The Official 2023-24 Season Talk Thread

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

Here's a rule I never knew existed and don't know why it needed to happen in March https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/stat...XD_R0mxGQ&s=19 Wild need 2 points sure, but the game doesn't end in a tie and it's not April.

History lesson time! This rule was introduced the same season as the loser point (99/00) to prevent a team from pulling its goalie in OT on a consistent basis against non-conference opponents. (The loser point was introduced to the AHL in 95/96 and a few coaches tried to game the system this way.) Remember, this is when ties were still around.

I know this because it happened to the Canucks! 2nd last game of the season, Vancouver was playing the Oilers and needed 2 points to remain mathematically alive. The Canucks blew a 3-1 lead going into the 3rd, tied it up with 11 seconds left, and then lost on the OT empty-netter. I think this situation occurred one or two other times, can't remember.

So this rule made a certain amount of sense between 99-04, post-loser point but pre-shootout. Why it remains on the books, and especially why Minnesota risked this today (are the Wild THAT bad at shootouts?) is beyond me.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by DrJones

History lesson time! This rule was introduced the same season as the loser point (99/00) to prevent a team from pulling its goalie in OT on a consistent basis against non-conference opponents. (The loser point was introduced to the AHL in 95/96 and a few coaches tried to game the system this way.) Remember, this is when ties were still around. I know this because it happened to the Canucks! 2nd last game of the season, Vancouver was playing the Oilers and needed 2 points to remain mathematically alive. The Canucks blew a 3-1 lead going into the 3rd, tied it up with 11 seconds left, and then lost on the OT empty-netter. I think this situation occurred one or two other times, can't remember. So this rule made a certain amount of sense between 99-04, post-loser point but pre-shootout. Why it remains on the books, and especially why Minnesota risked this today (are the Wild THAT bad at shootouts?) is beyond me.

In a day and age of legal sports betting, don't know how it'd even be allowed to begin with if a team intentionally does something like pull a goalie to try losing.

[bhurst99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

Here's a rule I never knew existed and don't know why it needed to happen in March https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/stat...XD_R0mxGQ&s=19 Wild need 2 points sure, but the game doesn't end in a tie and it's not April. But I never knew if you pull the goalie in OT and get scored on you get 0 points. That's a weird rule.That's the point of reviews, or it should've been the point. Used to prevent obvious miscalls, not calls where you need to watch frame by frame from 10 angles.

Gusty move by the Wild. Kind of crazy in March.

I'm old enough to remember the Leafs pulling their goalie in the final game of the 1988-89 season against Chicago in overtime (before the shootout). They needed to beat Chicago to make the playoffs at the expense of Chicago. Chicago scored into the open net and made the playoffs.

It was also Borje Salming's last game as a Leaf.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by bhurst99

Gusty move by the Wild. Kind of crazy in March.

Seems insane regardless of the time of year. The Wild are 3-2 in shootouts and the Preds are 2-0. The only thing I can think of is Hynes using this as some kind of psychological boost? Maybe he thought to himself "What would Patrick Roy do?"

EDIT: Or Hynes is a dummy who forgot the rule and thought he was guaranteed a loser point regardless. Occam's Razor.

Quote: Originally Posted by bhurst99

I'm old enough to remember the Leafs pulling their goalie in the final game of the 1988-89 season against Chicago in overtime (before the shootout). They needed to beat Chicago to make the playoffs at the expense of Chicago. Chicago scored into the open net and made the playoffs. It was also Borje Salming's last game as a Leaf.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. The previous year, New Jersey had win in Chicago to make the playoffs and scored it OT to do so. Don't think they pulled the goalie, though, as I recall the OT winner happened fairly early.

[slickdtc]

Let’s take it a step further and if you score with a net empty in OT, the loser gets 0 points regardless of who lost. Including the team who didn’t pull their goalie.

We will kill the loser point one empty net at a time.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by slickdtc

Let’s take it a step further and if you score with a net empty in OT, the loser gets 0 points regardless of who lost. Including the team who didn’t pull their goalie. We will kill the loser point one empty net at a time.

We already suspected it, but Brian Burke confirmed it when talking about how the NHL/Owners want standings to be as close as possible for as long as possible, which is why we see the loser OT point and no 3 points for regulation win and a trade deadline a month before the season ends.

Loser point will never go away.

Look at standings right now, there's 25 teams who are ".500 or above" when you look at the W-L-OTL category. 25-24-10 gives it that "above .500" look when really you're 25-34. That number is really just 17 not 25.

It's another season where a team could make the playoffs with fewer wins than another team because OTL helped them.

Islanders and Wings are tied for the final WC spot despite Detroit having 4 more wins than them. Kings right now are in a playoff spot despite having same number of wins as the Blues who are 10. And just 1 more win than Flames at 11 and Wild at 9.

[DrJones]

Does nobody in the Atlantic Division know how to execute a proper rebuild?

[Kobalt]

Really need Nichushkin to lay off that good stuff until the end of the year, he makes the team so much better.