'Overtime opinion' where I include the 5 minute overtime in the 3 point win section.

* Not sure why this isn't linking properly.

I am not, and never have been a fan of the 'shootout' to resolve an NHL game.  I know I am not alone in this dislike of the 'breakaway relay' but the league seems to be pretty adamant about keeping it around.  One of the reasons I dislike the SO is that a team winning in this manner attains the same value of points as a team winning in 60 minutes.  And the team losing in this manner still gains a point.  The league is giving away 3 points on some games and 2 points on others.  So points totals appear bloated, with teams who have lost a lot of close games edging out teams who have won more games.  A greater number of wins should count for a higher standing than a team who loses in overtime a lot, at least in my opinion.

So I have been keeping track of the wins/losses for the last couple seasons using a point system that I feel favours teams who actually win more.  I refer to it as a 3-2-1 point system, as the title implies.  This point system would see a team winning in regular time or over time receiving 3 points for their effort.  A team winning in the shootout would receive 2 points, while the team losing in shootout would receive a single point.  Losses in regulation or overtime would be worth zero points.

Now, a lot of people may argue with me including the 5 minute overtime in the pure win/loss category, but it wasn't that long ago that a loss in overtime was actually a loss and you got zero points.  I personally feel that that is a loss in regular season, just as it would be in play-offs.

So, now how does this affect the teams this season (2009-2010) up to this point, being approximately one quarter of the way through the season?  So first I'll post the current standing, by conference with division leaders at the top.

Eastern Conference
Pos GP Pts Team
 01   21  30   Washington Capitals
 02   20  29   New Jersey Devils
 03   18  25   Buffalo Sabres
 04   22  28   Pittsburgh Penguins
 05   18  25   Philadelphia Flyers
 06   21  23   New York Rangers
 07   19  23   Ottawa Senators
 08   21  23   New York Islanders
 09   19  23   Tampa Bay Lightning
 10   18  22   Atlanta Thrashers
 11   21  22   Boston Bruins
 12   21  20   Montreal Canadiens
 13   19  18   Florida Panthers
 14   21  13   Carolina Hurricanes
 15   20  12   Toronto Maple Leafs

Western Conference
Pos GP Pts Team
 01   23  32   San Jose Sharks
 02   22  29   Colorado Avalanche
 03   20  28   Chicago Blackhawks
 04   23  28   Los Angeles Kings
 05   20  26   Columbus Blue Jackets
 06   20  26   Calgary Flames
 07   22  25   Phoenix Coyotes
 08   21  24   Dallas Stars
 09   20  23   Nashville Predators
 10   19  23   Detroit Red Wings
 11   21  22   Vancouver Canucks
 12   22  21   Edmonton Oilers
 13   19  18   St. Louis Blues
 14   20  17   Anaheim Mighty Ducks
 15   21  16   Minnesota Wild

Now in the 3-2-1 point system, with the same layout as above.  And as you'll see, not a lot of major differences overall.  The teams that it most affects are teams that would be fighting for playoff spots, teams like the New York Islanders and the Dallas Stars.  Each of those teams would be out of their 8th place rankings in the current system because the 3-2-1 system doesn't reward them as heavily for their SO and OT performances.  Each of those teams has a SO win, 4 SO losses and a couple of OT losses, which would add up to a lot of extra points in the current system (9 of 16 possible points for NYI and 8 of 14 possible points for DAL).  But in the 3-2-1 system which favours wins, those games would only account for 6 points for either team (out of a possible 24 for NYI and 21 for DAL).

Eastern Conference
Pos GP Pts Team
 01   20  40   New Jersey Devils
 02   21  38   Washington Capitals
 03   18  34   Buffalo Sabres
 04   22  38   Pittsburgh Penguins
 05   18  35   Philadelphia Flyers
 06   21  32   New York Rangers
 07   19  31   Ottawa Senators
 08   18  31   Atlanta Thrashers
 09   19  28   Tampa Bay Lightning
 10   21  27   New York Islanders
 11   21  27   Boston Bruins
 12   21  26   Montreal Canadiens
 13   19  22   Florida Panthers
 14   21  12   Carolina Hurricanes
 15   20  11   Toronto Maple Leafs

Western Conference
Pos GP Pts Team
 01   23  43   San Jose Sharks
 02   22  40   Colorado Avalanche
 03   20  39   Chicago Blackhawks
 04   23  39   Los Angeles Kings
 05   20  36   Calgary Flames
 06   20  36   Columbus Blue Jackets
 07   22  34   Phoenix Coyotes
 08   20  32   Nashville Predators
 09   19  31   Detroit Red Wings
 10   21  31   Vancouver Canucks
 11   21  30   Dallas Stars
 12   22  28   Edmonton Oilers
 13   19  23   St. Louis Blues
 14   21  22   Minnesota Wild
 15   20  22   Anaheim Mighty Ducks

I'll be re-addressing this at about the half way point in the season as well, and will likely break it up a little differently to show the individual team records for better illustration of the point.