Even before Cutter Gauthier had broken Calgary Flames hearts with his overtime winner on Wednesday night, the Ducks had already inflicted some serious damage to the playoff hopes of their guests in Anaheim. Read More
Even before Cutter Gauthier had broken Calgary Flames hearts with his overtime winner on Wednesday night, the Ducks had already inflicted some serious damage to the playoff hopes of their guests in Anaheim. Why? Because with the way the NHL’s tiebreaker works and the position the Flames find themselves in with four games to go,
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Even before Cutter Gauthier had broken Calgary Flames hearts with his overtime winner on Wednesday night, the Ducks had already inflicted some serious damage to the playoff hopes of their guests in Anaheim.
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Why? Because with the way the NHL’s tiebreaker works and the position the Flames find themselves in with four games to go, Calgary needs regulation wins. Winning games in OT might not be enough.
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That was true on Wednesday night and it’ll be true for the rest of the season.
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Even if the Flames win the rest of their games, it might not matter if they can’t secure two points in 60 minutes each and every time.
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So on Wednesday in Anaheim, it wasn’t just that the Flames let a precious point slip away when Gauthier buried the OT winner. When the Ducks scored two late goals in eight seconds late in the game to force overtime, that alone could wind up having an impact on the Flames’ playoff chances.
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Let’s take a look at why:
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How does the NHL tiebreaker work?
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The best-case scenario over the next week for the Flames is that they finish ahead of the Blues or Wild in the standings and none of this winds up mattering.
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Technically, the Edmonton Oilers still are within striking distance, but they’re seven points ahead of the Flames and own the tiebreaker. If they pick up even one point in their last four games, it won’t matter, so we’ll leave them out of this for the most part.
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If two teams do finish with the same number of points in the standings at the end of the regular season, though, that’s when the tiebreaker kicks in.
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The first tiebreaker goes to the team that has won the most games, excluding those they won in overtime or the shootout.
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The second goes to the most games won, excluding games won in the shootout.
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That basically means that regulation wins matter most, followed by overtime victories and, finally, shootouts.
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There are other tiebreakers that come into effect if the two we’ve listed above don’t separate two teams that are tied on points, but they’re not going to make any difference in the Western Conference wild-card race this season.
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Why does the tiebreaker matter for the Flames?
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There are two teams the Flames have a chance of catching in the standings: The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues.
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They both have 93 points, although the Wild have three games remaining and the Blues only have two.
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The Flames have 88 points, with four games left on their schedule. That means that if they win all four, they’d finish the year with 96 points.
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In a scenario where the Blues or Wild drop points in their remaining games and the Flames go on an undefeated run, that’s when the tiebreaker will come into effect.