Has the time come for the NHL to award three points to a team that wins a regular-season game in regulation time? Pierre LeBrun of espn.com says it has. He says it’s time for the NHL to go to a 3-2-1 points system, something that was discussed at the league level more than 10 years ago. However, it doesn’t sound like the idea will get much, if any, traction with NHL execs. Brian Burke, for example, says he would “rather put a sharp stick in my eye.” . . . LeBrun’s piece is right here.
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Three points for a regulation victory — and doing away with loser points — is something that has long been discussed in this space. For the longest time, Dan Russell, when he was the host of the Vancouver radio show Sports Talk, and I often talked of the need for hockey to stop rewarding losers.
What follows appeared on this blog on Nov. 13, 2008.
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The hockey game is in overtime. A defenceman has the puck in the left corner of his zone. In trying to clear the zone, he throws the puck into the middle of the ice. An opposing forward corrals it, skates in and scores the winning goal.
In the dressing room after the game, the head coach of the losing team berates the defenceman for what was a critical error.
“What’s the big deal, coach?” responds the player. “We still got a point.”
Yes, indeed, the team lost the game in overtime but still was rewarded with a point.
And therein lies the rub — of the ‘major’ sports, hockey is the only one that rewards failure.
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Obviously, this has bastardized hockey statistics to the point of ridiculousness. For example, a player scores the game-winning goal in a shootout but statistics don’t credit him with a goal. A goaltender stops 10 shooters in the shootout but his save percentage doesn’t reflect it.
The standings show one team with a 6-9-0-5 record. But hasn’t that team really won six games and lost 14?
Never mind that the shootout takes what coaches preach is a “team game” and turns it into an individual sport.
And we won’t even get into coaching records. It used to be that a head coach’s record was measured in wins, losses and ties. These days, if a coach has been around long enough, you need five categories — wins, losses, ties, overtime losses and shootout losses — to chart his career. And how dumb is that? Go ahead, you try and figure out Don Hay’s actual winning percentage as a WHL head coach.
Geez, remember when a loss was a loss was a loss?
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Bill Motiuk is a hockey fan. And like a lot of us — hello there, Dan Russell — he despises the present system of awarding two points for a regulation-time victory and three points — two to the winner, one to the loser — of anything that goes beyond that. Loser points really are the scourge of hockey, aren't they?
So Motiuk put on his thinking cap and came up with a system that he says is “based on the business principle that the longer it takes you to get the job done, the more it will cost you.”
When I first looked at his idea, I thought, ‘Ah, what’s the big deal?’ But the more I thought about it and the more I re-read it and the more I absorbed it, the more it grew on me. And now I’m sold.
But in order to be sold on this, you have to go along with this premise:
Some games are worth three points, some are worth two and some are worth one. At first, I wasn’t enthused about that part, but the more I thought about it, well . . .
To begin with, this system puts a three-point value on a regulation-time victory. The winner gets three points; the loser doesn’t get a thing. “To get the three points,” Motiuk says, “you must win in regulation time.”
OK, but what if the game goes into overtime?
An overtime victory is worth two points. Again, the loser doesn’t get anything. “Being tied at the end of regulation deserves nothing,” he explains, “because it wasn’t a tie game and overtime only signified that the end of the first stage did not produce a winner. The winner in overtime only gets two points (as opposed to three) because he didn’t get the job done in regulation time.”
OK, but what if the game goes to a shootout?
The winner of the shootout would receive one point. The loser, again, wouldn’t get a thing.
“The eventual winner ends up forfeiting two points he could have obtained, again for not getting the job done in regulation time,” Motiuk reasons. “At the end of the night, the loser gets nothing because we should not be rewarding losers and there are no longer any tie games under the current system.”
The CFL has long gotten raked over the coals in some corners for awarding a single point on some missed field-goal attempts. But the NHL, the WHL and many other leagues also reward failure by giving points to teams that lose in overtime or a shootout.
“We only have tie segments,” Motiuk points out. “We do not give points for ties at the end of the first and second periods. So why give a point for a tie at the end of the third period? Why reward a team with a point when they lose in overtime? Ditto in the shootout.”
And that, folks, is my favourite part of all this and the thing that really validates it. If you are going to play overtime and if you are going to have shootouts, why give anything to teams for being tied at the end of the third period? As Motiuk points out, teams don't get anything for being tied at the end of the first and second periods.
The way he has it figured, this “would change the whole dynamic of the game.”
“The intensity of the game would be predicated by the three points available before the end of the third period,” he says.
Under this system, should teams be tied near the end of the third period they would be pulling out all stops in an effort to score. After all, score and win and you get three points; go to overtime and you will get two, one or zero points.
Hey, from where I sit, it makes sense. And it certainly is better than the system now in place. Which is why it doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance.
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players suffered concussions as the Wheaties swept a weekend home-and-home series with the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Rob Henderson reports that G Justin Holder, “a 19-year-old former member of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Waywayseecappo Wolverines and Virden Oil Capitals and of the Brandon Midget AAA Wheat Kings, practised with the Wheat Kings on Tuesday.” . . . D Kale Clague (wrist) is close to returning to Brandon’s lineup. He hasn’t played for Brandon since Oct. 28 after being injured at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge in November. . . . Brandon leads the Eastern Conference and is three points behind the Kelowna Rockets, who lead the overall standings. The Wheat Kings are in Medicine Hat tonight as they open a stretch of four games in five nights.
Bay Battalion having joined the club on Sunday.
In Regina, G Daniel Wapple stopped 25 shots to help the Pats to a 4-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . F Pavel Padakin scored his 17th goal just 17 seconds into the second period to give Regina a 2-0 lead. He also had an assist. . . . Raiders F Reid Gardiner got his 25th goal, on a PP with the extra attacker on, at 17:56 of the third period. . . . That got the Raiders to within one, at 3-2. . . . Regina F Sam Steel scored his 13th goal at 19:59 of the third. . . . Pats F Luc Smith, who turned 17 on Jan. 20, scored his first WHL goal in his 48th game. . . . Regina D Colby Williams had an assist and was plus-4. . . . The Pats (28-17-6) have points in three straight (2-0-1). . . . The Raiders (21-29-1) are in Moose Jaw tonight. . . . 
In Spokane, F Remi Laurencelle broke a 2-2 tie in the second period and the Everett Silvertips beat the Chiefs, 3-2. . . . Laurencelle, who has 13 goals, scored at 11:27, with F Nikita Scherbak drawing his second assist of the game. . . . Earlier, the teams combined for four goals in the first period. . . . F Keanu Yamamoto got the Chiefs on the board first, scoring his ninth goal, on a PP, at 5:07. . . . The visitors equalized when F Ivan Nikolishin got his 15th goal, at 8:00. F Brayden Low got his 12th at 10:10 to give Everett the lead. . . . Spokane F Dominic Zwerger tied it with his 11th goal at 12:30. . . . After two periods, Everett had a 10-7 edge in shots. . . . Early in the third period, Cody Nickolet (@DubFromAbove) tweeted: “The shots in this Everett-Spokane game right now are 13-9. There is 14 minutes left in the 3rd period. How is that even possible?” . . . The Chiefs scratched nine players, including G Tyson Verhelst (ill). Spokane didn’t list a backup goaltender on the game sheet, something that regularly happens throughout the WHL these days. . . . The Chiefs dressed 16 skaters, two under the maximum. That included 10 forwards. . . . Spokane was 1-for-2 on the PP, but couldn’t score on a late one after Low was penalized for checking from behind at 17:28 of the third. . . . The Silvertips (32-15-4), who have won three in a row in Spokane, lead the U.S. Division by three points over the idle Portland Winterhawks. . . . The Chiefs (24-22-4) open an East Division swing in Moose Jaw on Friday.
topped off with cake and fireworks at Riverside Park.
The Spokane Chiefs have acquired G Alex Moodie from the Saskatoon Blades for a fourth-round selection in the 2016 bantam draft. Moodie was a fifth-round pick by the Blades in 2010. . . . Moodie, 19, is from Winnipeg. He got into 28 games with the Blades this season, going 7-18-2, 4.29, .894 on a team that didn’t come close to making the playoffs. . . . The Chiefs are looking to fill the vacancy created by the graduation of G Eric Williams. . . . "We feel Garret Hughson has earned the opportunity to be a starter in the WHL and if Alex Moodie can regain the form he showed as a young goaltender, we'll have two capable starting goaltenders,” Spokane GM Tim Speltz said in a news release. “We also expect Tyson Verhelst is ready to make the jump to the WHL, so we have good depth and competition for our goaltending position." . . . Verhelst, from Brandon, is prepping for his 17-year-old season. He was a third-round selection in the 2012 bantam draft. . . . Moodie’s best stint with the Blades came in 2011-12 when he joined them from his midget AAA team in Winnipeg in December and went 9-3-0, 3.42, .895.
The AJHL’s Grande Prairie Storm fired general manager and head coach Matt Hughes on Friday. The moves come after the Storm went 21-36-3-1 in his first season as GM/head coach and missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. . . . Logan Clow of the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune has more 
9. The QMJHL is the site of two thrilling conference finals. . . . The Blainville-Boisbrand Aramada beat the host Baie-Comeau Drakkar 3-2 in OT on Friday night to take a 3-2 lead in that series. They’ll play Game 6 on Sunday at Blainville-Boisbrand. . . . In the other series, the Halifax Mooseheads has come back from a 2-0 deficit to pull into a 2-2 tie with the Val-d’Or Foreurs. The Foreurs won twice in Halifax, 5-2 and 4-2, with the Mooseheads then winning twice on the road, 6-5 in OT and 5-4. They haven’t played since Wednesday, and will resume tonight in Halifax.
F Hank Crone of Cedar Hill, Texas, whose WHL rights belong to the Portland Winterhawks, has decided to play next season with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers and then move on to the Boston University Terriers. . . . Crone, who turned 16 on Feb. 19, had 40 points in 31 games this season as he played for the Dallas Stars elite under-16 team. . . . "Hank was added to the protected player list for the Winterhawks in the WHL,” Kristie, his mother, told Rita Cook of the Focus Daily News. "If you play major junior you lose your NCAA eligibility and he has always wanted to play college hockey.”
Officials with the MJHL’s Neepawa Natives met with community supporters recently and have decided to proceed with the 2014-15 season. They will do it with head coach Dwayne Kirkup back running things. . . . “I am not surprised by this as Neepawa always seems to find a way to get it done,” general manager Myles Cathcart said in a news release. As for Kirkup, Cathcart said: “In terms of quality coaches in hockey, Kirkup is in the elite group. He is professional, works extremely hard, is approachable and the players work hard for him. He fits in with what we are doing. We want quality players and coaches within our organization.”
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