How NHL Standings Work

NHL standings look like a wall of abbreviations at first. They are simpler than they look: almost everything comes down to points, and the rest of the columns exist to break ties. Here is how to read them.

How do NHL standings work?

Every game hands out points:

Teams are ranked by total points. Because a game that goes to overtime gives out three points in total (two to the winner, one to the loser) while a regulation game gives out two, points add up faster than wins and losses suggest. The league average points percentage is well above .500 for the same reason.

The NHL has used a point for overtime losses since 1999-2000, and the shootout replaced ties in 2005-06. See overtime and shootout rules.

What does each column in the NHL standings mean?

A record written as 10-5-2 means 10 wins, 5 regulation losses and 2 overtime or shootout losses, which is 22 points.

What are regulation wins in the NHL?

Regulation wins (RW) are wins earned in the first 60 minutes, before overtime. They are the first tiebreaker when teams finish level on points. The idea is to reward teams that win games outright rather than by collecting points in overtime and shootouts.

ROW goes one step further and adds overtime wins. Shootout wins never count in either column.

What is the NHL tiebreaker order?

When two teams have the same number of points, the NHL breaks the tie in this order:

1. Points percentage, if the teams have played a different number of games. This only matters during the season. By the end, every team has played 84.
2. Regulation wins (RW).
3. Regulation plus overtime wins (ROW).
4. Total wins, including shootout wins.
5. Points in games between the tied teams. If the teams played an odd number of times, the extra game in the city that hosted more of them is left out, so neither team benefits from an extra home game.
6. Goal differential over the whole season.

If teams are somehow still tied after that, the league's procedure has further steps. In practice, ties almost never get that far. Our playoff model ranks teams in each simulated season with this order, with one small simplification it explains.

How do divisions and wild cards work?

The NHL has 32 teams in two conferences of 16, each split into two divisions of 8:

• Eastern Conference: Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions
• Western Conference: Central and Pacific divisions

Standings are shown three ways: by division, by conference and league-wide. The playoff format uses the first two:

• The top three teams in each division make the playoffs, 12 teams in all.
• In each conference, the two best remaining teams, regardless of division, take the wild-card spots. That is four more.

That makes 16 playoff teams, eight per conference. Because the wild cards come from a conference-wide pool, a fourth-place team in a strong division can make it while a team with fewer points in a weak division finishes third and gets in automatically. Here is how the division races look right now:

What is a "four-point game"?

When two teams chasing the same playoff spot play each other, the winner gains two points and the loser gets none (in regulation). The gap between them swings by two points in one night, which is why commentators call these "four-point games." With 4 games against each division rival this season, there are plenty of them.

What does "x", "y" or "z" next to a team mean?

Late in the season, standings add clinching marks. The exact letters vary by website, but the common ones are: x clinched a playoff spot, y clinched the division, z clinched the conference, p clinched the Presidents' Trophy (best record in the league), and e eliminated from playoff contention.

Points pace and playoff odds

Points tell you where a team is; they do not tell you where it will finish. A team with games in hand can be behind in points and ahead in points percentage. That is why every team page on Tonight.hockey shows a points pace and a clinch number, and why the playoff picture shows each team's odds from 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season. See your team's page, from the Boston Bruins to the Seattle Kraken, for its current numbers.