Flyers, Panthers could play 83rd game as tiebreaker
The NHL regular season has wound down to it finale and if a very certain scenario plays out over the next few days, the madness may have not even begun.
Sometimes, it really just feels like the NHL might be making things up as they go along, especially with their latest announcement.
On Friday afternoon, the NHL announced that if the Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers are deadlocked in a tie in points, regulation wins, goal differential and head-to-head points, the two teams would play a tiebreaker game for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The home team will be a decided by a coin toss.
If this tiebreaker game ends up going to overtime, there will be no shootout. The extra time will be modeled after the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and both teams will play 5-on-5 hockey until a winner is determined.
If two teams are tied in points after 82 regular-season games, the NHL uses three tiers of tiebreakers to determine the higher seed. The first is ROW (regulation/overtime wins) which takes away all shootout wins, the second is the season series between the two, and if both of those are unable to solve anything the NHL uses goal differential to break the tie. Until Friday, that’s hardly ever been an issue.
To meet the requirements to reach this tiebreaker game, Philadelphia needs to lose its final game of the season against the New York Rangers by two goals. Florida must win its final two contests, but both have to be in the shootout. Florida plays Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres and Sunday at Boston in a makeup game.
If those scenarios play out exactly, Philadelphia and Florida would each have 94 points, 39 ROW and a +1 goal differential on the season. The teams split their season series.
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If this tiebreaker game somehow happens, hockey fans everywhere are in for a treat they may never see again. The possibility of this tiebreaker game will likely spawn additional tiebreakers for next season to avoid a crapshoot like this from happening again, but if this game does happens and it turns out to be a resounding success, perhaps the NHL could adopt a play-in game format like MLB in the future.