New York Rangers: A rule change to keep your eyes on

Every season the NHL establishes new rules and this year they changed the tiebreaker when teams are tied in the standings.  That rule could affect the New York Rangers this season.

Until this season if teams were tied in the standings, the tiebreaker was regulation or overtime wins (ROW).   The league put more weight on an overtime win than a victory by shootout.  While that tiebreaker is still in effect, there is another one that comes first and that is  wins in regulation.   So far this season, the New York Rangers have one of the best records in the league when it come to regulation wins.

Putting priority on regulation wins makes sense.  Teams should be more aggressive in the third period, rather than play safely to get the proverbial “loser point.”   In reality, it hasn’t had the desired effect.  This season, 63 of 253 games, that’s 25%, have gone to overtime.  Last season 18% (270) of the regular season games played went to overtime.

Last season the Rangers went to overtime more than any other Met Division team and had the fewest regulation of any team in the Division and third fewest in the East.

Meanwhile, this season the Ranger have bucked the trend and only gone to overtime once, a 3-2 loss to Arizona.  They have seven regulation wins in 14 games. Only six NHL teams have more and they have all played more games than the Blueshirts.   So, why does it matter?

If the Rangers end up a playoff team, having more regulation wins could determine a playoff spot.  While that has never happened in the six years since the wild card was instituted, there is always a first time.  It could also help determine playoff seeding and that has happened before.

If the Rangers miss the playoffs, regulation wins could help determine lottery positioning and that has definitely happened in the past. Even in the middle of the first round, moving up one slot could be the difference between Boston’s David Pastrnak, the 25th overall pick in 2014 and Montreal’s Nikita Scherbak, the 26th pick in the same draft.

Florida, the Rangers’ Sunday opponent, has gone to overtime seven times in 16 game, almost half of their games.  While Washington leads the league with 12 wins, only eight have come in regulation, one more than the Blueshirts.

What’s fascinating is that many outlets have not added the regulation win total to the standings.  That was pointed out by Sean McIndoe in his “Down Goes Brown” column on The Athletic website (subscription required).   The NHL has added the column, but websites like TSN, ESPN, The Hockey News, Sportsnet as well as CBS, Fox and NBC Sports all have the ROW column instead.

The new tiebreaker rule isn’t earth shattering, but it slipped in with a number of other new rules and it’s worth monitoring the rest of the season.