Nakor’s Rucksack

I personally feel that the point “awarded” for an overtime loss in the NHL should be abolished. Originally awarded when teams played to a tie, it feels like a oversight that this was not removed now that ties cannot happen. In my experience, it seems to suck the life out of a game when teams are tied with 10 or so minutes left; both teams’ play becomes conservative in order to preserve that point. Just for fun, I figured out the standings if the OTL point were taken away (as of March 18th):

1. Det 94 *
2. Sjs 90 *
3. Cgy 80 *
4. Chi 74
5. Van 74
6. Cmb 72
7. Nsh 70
8. Edm 66
9. Dal 66
10. Min 66
11. Stl 64
12. Ana 64
13. Col 62
14. La 58
15. Pho 58

The only differences in the standings are that Nashville would occupy the 7 spot and moves ahead of Edmonton, and Colorado would enjoy a slight advantage over LA and Phoenix. So, it seems that the point doesn’t make any difference, other than to artificially inflate a team’s point total, and the aforementioned 10 minutes of boredom at the end of tied games. That being the case, is there any reason to keep it?