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Early Season NHL Trends: Shootouts, Caufield, Ovechkin, East vs. West, and More…

3 1
08.11.2025
We are one month into the NHL season, and some interesting trends have emerged.

1. We are seeing more games requiring overtime than ever before. It is a main reason why only two teams are outside of a playoff spot by more than three points. Calgary and St. Louis are six points out of the playoffs this morning, while every Eastern Conference team has a point% of .500 or better. The defending champion Florida Panthers are currently in 16th place with 13 points, but they are only two points back of eighth place.

Here is a chart outlining the number of games going to OT since 2016.

Year

GP

OT/S0 GP

% of GP

2016

1230

275

22.35%

2017

1230

289

23.49%

2018

1271

296

23.28%

2019

1271

271

21.32%

2020

1082

250

23.10%

2021

868

195

22.46%

2022

1312

288

21.95%

2023

1312

302

23.01%

2024

1312

272

20.72%

2025

1312

271

20.65%

2026

217

60

27.64%

Currently the NHL is on pace to have 362 games go to overtime. The most the league has had was 307 in 2014. I know it is early, but rarely do we see fewer OT/SO games later in the season. The early-season trend is great if you like parity (or fake parity), but more OT games lead to more games decided by a shootout. That isn’t good.

We’ve already seen 21 games decided by a shootout. The most we’ve seen since 2016 was 107, and currently the NHL is on pace for 128 shootouts. If more games are decided in a shootout, that isn’t good long term for the NHL. It was why the NHL changed from 4×4 in 2015 to 3×3 in 2015. That change dropped the number of shootout games from 170 in 2015 to 107 in 2016. The league likes games decided in OT, not in shootouts, and the next change they likely have to make is implementing the over-and-back rule. Once a team crosses centre, they can’t cross back into their half of the ice (similar to basketball). This will force teams to keep attacking rather than regrouping, like we often see.

I realize it is early in the season, but the shootout trend is one to watch. If it remains around 130, the NHL will take notice, and it will become a discussion. Bill Daly did........

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