{"database": "pelican", "table": "content", "rows": [["ryan", "musings", "This is the fourth part of my How to Watch a Hockey Game Series. You can catch\nup on previous articles [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to-\nwatch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/)\n\n## Game Outcomes\n\nIn many North American sports when reading the standings there are typically\njust Wins (W), and Losses (L).1\n\nHockey is a bit different. When you look at the standings for Hockey you'll\nsee 4 headers:\n\n  * W: Wins\n  * L: Losses\n  * OTL: Overtime Losses\n  * SOL: Shootout Losses\n\nAs discussed [earlier in this\nseries](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/29/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-game-\nplay/), if a game is tied at the end of regulation, a five-minute overtime\nperiod is played. If either team scores during this Overtime period then the\nwinning team gets a Win, while the losing team gets an Overtime Loss (OTL).\n\nIf they're still tied then a Shootout is played. Once a winner is declared in\nthe Shootout they get the Win, while the losing team gets a Shootout Loss.\n\nBecause of this, values are assigned to each type of outcome:\n\nOutcome | Points  \n---|---  \nWin | 2  \nLoss | 0  \nOTL | 1  \nSOL | 1  \n  \nThis might best be shown with a concrete example.\n\n## A Concrete Example\n\nLet's say that the Coachella Valley Firebirds have played 39 games so far.\nThey have won 21 games and lost 13 games. They've also played in 5 games that\nwent into overtime and lost. Their overtime losses are one (1) in the Overtime\nperiod and 4 in Shootouts. Their record would look like this:\n\nCoachella Valley Firebirds: 21-13-1-4\n\nPoints Calculation:\n\n  * Wins: 21 \u00d7 2 = 42 points\n  * OTL: 1 \u00d7 1 = 1 point\n  * SOL: 4 \u00d7 1 = 4 points\n\nTotal: 42 + 1 + 4 = 47 points\n\nThe Firebirds play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and the\nstandings might look like this:\n\nTeam | GP | W | L | OTL | SOL | PTS | PCT  \n---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---  \nCalgary | 41 | 27 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 55 | 0.671  \nCoachella Valley | 39 | 21 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 47 | 0.603  \nColorado | 36 | 21 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 0.639  \nOntario | 37 | 22 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 46 | 0.622  \nSan Jose | 36 | 20 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 43 | 0.597  \nAbbotsford | 37 | 20 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 42 | 0.568  \nTucson | 37 | 19 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 0.541  \nBakersfield | 35 | 16 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 37 | 0.529  \nSan Diego | 37 | 11 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 28 | 0.378  \nHenderson | 39 | 12 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 0.333  \n  \nLegend: \\- GP: Games Played \\- W: Wins \\- L: Losses \\- OTL: Overtime Losses \\-\nSOL: Shootout Losses \\- PTS: Points \\- PCT: Points Percentage\n\n## Winning Percent\n\nThere are 2 things to look at in the standings: (1) Total Points, and (2)\nWinning Percent.\n\nThe Total Points we've already spoken about so let's review winning percent.\n\nThe winning percent is calculated as the Total Points the team has divided by\nthe total possible points that they could have gotten. The total possible\npoints are calculated as the Games Played x 2 (that is, what are the total\nnumber of points that they would have if they won every game they played).\n\nThat is\n\n    \n    \n        Winning Percent = Total Points \u00f7 (Games Played \u00d7 2)\n    \n\nFor example in the table above, we see that the PCT column for the Firebirds\nis 0.603. This is calculated by the Points (47) divided by GP x 2 (39 x 2 =\n78), that is 47 / 78 = 0.603.\n\nThe winning percent allows ranking intra-season when teams haven't played the\nsame number of games. After all games have been played, the rankings are\ndetermined by the total number of points a team has.2\n\n## Conclusion\n\nYou should now be able to parse the standings in a Hockey League and be able\nto tell how well (or poorly) your team is doing.\n\nThis is the end of my series (for now). If there are any other burning\nquestions you have about hockey, reach out to me on\n[Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@ryancheley).\n\n  1. Football also has Ties (T) but they are exceedingly rare and are only ever displayed when the first Tie of the season occurs \u21a9\ufe0e\n  2. Depending on the league there are tiebreakers, but that's outside the scope of this article \u21a9\ufe0e\n\n", "2025-02-03", "how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-reading-the-standings", "This is the fourth part of my How to Watch a Hockey Game Series. You can catch\nup on previous articles [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/01/27/how-to-\nwatch-a-hockey-game-three-rules/)\n\n## Game Outcomes\n\nIn many North American sports when reading the standings there are typically\njust Wins (W), and Losses (L).1\n\nHockey is a bit different. When you \u2026\n\n", "How to Watch a Hockey Game - Reading the Standings", "https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/02/03/how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-reading-the-standings/"]], "columns": ["author", "category", "content", "published_date", "slug", "summary", "title", "url"], "primary_keys": ["slug"], "primary_key_values": ["how-to-watch-a-hockey-game-reading-the-standings"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7590055465698242}