What Is ROW In Ice Hockey Standings? (NHL ROW Stats)
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What Is ROW In Ice Hockey Standings? NHL Stats

Today we will be looking at another stat in ice hockey. This stat is very crucial in ice hockey and the NHL because it is used in the ranking of teams on the standing of ice hockey leagues. ROW in ice hockey is one of the first tie-breakers used when ranking teams that qualify in the playoffs of leagues like the NHL.

In this article we will be looking at the meaning of ROW in ice hockey, its use, how it affects the NHL standing, and some of the teams with the highest ROW point in an NHL season.

What Does ROW Stand For In Ice Hockey?

What Does ROW Stand For In Ice Hockey?

ROW in ice hockey is an attribute of hockey team stats that stands for Regulation Plus Overtime Wins.  It is a team stat that shows the number of games that have been won by a team either during regulation time or overtime period. 

Games won through shootouts are not added to the boundaries of ROW in ice hockey. The reason why shootouts are not added to Regulation plus Overtime Win is that ROW was created to rank teams who are tied in point during the NHL team standing. 

How Does ROW Work In Ice Hockey?

How Does ROW Work In Ice Hockey?

In ice hockey, ROW serves as a tiebreaker when two or more teams have the same number of points. But to understand how ROW is used to settle point ties, we must take a look at the NHL point system. 

ROW And The NHL Point System

The NHL point system is a system of awarding points to teams for wins and losses. The NHL point system also others the manner of ranking teams in the NHL. Here is a summary of how points are allocated:

Game OutcomesPoints System 
Regulation Win2
Overtime Win2
Shootout Win2
Regulation Loss0
Overtime Loss1
Shootout Loss1

From the table, every win is allocated two points, and every loss is awarded a point aside from regulation loss. This point system exists because there is no tie in the NHL, a team can either win or lose a game. 

Since points are the bases for organizing teams in standing, there needs to be a way for the team to settle ties between two or more teams. So when this happens, the first means of a tiebreaker is the regulation win (RW) and if that is tied then the regulation plus overtime win (ROW) becomes the tiebreaker

It is also important to note that this can only be used when both teams have played the same number of games. 

Therefore, in a scenario where two teams have the same number of points and a regulation win, the tiebreaker will favor teams who have a higher regulation plus overtime win compared to teams with a higher shootout win.

Examples Of ROW Has A Tiebreaker

The table below shows a hypothetical NHL standing with some teams tied. This table will be used as a means to define how ROW is used as a tiebreaker in ice hockey.

Teams GPWLOTPRWROW
Boston Bruins82651251355560
Toronto Maple Leaf82601571275456
New York Rangers 825813111275356
Tampa Bay Lightning 825021111114049
Montreal Canadiens 824920131114046
Pittsburgh Penguins 82522371114045

In the table above, the Leafs and Rangers have the same number of points, but the Maple Leafs have more regulation win. 

 However, in the cases of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, and Pittsburgh Penguins, they all have the same points, and number of regulation wins. 

In this instance, the tie-breaker for the teams becomes the ROW. From the table, even though the Penguins have more wins than the Canadiens and Lightnings, most of them are from the shootout as the number of RW and ROW of the Penguins is less than the Canadiens and Lightnings. 

This shows that the number of wins is not a major determiner like the number of RW and ROW in ice hockey.

Reason For ROW In Ice Hockey

ROW was added to ice hockey because wins by shootouts were considered to not be of equal relevance as wins during regulation time or overtime. This is because unlike in regulation and overtime where goals and wins are a collective effort of the skill of the team as a whole, shootouts just display the strength of a player. 

Also, people were not satisfied whenever a team that had more regulation wins or overtime wins is unable to make the playoffs because a certain team with more wins in shootouts ranked over them. 

This would later move the league to add ROW to the stats in the league standings. Eventually, the league set a standard that regulation wins are taken with more relevance to ROW. Likewise, ROW is of more relevance to shootout wins. 

Most ROW In The NHL

Every season, the NHL ranks teams based on division, conference, and overall league standing. The league standing is a more comprehensive ranking of every team in the NHL based on points.

From the league standings, the teams with the most regulation plus overtime goals can be seen. In this section, we will be looking at the teams with the highest ROW in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

Read more on how the NHL standing, ranking, and playoff teams are chosen in this article, How Do NHL Standings Work? Points System Guide.

NHL Teams With The Most ROW In The 2021-22 Season

Best ROW For The NHL 2021-22 Season

The NHL team with the most ROW for the 2021-22 season were also the team with the most point for the season, the Florida Panthers. During the 2021-22 season, the Panthers recorded 55 ROW. In addition, the team following the Panthers is the Hurricanes with 53 regulation plus overtime wins.

Ranking Team ROW
1Florida Panthers 55
2Carolina Hurricanes 53
3Colorado Avalanche 52
4Toronto Maples Leafs 51
5Tampa Bay Lightning 49
6Boston Bruins 49
7Minnesota Wild 48
8Calgary Flames 48
9New York Rangers 48
10St Louis Blues 47
Data from nhl.com

NHL Team With The Most ROW In The 2022-23 Season

Best ROW For The NHL 2022-23 Season

The team with the most regulation plus overtime wins for the 2022-23 season is the Boston Bruins with 60 points. Next to the Bruins in second place is the New Jersey Devils with 50 ROW points.

RankingTeamROW
1Boston Bruins 61
2New Jersy Devils 50
3Edmonton Oilers 50
4Toronto Maple Leaf49
5Carolina Hurricanes 48
6Vegas Golden Knights 46
7Seattle Krakens 46
8Colorado Avalanche45
9Winnipeg Jets 45
10Dallas Stars43
Data from nhl.com

Conclusion

So this brings us to the end of this topic on ROW in ice hockey. ROW is just as important in ice hockey, especially as a tiebreaker and ranking teams for playoffs.

If you are new to stats in the NHL, read this article on Understanding Ice Hockey Stats: Players And Team. Thanks for reading.

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