Wow, They Took My Advice!

The two things I loved about the new rule changes. 1) They opened up the game, and 2) they took my advice. Okay, the NHL didn’t read my website and said, “Hey, Garrett’s got a great idea!” But I can dream. When I started this website, the NHL started using wins-losses-ties-overtime losses for a team’s statistics. I said that the league should have a shoot out after 5 minutes of overtime during the regular season. At least there would be some finality to the game, and you could have 2 spaces in your team stats: wins-loses.

That will make it easier for someone who is not familiar with hockey to make sense of the stats. But I wanted to go farther and eliminate the 2 points for a win, and one point for making it through overtime. Just go by games won, much like baseball. Then you will hear great sounding questions like, "How many games back are the Rangers from winning the Eastern Conference?" Well maybe a bad example (sorry Ranger fans), but I believe making the stats into some very simple mathematics makes the race for number one simple and easy to follow.

By doing it that way, team stats will be similar to baseball and football. Just wins and losses. No ties or overtime losses, or times where the mascot got its tongue ripped out by the coach. Simple, right?

-- Other Notes –

• Atlanta Thrashers find themselves retooling their system after being out scored in three games 16-2. I guess there is such thing as Karma, as the Caps put together 2 good games after being beat in back to back games against the now flailing Thrashers.
• Ottawa Senators lose Martin Havlat who will be suspended for kicking a player during a game against Boston. Not only will he not play for 5 games, but he also forfeits $66,326.55. I don’t think he will be doing that again for awhile.
• New York Islander Rick Dipietro is cleared to practice with the team after recovering from a minor concussion. Jeff Halpern skated into the goaltender while he was sprawled out on the ice to make the save.
• Two players named players of the week in the NHL: Steve Sullivan of Nashville and Bryan McCabe of Toronto.

Next Caps game on Thursday, October 20 against Florida.