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.

In the World Hockey Championships of 2009, Tomas Surovy and the Slovakians were down 7-0 to the Czech Republic when Jaroslav Halak replaced the starter (Lasak).  The Czech's decided that 7 wasn't enough, and before too long scored an eighth goal on the Slovaks.  This was very unfortunate for Halak, as his teammate Surovy had apparently had enough.  He swung his stick in frustration at the goal post, missed and struck Halak in the back of the head.  Luckily for both players, the stick glanced off Halak's helmet, and Surovy was able to skate around the back of the net and take another good hard shot at it with his stick.  See the video for this here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0emzMJ6FiwQ&feature=related


Earlier this week in a game against the Atlanta Thrashers, Keith Ballard of the Florida Panthers decided the Surovy may have been onto something, and after Ilya Kovalchuk scored a go ahead goal midway through the first period he gave it a shot.  Ballard two-handed goaltender Tomas Vokoun in the side of the head, lacerating his inner ear.  Vokoun had to be removed from the game on a stretcher.  Ballard, who was likely just aiming for the post and not trying to take Vokoun's head off, hit his goalie in the head and then proceeded to take another swing at the post, this time hitting his mark.  He then skated off the ice without even stopping to make sure that Vokoun was alright.  I mean, why would he, Vokoun was only laid out in the net just seconds after being struck in the head with the stick that Ballard hit him with.  See the video for this one here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAdyZFfFehc

Now, I have heard many people defend Ballard for just being 'passionate' about the game and showing his frustration by trying to bang it out on the post.  But why does that justify this action?  In my opinion, it doesn't.  Have passion for that game, but don't be a poor sport about losing (or missing coverage as was likely what was going on in his head when he hit Vokoun) and don't EVER swing your stick anywhere near another players head.

The very next game, Ballard decided that he needed to make up for hurting Vokoun (his own goaltender) and decided to take a run at the opposing goaltender.  In the game against the Colorado Avalanche, Ballard took a run at Craig Anderson late in the overtime period.  According to the commentators in the game, Ballard was flying in on a rush on his backhand and 'lost his edge' and ran into Anderson.  Watching the replay, anyone who know about momentum knows that Ballard's upper body betrays certain laws of physics had he simply just lost an edge.  If you watch the view from behind the net, it is clear that Ballard's upper body moves towards the goaltender when he is said to have lost his edge going around the net.  Despite the best efforts of the FSFlorida commentators to sway all blame away from Ballard, my unbiased opinion (I could care less about either team to be honest) leans towards a deliberate act on Ballard's part to get into Anderson, throw him off his game, or possibly remove him from the game.  See the video for this one here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQcvo43hC9k

And for the record, Anderson had to leave the game, Colorado put Peter Budaj in for the last 45 seconds of overtime and the shootout, Budaj put up a good fight, but came out with the shootout loss. 

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.

Tim Thomas was 'perfect' tonight, stopping all 23 shots that Nathan Horton and the Panthers threw at him.  He played the entire game, 65 minutes and the shootout.  And he lost in that shootout, but his goals against will read 0.00 for the night.  His save percentage will read 1.000 for the night.  He will receive a shutout statistic for his effort.  And he will also receive a loss for that same shutout effort.  There are many reasons why I don't like the shootout, today I want to focus on this one - invisibility.

The Bruins and the Panthers played 65 minutes of good strong hockey.  Some may say that Boston outplayed Florida, almost doubling their shots.  But Tomas Vokoun played an amazing game, and kept Florida in it.  After 65 minutes no points had been recorded, both goalies has shutouts, and they were off to the shootout.

In the shootout, there was 1 goal scored through 8 shooters.  That goal was scored by Cory Stillman, but you can forget that fact, because he won't even get credit for it.  It has become 'invisible'.  Oh, Florida will get +1 goal for in their teams stats, and Boston will get +1 goal against in their team stats, but no player will ever show having scored that goal, or having that goal scored against them.

Vokoun gets the shutout, and the win.  Thomas gets a shutout, and a loss.  And Stillman gets third star, and the praise of his team for being the only guy to put the puck in the net tonight.  And the score goes in the books as 1-0, but nobody got a point.

So, both goalies get shutouts, and nobody got a point.  Sounds like a tie to me...