What is the ROW stat in hockey?
You might have seen the NHL standing chart that determines the ranking of each team in the league. The role of this chart is to provide analytics of the points that each team earns throughout the year. On the basis of these points, teams qualify for the playoffs. What if, you looked at the chart and only understood some common things like Wins (W), Losses (L), or Overtime Losses (OTL)? But couldn’t understand the Other queries like ROW, GF, ad GA, etc.
So, what is the ROW stat in hockey? The ROW in NHL standing points stands for Regulation plus Overtimes Wins. The ROW number shows how many games a team has won in regular and overtime sessions. The ROW stats are used as a tiebreaker between teams with the same wins. The team with higher ROW points will stand higher than a team that has low ROW points.
How do you get points in the NHL standings?
A team can’t be placed at number one on the NHL standings just on the basis of winning or losing. However, many factors must be considered when looking for a number one team on the board.
Similarly, there are six other ways that affect the ranking in NHL standings. These six points overall increase or decrease a team’s standings. The winning team obviously gets two points but still if the regular game between the two teams ends in a tie. While for the result, overtime and shootout will be given to the teams, in this case, the losing team still gets one point. But the Regulation loss will be zero.
| Outcome | Points |
| Shootout Win | 2 |
| Shootout Loss | 1 |
| Regulation Win | 2 |
| Regulation Loss | 0 |
| Overtime Win | 2 |
| Overtime Loss | 1 |
Note:
The above chart is only for those teams who performed well and ended on Tie at a regular time. These points will be considered when the shootout and overtime start in the game. If a team wins in the first overtime shootout will not count. So, this table overall affects the yearly performance of the team, and the team with high numbers on the board will stay on top.
Related Post: What are NHL Point Standings?
How did ROW come about?
Back in 2005-06, many hockey enthusiasts raised their voices that it’s not justice to increase or decrease teams ranking on the basis of shootouts. According to them, in hockey, not all the ways are equal to winning a game.
According to many teams and general managers, how NHL can decide a team’s performance on the basis of a shootout where only individual performance is involved, while the whole team doesn’t have any control over the game.
The point was raised that teams should earn points on the regulation wins or overtime wins. While the shootout wins can only be used as a tie-breaker. Suppose, two teams A and B played 50 matches and won 30 matches equally, but team A won one match in a shootout while team B won 30 matches in regulation or overtime. So team B will be placed on high ranking and team A will be on the second position.
Examples of ROW in the standings
Let’s take a look at the team’s ranking strategy for a better understanding.
ROW, or regulation and overtime wins, is a key tiebreaker in the NHL standings. It’s the first tiebreaker listed after points, and it’s used to determine which team earns a playoff spot in the event of a tie.
| Team | GP | W | L | OT | ROW | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruins | 82 | 45 | 27 | 10 | 42 | 100 |
| Canadiens | 82 | 42 | 30 | 10 | 39 | 94 |
| Leafs | 82 | 40 | 30 | 12 | 38 | 92 |
| Senators | 82 | 40 | 32 | 10 | 36 | 90 |
For example, let’s say two teams have identical records in terms of points and head-to-head records. In this case, the team with more regulation and overtime wins would earn the higher seed in the playoffs.
So if you’re wondering how the NHL standings work, now you know. ROW is a key tiebreaker that can make all the difference in the NHL world.
Related Post: What Percentage of NHL Draft Picks make it to the NHL?
What if teams are tied in ROW?
If teams are tied in points but have different numbers of Regulation + OT Wins (ROW), the team with more ROW is given the higher seed. If teams are still tied, the tiebreaker goes to the total number of goals scored in regulation time, then to the total number of wins in overtime, then shootout wins, and finally shootout losses.
Conclusion: What is the ROW stat in hockey?
So what can we learn from the ROW stat? The teams who are good at both scoring and preventing goals tend to do well in the standings. A team’s ability to earn points by winning games in regular and overtime sessions is more important than their total number of wins.
As the season progresses it becomes tougher for teams to pick up additional wins, those with strong ROW stats will have an advantage.
This information could be valuable for fans looking to place bets on hockey games. Have you found any other interesting trends in the NHL standings using our Hockey standings data? Let us know in the comments!
