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NEW YORK – The NHL Board of Governors approved a revision to the current Tie-Breaking system when determining playoff positioning at the end of a given regular season. The new rule will now only count the total number of regulation and overtime victories a team acquires at the end of a season. The amount of shootout victories a team acquires in a season will no longer be counted for tie breaking purposes.

Here’s how the tie breaking rule now appears in the 2010-2011 NHL Rule book (also known as NHL By-Law 27.3):

At the conclusion of the regular Schedule of Championship Games the standing of the teams in each Conference shall be determined in accordance with the following priorities in the order listed:

a)        First place in each of the three divisions seeded 1, 2 and 3.

b)        The higher number of points earned by the Club.

c)        The greater number of games won by the Club (excluding games won in the Shootout).

d)        The higher number of points earned in games against each other among two or more Clubs having equal standing under priorities (b) and (c).

e)        The greater differential between goals scored for and against by clubs having equal standing under priority (d).