Three Point Standings

What would the NHL standings look like today if a regulation win was worth three points and an overtime or shootout win was only worth two? In this set up, the first tiebreaker is games played and the second is regulation and overtime wins (which still leaves Boston and Pittsburgh tied).   These standings are rough point totals and do not include the 1,2, 3 bonus for being tops in each division.

Western Conference

Anahiem Ducks	46
Colorado Avalanche	41
San Jose Sharks	41
Chicago Blackhawks	40
Minnesota Wild	38
St. Louis Blues	37
Phoenix Coyotes	37
LA Kings	34
Vancouver Canucks	31
Winnipeg Jets	27
Dallas Stars	25
Nashville Predators	25
Calgary Flames	20
Edmonton Oilers	12

Eastern Conference

Tampa Bay Lightning	36
Boston Bruins	35
Pittsburgh Penguins	35
Detroit Red Wings	32
Toronto Maple Leafs	31
Montreal Canadiens	31
Washington Capitals	28
Ottawa Senators	27
New York Rangers	26
Carolina Hurricanes	26
New Jersey Devils	23
Philedelphia Flyers	23
New York Islanders	22
Columbus Blue Jackets	20
Florida Panthers	15
Buffalo Sabres	13

These standings look pretty similar to the actual NHL in terms of order, but one thing it does is make the teams at the bottom seem even less likely to be able to catch up.  The optics of it are worse, even if the likelihood of catching up is still about the same.  With a two point system, Edmonton is 17 points out of the playoffs. In a three point system, Edmonton is 22 points out (yikes!).  Even if it looks worse, a three point system might benefit the Oilers (if they would actually earn regulation wins).  It would only take seven and a third wins to gain the 22 points that the Oilers are back of the number eight ranked Kings in a three point system.  In the current two point system it would take eight and a half games to gain the 17 points Edmonton is behind.  The two point system would also probably award loser points to a lot of the teams along the way making the climb even more steep.  Obviously both of the hypothetical situations are incredibly unlikely, but the three point system may work better for good teams that have bad stretches as well as for truly determining who is the best regular season team.