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Bill Parcells — the legendary NFL coach — once declared, “You are what your record says you are.”

Parcells’ remarks might have been more suitable for the NFL than the NHL. Among the men’s major professional sports leagues, the NHL is unusual for rewarding teams during the regular season that have overtime or shootout losses.

The NFL and the NBA do not distinguish overtime losses from regulation losses. Similarly, the records of MLB teams do not separate their extra-inning losses. Conventional thinking is that a loss is a loss. But for the NHL, a win is a win (two points are awarded regardless of whether a win happens during regulation or extra time), while a loss is not always effectively a loss (one point is awarded to teams losing in overtime or a shootout).

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