The points system
A hockey table is not a list of wins and losses. A win in any form is worth two points. A loss in overtime or a shootout is worth one. A loss in regulation time is worth nothing. That single asymmetry explains why an NHL standings page needs more columns than any other league's.
The consequence is that games ending in overtime distribute three points between two teams, while games settled in regulation distribute two. Teams therefore have a mild shared incentive to reach overtime, and the tightness of the standings in the closing minutes of tied games is not entirely an accident of competitiveness.
The loser point is the most criticised feature of the system and the most defended. It keeps more teams in playoff contention later into the season, which the league values, at the cost of a table where a team can collect points while losing.
The columns explained
Beyond wins, losses and overtime losses, the table carries regulation wins and regulation-plus-overtime wins. These exist because points alone cannot separate teams fairly: a club with many overtime losses can match a club that won those games outright, and the extra columns restore the distinction.
Points percentage — points earned as a share of points available — appears whenever teams have played different numbers of games, which in a long season with postponements is most of the time. It is the honest way to compare two teams mid-season and is the number a standings page should be read from.
Goal differential is present too and matters less than in football, because hockey scores are low and a single blowout distorts it. It functions as a rough quality check rather than a decisive column.
Tiebreakers and the playoff line
Teams level on points are separated first by regulation wins, then by regulation-plus-overtime wins, then by head-to-head results. Putting regulation wins first is a deliberate correction to the loser point: it means the team that actually won more games in normal time is ranked ahead.
The line to watch is not the top of the division but the second wild-card place in each conference. Because divisional qualification takes the top three from each division, the wild-card race pulls in teams from both divisions and is where most of the March tension lives.
Reading a hockey table properly therefore means reading three things at once: points, games played, and regulation wins. Any one of them alone will mislead you about who is genuinely in front.