NHL Team Records: Looking at Current Records vs. Overtime Records

The NHL loves to run an unbalanced schedule. Teams still play six games a year against each team in their division. A tough division can kill you, a weak one might catapult you into the playoffs.

The NHL has solved the gap created in their schedule for the Olympics by jamming games together. Teams have incomprehensibly long breaks followed by strings of back-to-back games.

Someone should have told them no one cares about all those exhibition games they force on their season ticketholders every year. They should have taken a few of those out of the schedule instead.

Travel throws another variable into how teams will perform on any given night, adding inconsistency to a product I believe the NHL is still trying to sell to people.

The NHL prior to WWII used to have a 10 minute overtime period in the case of a tie in a regular season game; the WHA tried the same thing during their brief tenure (1972-79). The NHL decided ties were unacceptable in the 1983-84 season and brought in a five minute sudden death overtime to help decide regular season ties. For the 1999-2000 season, the overtime became four-on-four hockey.

Since 2005-06, the NHL has used a shoot-out to determine who wins a game still tied after overtime. These adjustments have, with an extra point going to the overtime or shoot-out winner, further muddied the waters when it comes to trying to decide what a teams regular season record really means.  

The other factors were more difficult to quantify but this one was doable. Here's a look at what a team's record would be if the game simply ended after regulation. 

This is the record that a team playing from 1939-1983 in the NHL would have had. It takes out points gained from four-on-four play and shoot-outs, which I submit have less to do with how good a particular hockey team is than what they manage to accomplish in regulation five-on-five play. 

The first look at the records shows a lot of similarities between current records and the way they'd be if games ended after 60 minutes in the regular season.

The east is still dominated by Washington. A cluster of the good Eastern teams are still within 2-3 points of each other. New Jersey, Buffalo, Ottawa, and Pittsburgh are still the next best teams. Philadelphia now, though trails those teams by only four points rather then eight, if record after 60 minutes is used.

Washington has the most wins in regulation with 34; New Jersey has 29. Ranging between 27 and 25 wins are the other four teams mentioned above and the surprising New York Rangers.

If there was no regular season overtime or shoot-out, the Rangers would be sitting in seventh, safe in a playoff spot. Their closet rivals would be Boston and Atlanta five points behind them tied for ninth.

The Rangers have been in 10 ties this year and have gone 3-7. They won two shoot-out games in November and an overtime game in February. That's been it. A healthy Gaborik should help that record.    

Conversely, the Montreal Canadiens have picked up a league-leading (tied with Chicago) extra 13 points in overtime. They've gone 13-6 in 19 overtime games. A Montreal Canadiens team playing in the post WWII original six would be 12 in the East rather then the eighth they currently are.

Likewise Boston, despite having a mediocre overtime record, has been in 21 tie games. They've gone 10-11 after regulation and that extra 10 points bumps them from 10th to seventh.

Tampa Bay is a team cursed with a horrible record after 60 minutes. They're 6-11 post regulation. They'd be a playoff team now with a better four-on-four or shoot-out performance.

The worst teams in the East also move around a bit if you take out the effect of extra points for non-regulation victories.

The Islanders have the fewest wins in the East in regulation by far. They're one behind the Oilers with 13 regulation wins. Their success in overtime has them only six points out of a playoff spot, rather than their 11.  

Montreal with 16, Boston with 17, and Florida and Toronto with 18, have the next fewest wins after 60 minutes. 

Toronto has earned only one extra point after regulation this year. Their overtime and shootout record is a dismal 1-11. The Rangers are next with only three extra points and no one else this year has fewer then five.

The Islanders have been in the second most overtime games this year behind the Bruins. They've also managed a good 12-8 record in those games. Their talented young lineup has done well. They started slow but have won their five last shoot-outs in a row.

This team, however, might not be quite as good at five-on-five hockey as their record indicates.

The West leader San Jose looks just as good in this world as they would have before 1983. Chicago is hot on the Sharks tail, but mostly because of the extra 13 points they've earned in 18 games that went into overtime.      

Phoenix is another team, 12-5 after regulation, that has benefitted from shoot-out et al. Los Angeles at 10-4 is another team making hay in the new NHL.

Detroit and Dallas with identical records after 60 minutes and in overtime, they would be in the playoffs if their post 60 minute records were better than 6-12.   

Generally though, the West standings remain mostly unaltered. The same teams are in the playoffs using both point systems and the non-playoff teams are in the same order in both systems.

Once you take out the extra points for success after 60 minutes, the teams' records start to make a lot more sense too.

Only the top six teams in the East would have a winning record if their finish after 60 minutes was concerned. Tampa Bay would currently be the eighth place team in the east with a .467 winning percentage.

The West would have 10 teams over .500., Dallas and Detroit at .508, and Anaheim at .492 would all have better records than the two bottom Eastern playoff teams the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Below please find the current OT records of all the NHL teams.       

                                         Overtime records

	OT	W	L	WPCT				OT	W	L	WPCT
Mon	19	13	6	0.6842			Chi	18	13	5	0.7222
NYI	20	12	8	0.6000			Pho	17	12	5	0.7059
Pitt	14	10	4	0.7143			LA	14	10	4	0.7143
Bos	21	10	11	0.4762			StL	17	8	9	0.4706
Ott	13	9	4	0.6923			Nsh	13	8	5	0.6154
NJ	11	8	3	0.7273			Minn	12	8	4	0.6667
Was	15	7	8	0.4667			SJ	16	7	9	0.4375
Buf	16	7	9	0.4375			Dal	18	6	12	0.3333
Atl	15	6	9	0.4000			Det	18	6	12	0.3333
Fla	16	6	10	0.3750			Ana	13	6	7	0.4615
TB	17	6	11	0.3529			Clb	15	5	10	0.3333
Phi	8	5	3	0.6250			Cal	14	5	9	0.3571
Car	12	5	7	0.4167			Col	11	5	6	0.4545
NYR	10	3	7	0.3000			Edm	11	5	6	0.4545
Tor	12	1	11	0.0833			Van	7	5	2	0.7143