- We've never addressed tiebreakers in "Weird Rules"
which is a little wild because I think tiebreakers are one
of the like sleeper greatest parts of all of sports.
- I find them mostly unpleasant.
Like mostly because almost every tiebreaker is a mini-game
of sorts where it's sort of like, okay
you played this very hard game
for, I don't know, three hours.
Now we're gonna play just a little mini-game where
like maybe some parts of your team aren't even necessary.
It feels a little underwhelming at points.
- I think I like them for a lot of those similar reasons.
But because like sports across the board
are organized chaos.
- Yes.
- Tiebreakers are the most pen to paper
attempts to organize said chaos.
- Oh, a hundred percent, yes.
It is definitely somebody sat down and said, this must end
and therefore we must devise a way for it to end.
And we don't really care how compelling it is,
how fair it is in some cases.
I would rather, we just went back
to the times where we were just like,
yeah sometimes it's a tie and everybody's pissed,
that's fine.
- Again, I'm choosing to see the bright side of this
because I'm just thinking all the people that are excited to
know the 17 different ways the Ravens can make the playoffs.
- That's fair.
And, and the alternative of, you know
like a single game tiebreaker is like cool.
I went to a baseball game for a day and a half,
thanks Baseball.
I will concede that tiebreakers are probably
the least cherished part of the rule book.
It is the place where you have the most
free reign to be like, I don't know, what if we
did the Bozo grand prize game to settle the Super Bowl?
Sure.
- They feel like the most free flowing aspects
of any rule book because as leagues change
as they grow, you add players, you run into situations
they need to add tiebreakers or reprioritize tiebreakers.
Which then for the sake of "Weird Rules" is really great
because that means there are moments where
they really didn't think through tiebreakers at all.
But today I wanna focus on the NHL.
- Okay.
- For the uninitiated, the way that the standings
in the NHL works is you have a record
comprised of three results.
Currently it's wins, losses and overtime losses.
Back in the day, you could tie
and that was the third number.
You get two points for a win, zero points for a loss
one point for an overtime loss or a tie.
Those numbers get added up,
that dictates where you sit in the standings
and by the end of the season that determines
who goes into the playoffs.
Back in 1970, there were just 12 teams in the league
and eight of those teams made the playoffs.
So the tiebreakers, it wasn't a long list.
The first tiebreaker after points was wins.
They fortunately saw, well,
if they have the same number of points,
there's a good chance they could also
have same number of wins.
So from there we will say tiebreaker number three,
goals scored.
That's all we need to really think about for
the sake of this story.
- That's it?
Okay, and we should say for context, the modern tiebreakers
at least like the NFL's probably
where I am most familiar with them
and they get down to like average temperature of kickoff,
average temperature of kickoff in divisional games.
- Shortness of playbook was an interesting one.
- Maybe that's the 27th tiebreaker, but it might be there.
- So jumping ahead to the end of the 1969, 1970 season,
the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers are vying
for the final spot in the East.
Montreal has one more win than New York
heading into that final day.
If New York wins and Montreal loses
then they end with the exact same record.
- Right.
- So both in total points, number of wins,
it comes down to goals scored.
- Right.
- Entering the final day, Montreal has a five goal edge.
- Okay, so the only way that New York can
leapfrog them is Montreal loss,
New York win and New York scores five goals more
than Montreal does on the final day.
- Yes.
- Okay.
- To put one more thing into Montreal's favor,
New York's game was in the afternoon,
Montreal's game was at night.
- Okay.
- So by the time Montreal's game starts
they know the exact situation that they're playing for.
Now to give New York a slight edge,
New York's opponent is a Detroit Red Wings team
that the previous day locked
up their playoff spot and spent that night partying
to the point where a few players need to rest
for a game that doesn't matter to them.
- Sure.
- Montreal's opponent is a Chicago team competing
for the number one overall seed.
- Okay.
- So New York has the first game they manage to
put Montreal into the worst case scenario.
They beat Detroit nine to five.
So not only making up the five goal deficit
that seemed absolutely impossible going into the game,
but tacking four goals on top of that
against a hungover and not trying Red Wings team
- Dolly Parton'd the Red Wings basically.
Cool, good move.
- So then it shifts over to Montreal.
Again, they control their own fate.
A tie gets them in, a win gets them in.
Montreal's game against Chicago very quickly
goes outta hand for the Habs.
They're down four nothing before they can get on the board.
- Oh my God. - They make it four to two.
Chicago puts one more on to get it to five two
with 10 minutes left.
So you need to win,
you need to tie, or you need to score five goals
- And you would need three more goals just to tie.
- So what would you do?
- Is there some way I can start a fight that
like postpones this game entirely?
Can I just like kick this can as far down the road
as possible and maybe eliminate it from even existing?
- Unable to find that move on the fly.
With 10 minutes left Montreal pulls their goalie.
- Okay, sure.
You have, you have literally nothing to lose at this point.
- It is the only option you have left.
Get a sixth skater on the ice hoping to get three goals
against a team that ultimately a win helps them.
But it's not like it's gonna come down to a BCS formula.
- Right, it means much more to Montreal.
- But you would not have known that by the final.
- How bad are we talking?
- Well, Montreal is doing everything they can to
score everything they can to stay
in the offensive zone with an extra skater on the ice.
Chicago manages to hang five empty net goals
on the Canadiens.
- Wow.
- Chicago.
- Wow.
- By the time the final horn sounds, it was 10-2
- And yet there was no other, there was nothing else to do.
Like, I if this is, this sucks
because so often in sports when something goes super wrong
it's easy to say, oh, if you had done this and that
or if you'd tried this instead of that
something else might have happened.
But like, other than set the arena
on fire so that the game can't be completed.
- No, you're totally right.
It's like you don't have a play to get out
of a three goal deficit against
a team that's better than you.
- Is this the least Hollywood
a hockey game has ever finished?
Because like it has all the classic elements of like, okay
this is win or go home situation and we're in a big hole
and we have to do this like crazy underdog move.
- What I like picturing this movie is the ending
being really celebratory for them losing 10-5.
- Yes.
- Because they have, five goals with all they needed.
Screw it, give them every empty net goal.
200 to five would've got them into the playoffs.
- That's true.
- And they couldn't get one.
- Was Chicago just pissed?
- Montreal was pissed at the end of this.
- Okay.
- That's for God damn sure.
They were so pissed off at Detroit.
They were like, they had an agreement with New York.
Oh, these teams were in cahoots.
- What were the cahoots, we will try to win?
That's not cahoots,
that's what happens in every hockey game.
You can't be in cahoots to be like,
hey, will you try to beat them?
Yes, that's their job.
Will you also try to stop them from scoring?
Again, part of our job.
It's also like nine to five is not
is not enough to be like, oh, the fix was in.
You know what I mean?
- Right, a hungover team scores five.
- Right, it's like five is still a lot to give up.
Five is still like, Mm, this felt
this felt like you needed the nine.
- This was actually, you'll be shocked.
This was the first time that they ever needed
that goals scored tiebreaker.
And boy did they quickly see maybe
that one's not the tiebreaker we wanted.
- It creates some strange incentives, potentially.
- Little bit.
For the following NHL season
they adopted head to head results
as the second tiebreaker after wins.
- What did the Rangers end up doing
in the playoffs that year?
- Oh, they lost in the first round.
They lost, I think it was four two against the Bruins
which this, this was the year of flying Bobby Orr.
- So they accomplished everything
they set their minds to, they made the playoffs
and they made Montreal lose their absolute minds.
And that was it, the rest was a formality.