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?

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?

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 Outcomes	Points System
Regulation Win	2
Overtime Win	2
Shootout Win	2
Regulation Loss	0
Overtime Loss	1
Shootout Loss	1

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	GP	W	L	OT	P	RW	ROW
Boston Bruins	82	65	12	5	135	55	60
Toronto Maple Leaf	82	60	15	7	127	54	56
New York Rangers	82	58	13	11	127	53	56
Tampa Bay Lightning	82	50	21	11	111	40	49
Montreal Canadiens	82	49	20	13	111	40	46
Pittsburgh Penguins	82	52	23	7	111	40	45

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

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

NHL Team With The Most ROW In The 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.

Ranking	Team	ROW
1	Boston Bruins	61
2	New Jersy Devils	50
3	Edmonton Oilers	50
4	Toronto Maple Leaf	49
5	Carolina Hurricanes	48
6	Vegas Golden Knights	46
7	Seattle Krakens	46
8	Colorado Avalanche	45
9	Winnipeg Jets	45
10	Dallas Stars	43

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.