from Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer,

By winning the game in regulation, the Islanders picked up two points and, more importantly, kept the Flyers from picking up any. That might not sound like much, but in the NHL, it’s everything — or, at least, teams treat it like it’s everything.

The Islanders now have 72 points this season and are in third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers have 69 points, are in fifth place in the Metropolitan, and are clinging to the second of the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card berths. Three points don’t sound like much. But in the NHL, three points are huge. Three points can be an ocean.

Three points don’t look or feel like an ocean to anyone perusing the standings, of course. But they are, and players and coaches around the league know it. The NHL’s system for determining how teams collect points and earn spots in its postseason tournament is so cockamamie, geared toward artificially propping up teams and ginning up and maintaining interest in the regular season and early rounds of the playoffs, that it warps both the standings themselves and the manner in which teams play.

It’s strained. It’s silly. And it might just get the Flyers into the postseason.

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