2 Recent NHL Games Reiterate That the OT/Shootout Points System Is Correct

Two sets of NHL teams hovering around the playoff qualification borderline, one pair per conference, refused to make each other’s lives any easier over the weekend.

Out east, the New York Islanders retained a scoreless draw with the New York Rangers until Dan Girardi boosted the Blueshirts to a 1-0 overtime victory.

In the Midwest, the Minnesota Wild dramatically defied the stingy Sergei Bobrovsky well enough to make the Columbus Blue Jackets work longer and harder before pulling out a 3-2 shootout triumph.

In turn, with the 2-1 point distribution in the standings, the seventh-seeded Islanders stayed one point ahead of the Rangers, who have a game in hand.

The Wild, too, shored up their claim to seventh place just a little more while the Jackets pulled within a virtual three-way tie with Dallas and Detroit for eighth. With the Red Wings’ Sunday night win, Dallas and Columbus are now at the top of the bottom but trail only by two points apiece.

Who’s excited for the remaining two weeks of the playoff seeding derby?

Better yet, who’s still complaining about teams who fall short in overtime or a shootout getting partial credit for forcing a regular-season game beyond regulation? That crowd is undoubtedly out there but is posing as hard a head-scratcher as ever with their philosophy.

Considering the implications and the unfolding of the two games in question, doling out points to both parties in a game that cannot be settled in 60 minutes is the only justifiable system. Either that, or the 3-2-1-0 system that has been discussed off-and-on.

A team should be rewarded in the regular season when it cannot be beat in the conventional timeframe and, more importantly, a team should feel a mild consequence for failing to put its opponent away as soon as possible. The latter can make for great mental playoff preparation, when the stakes are more stringent.

That was what happened to each of Saturday’s victors and, arguably, the Islanders' as well.

In St. Paul, Bobrovsky put forth a 37-save dolphin show in regulation and it was almost enough to single-handedly steal 100 percent of the point package.

The keyword, naturally, is “almost.” Because Columbus was, and still is, below the playoff poverty line, they naturally needed the win a tad more than the Wild.

But the home team was not going to waste time on sympathy and they proved it when Jason Pominville inserted a power-play conversion with 3:15 to spare in the third period. That abolished a 2-1 deficit that had stood for 30 minutes and 27 seconds of playing time.

Had Minnesota resigned itself to subtle excuse-making mode and/or not found the willpower to pry open Bobrovsky’s door one more time, then and only then would zero points have been the proper reward.

Just the same, Bobrovsky did not get the most appreciable supply of support from his skating mates. Columbus had sculpted their 2-1 lead all within a span of 2:25 early in the second period and tested Niklas Backstrom all of 20 times in the first 60 minutes.

One more spurt of offensive prowess could have earned the Blue Jackets a chance to pull within one point of the Wild (46 to 45) rather than two. Instead, they had to settle for the latter (a 47-to-45 differential) in the shootout because they let Minnesota stay within one strike of a regulation tie, which ultimately transpired.

Based on the standings as of Monday morning, it is safe to assume that the Wild will finish with more regulation/overtime wins, the first tiebreaker once everyone has completed their schedule. If they finish eighth and with the same number of points as Columbus, then Pominville’s equalizer will be a turning point in tripping up the Blue Jackets’ otherwise valiant push for a playoff berth.

Or if the Blue Jackets barely surpass the Wild in the final standings, Minnesota may be left to wish it could have averted Columbus’ two-goal, second-period sugar rush.

Now that is when leaving a shortcoming team with absolutely nothing is the appropriate approach.

Back in the metropolis, it is slowly looking like Winnipeg is the last remaining threat to either the Isles’ or the Blueshirts’ playoff hopes. At both the start and conclusion of Saturday’s action, the Rangers were trying to surpass the Islanders for seventh place while the Jets were seeking to usurp the Rangers’ claim to eighth place.

The scoreless arm-wrestling match that the Nassau Coliseum masses witnessed for 63-plus minutes was a product of both teams trying to sustain their distance from the opponents in the rear-view mirror. When Girardi won it for the Rangers in the bonus round, both sides had succeeded in that endeavor for the night.

Nothing else would have made sense. It took longer than three full-length periods to resolve the tight stalemate on the ice, so the game rightly took minimal effect on the gridlock in the Eastern Conference standings.

The 1-0 final on the scoreboard and 2-1 tally in the standings, both favoring the Rangers, served as a fitting reminder of how tight this race is. How both teams need to earn every inch and that they cannot afford to let anybody hang around nor let the adversary’s equal desperation and intensity pass as an excuse.