NHL Record Keeping

Dan Steinberg notes how the Caps are the only D.C. sports team currently active to be over .500. (I would post this in his comment area but for some reason the (Com)Post website won't let me.)

Yet in the wonderful world of Gary Bettman's NHL, that is only true because overtime and gimmick losses do not count as real losses in the standings. Why? That's a good question. Yeah, the team did pick up standings points in the four games that they lost in either OT or the gimmick. But the game still goes down as a loss.

When the NHL first decided to give away points to teams who lost after 60 minutes of regulation hockey, it was called a "Regulation Tie" and teams who lost in OT were dinged in the loss column. Why the NHL took those losses out of the loss column is beyond me. But if you notice, I add OTL's back into the loss column.

Fact is, the Caps have played 14 games so far. They've won 6 of them and lost 8. 8 > 6 so the Caps are not over .500.