The most insulting way to miss the playoffs thanks to an ill-conceived rulebook

[@brien144]

Fun fact: it was the only playoff miss by Montreal between 1948-49 and 1993-94, which would have been a 46 years playoff apparence streak. That would have bridged the 5th and 6th longest streak in NHL history.

[@OhDihzey]

not that hard to make the playoffs when theres only 12 teams and 8 make it lol, still cool they almost did it tho

[@barryallen871]

That fact is the opposite of fun.

[@bryandahn8099]

damn.

[@joshbittner]

And the canadiens got to have the top Quebec player before even the draft started

[@brien144]

@@joshbittner That was to favor attendance by showcasing local talent. It benefited mostly Montreal, Toronto and Detroit (with access to southern Ontario). No wonder those three teams dominated the original six era!

[@lincolnwright7896]

Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots should, for sure, be a way to decide who wins a hockey match

[@baggerseepirat1987]

The fundamental flaw of this particular tiebreaker is that it prioritises total goals scored over goal differentials. The latter wouldn't have created the perverse incentive that led to the Habs pulling their goalie.

[@pyRoy6]

Goal differential messes things up in a similar way, though. Granted, it's slightly less absurd to reward running up the score than it is to reward scoring without worrying about winning....

[@mastod0n1]

@@pyRoy6 yeah goal differential is slightly better but still flawed. Which is probably how we ended up with 20 different tiebreak factors in sports

[@DrZaius3141]

In Europe, it usually goes points > head-to-head > differential. It's basically saying that a 10-0 victory is more decisive than a 1-0 victory. Sure, if you want to argue in bad faith you could say that valuing differential leads to teams running up the score, except that most teams that are strong enough will generally make the decision to take a W and not completely exhaust themselves so they have an easier time next game. Likewise you could argue that a team that's behind might play more timidly because they wouldn't want the differential to be too big, but at the same time a win (or tie) is so infinetely more valuable than playing for potential tiebreakers, that this could only happen very late in the season in which case it's usually borderline impossible to completely flip the script of an entire season in just a single game.

[@pyRoy6]

@@DrZaius3141 Geez. I didn't think I'd be accused of making a bad faith argument by pointing out a thing that actually happens all the time in tournaments. Especially when this video is specifically about rules that screw up the game when a few unlikely things happen at the same time.

[@EebstertheGreat]

@@DrZaius3141 Why would points matter more than differential? Surely a 10-9 win is a lot less impressive than a 9-0 win. In U.S. professional sports, typically wins are the most important, followed by head-to-head, then win percentage within the division (if the two teams are in the same division), then win percentage within the conference, and then other factors, ending in a random number. Points are usually in there somewhere, but pretty far down the list. The idea is that people should be incentivized to maximize the probability of winning a game, not the magnitude by which they win. It's impossible to have perverse incentives if your only goal is to win the game. The reason intradivision games are prioritized in tiebreakers is because they are mostly against teams in common, since teams play more games against members of the same division than against members of other divisions. In other words, there is less difference in strength of competition. The same goes for intraconference games.

[@emeraldtaco]

From now on anytime anyone wins 9-5 I'm gonna refer to that as them 'Dolly Parton-ing' the other team. I love that. Chef's kiss.

[@Snookbone]

Chefs Kiss meme is cringe

[@aaroncatron2306]

I went to the All Star Game of the local baseball minor league a couple years ago. After 9 innings, it was tied. For the All Star Game, they had a special rule for determining a winner in the event of a tie. Instead of going to extra innings, they had a home run derby. Each team selected 3 hitters, and each hitter got 10 swings. Most runs won. It was a baseball penalty shootout.

[@fintanoclery2698]

Add in a few random exploding baseballs and viewership would skyrocket.

[@andrewl9472]

Sounds like a lot more fun than that 18 inning 1-0 game earlier in this year’s playoffs.

[@BrotherAlpha]

@@andrewl9472 I would hate to have a Home Run Derby decide a playoff game, but for an All-Star Game, it sounds like a blast.

[@SeanCMonahan]

@@fintanoclery2698 Ah, so they finally jazzed it up?

[@theamateurobserver]

@@SeanCMonahan nice

[@ThompsonExpress]

Me, a habs fan: "Hell yeah! Finally a SB nation episode about NHL! Oh and its about the Habs! Awesome!" CHI 10 - MTL 2 Me again: "Damn."

[@BrotherAlpha]

I'm afraid of what will happen when they turn their attention to the Canucks.

[@anamoose461]

Leafs fans: "first time?"

[@moharikram1687]

It's okay though. They payback the revenge the next year.

[@marksiarkiewicz9048]

I remember that game listening to the great Lloyd Pettit call the empty net goals was awesome

[@benjaminwellington8297]

There is a video about the Habs-Bruins rivalry.

[@poocrafter2]

The best part of this video was how at the start Ryan thought they were just talking about breaking ties in single games with overtime periods but Will was talking about season tie breakers

[@mpaulm]

One of those empty net goals was by Bobby Hull, which gave him 38 and got him into a tie for 4th in goals in the NHL.👌

[@varlaamthecreator4325]

1970s hockey?? Let’s go!!! Title did NOT surprise me… that was an era when anything was possible. You could literally beat the hell out of your opponent and only get minor penalties for it. I’m a huge nerd for the Soviet era, so when I saw the thumbnail for this video, I thought of the infamous Flyers vs Red Army game. Hope you guys cover that one day.

[@carterjameson1473]

DOLLY PARTONED 9-5 Ryan Nanni is a genius

[@ajm5007]

I feel like the Blackhawks really missed an opportunity to have some fun here. Montreal doesn't care about winning - they just want goals scored. And Chicago doesn't care about goals against - they just want to win. The Blackhawks could have pulled THEIR goalie and then played the most zero-defense period in NHL history and ended the game with a score of like 30-15. Chicago is happy to get the W, and Montreal is happy to get enough goals scored, and the fans get to see the craziest scorefest in history.

[@JWex-jy7sk]

Anytime there’s a tie in just about any sport. I like to think back the Tom Selleck movie Mr. Baseball when he says…”But it’s 4-4? A ballgame can’t end in a stickin tie!!!”

[@dfp_01]

It can, if called due to weather or other emergency, but it strangely won't go into either team's record as such. It baffles me that MLB is like "yeah, this game happened and we recorded players' stats from it, but your team actually only played 161 games"

[@gordonwhitney6052]

Just to underscore how poorly thought out the 'goals for' tiebreaker rule was - the last two Detroit goals in the Red Wings Rangers game were scored into an empty net. Yes, in the dying minutes of a 9-3 game the team with the six goal lead pulled its goalie, to try and increase its 'goals for' total for the season.

[@dfp_01]

I'm surprised they didn't bring up this point in the video, Ryan would've been even more incredulous and hysterical

[@natewoods4566]

I feel like the move is to never play your goalie in the first place. A thousand open-net goals are fine as long as you get your five.

[@jtizzle124]

That would be sound logic if a win or tie didn’t also secure the spot

[@natewoods4566]

@@jtizzle124 trying to maximize the number of goals scored above all else still maximizes your chances

[@lifetake3103]

The two big things is that up until the 3rd period Montreal was competing with Chicago and that scoring in Hockey is really hard. Montreal biggest deficit was 3-1 in the 2nd period brought down to 3-2 2 minutes later. So for the most part of the game they were only down by 1. Meaning getting the tie to go to overtime was realistic and they entered into the 3rd period 3-2 as well. Then Chicago went off and brought to that 5-2 score. So we get to the next point where your point comes into to play. Why not pull your goalie the whole game? Well scoring in hockey is really hard and you're up against a team looking to be the number 1 seed in the playoffs. So honestly the odds of Montreal scoring 5 points against Chicago with their goalie pulled all game is actually really low odds. For example look at this game for 10 minutes of time Montreal scored 0 points with their goalie pulled. Firstly, at the end of the day the big reason why is that a 6 vs 5 (6 with no goalie) isn't an insane advantage. Yes it's one man up, but even 5 vs 4 usually 2 minutes time don't always score a goal (less than 20% success rate) and 5 vs 4 is a much bigger advantage than 6 vs 5. Secondly, you don't have a goalie to quickly get the puck back into play for you thus you lose a lot of time and often possession and more time from not having that. Thirdly, yet again since you don't have a goalie you also lose a ton of time everytime they score because of either having to set up your offensive push or worse losing the face off and having to fend off their offensive push without a goalie which by the way is really hard. So basically at 3-2 you have hope for the tie. At 4-2 it rough, but you gotta play it out still for the tie. At 5-2 well now its tie at 5 goals or win the tiebreaker with new york so pull the goalie. But to end no pulling your goalie the whole game is not a good idea in this situation.

[@jtizzle124]

@@natewoods4566 You think it’s easier for a team to score 5 goals than it is for them to win? To each their own.

[@martinpaulsen1592]

Or even quietly going to the Blackhawks and saying, "Look, let us get five goals and then do whatever the hell you want, OK?"

[@Aunini]

I think a great topic for a Weird Rules video would be the 2019 Super Formula season finale, and how Kobayashi starting the dry race on full wet tyres actually made sense when you know the context 🏎

[@dsmiley53]

I don't think I understood a thing after the name "Koyayashi" -- so yes, I would love to learn more about this because racing and wet tires (tyres) sounds bonkers.

[@mateorios1940]

@@dsmiley53 In Grand Prix and general track racing, "dry" tires have a completely slick surface, to maximize grip by increasing the contact area. this means they are close to guaranteed to hydroplane in any rain at all. I don't know anything about this specific story but that is what "wet" tires are: tires with a tread pattern, as opposed to the slick "drys"

[@metaljay77]

Love the "what happened next question" honestly my #1 question in every Secret Base video. I want to know how the game or season ended for that team.

[@alexgruel9932]

It's pretty obvious that for the first portion of the video, Ryan thought they were talking about how to end a single game that is tied (like the shootout) and not end of season, who goes to the playoffs tie breakers.

[@ryoryo9936]

As a Red Wings fan, I love that my team played a part in this fiasco.

[@JacksonStGeorge]

Phil Pasternak was on POINT this episode. Great animations!

[@notarabbit1752]

every game starts 0-0 so technically every game is a tie breaker

[@not2be4gotten02]

There was a hockey game that started 1-0 a few years ago, Blue Jackets at Dallas Stars. It was a rescheduled game due to one of the players on the bench having a heart-related incident. The Blue Jackets had scored earlier in the game, and the league determined the game would resume with the same score as it was postponed. Coincidently, that player who scored didnt play in the make up game, but are credited with a goal (at the 0:00 mark if I remember correctly)

[@notarabbit1752]

@@not2be4gotten02 Rich Peverley! I remember hearing about it because he was a former Bruin by then. I didn't know about the make-up game though lmao.

[@not2be4gotten02]

I cant find the 15ish minute video I remember watching that had more about with with the cbj players but here is more info for anyone reading: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWOnZJdoi9uaY5Y

[@nert-13]

Yeah, these scenarios happen in soccer all the time. The tiebreaker is points (3 for win, 1 for tie, 0 for loss), goal difference, goals scored. Teams have crazy scorelines to make up a goal difference gap every season on the final day

[@joebattye6542]

Puts me in mind of Japan in the last world cup, where they had the exact same statline as Senegal and they went through on something like Least Yellow Cards

[@nert-13]

@@joebattye6542 fair play points? Yeah lol. The world cup also has results between teams, but because Senegal drew with Japan, it was moot

[@Azeria]

Which also helps prevent those stupid situations you get in baseball where a batter gets pitched at because his team keeps trying to score runs while leading by a large margin

[@nert-13]

@@Azeria baseball's unofficial rules suck, because it is all to protect the pitcher's feelings. They're just a bunch of wusses

[@GarkKahn]

Italian league prioritizes results between teams over goals, for example if milan and inter end as leaders with 92 pts but inter has a +16 and milan +9 in most cases inter would be champion, but serie a has a priority for both results between them, so if milan won both matches or one and a draw milan is the champion, not inter

[@BL3446]

Love head-to-head results as tiebreaker whenever possible.

[@thomasakagi7545]

What really bites is that the Canadiens finished with a better record than any team in the NHL West: the division winner St. Louis Blues finished with just 86 points (37W-27L-12T) and no other West team even had a winning record.

[@DaveBloodbow]

Yeah, another fun fact about that season is that 6 of the 12 teams were expansion teams and all were in the West division.

[@Rodanguirus]

Yeah, the hopelessly unbalanced divisions immediately post-Original Six expansion led to St. Louis famously making the finals each of their first 3 seasons and going 0-12 through them all.

[@smithryansmith]

@@DaveBloodbow they were expansion teams from 3 years prior, so technically in their 3rd year, but yeah, still bad.

[@nealkern4826]

Love these videos! Have you considered a Weird Rules about fencing? I know little about it but apparently you can be disqualified for failure to salute. There is also something called “priority” which is used for awarding points. Wikipedia calls the rules around priority “convoluted” and “a source of much acrimony.” I don’t know if fencing is in anyone’s wheelhouse but convoluted and acrimonious rules does sound like this series.

[@DoobieKeebler]

This feels like the end of the "Stanley's Cup" episode of South Park. It even includes the Detroit Red Wings!

[@g4fan2007]

More Ryan in videos, please, always enjoy his commentary

[@donaldtNS]

Insane tiebreakers are also responsible for the greatest highlight package in history ("WE NEED MORE POINTS" from NFL Primetime, week 17 1999 season) so I've got a soft spot for them. Using the Canadiens missing the playoffs as the lesson is just icing on the cake.

[@afropenguin]

The worst tie has got to be the 2010 AFL (Australian football League) Grandfinal, where Collingwood & St.Kilda tied and then had to play a second Grandfinal the week after.

[@mage4242]

The second it tied I knew Collingwood was going to win; because although they can't win in September, October is doable

[@GRB-tj6uj]

This used to be quite normal in sports, but with the dawn of professionalism the idea of the replay almost completely died

[@saracin]

For Jon, lets make one of the tiebreakers "most Bob's". The team with the most Bob's on the roster wins the tiebreaker.

[@stillvisionsmusic]

In contrast, that sort of result is exactly why goal differential *should* be in all sports leagues, just for the sudden wacky strategy shifts.

[@Snookbone]

Head-to-head should definitely be used first.

[@dfp_01]

@@Snookbone Well yes, but supposing an even head-to-head record, you need something after it and point differential makes a tremendous amount of sense

[@sevret313]

That's a quite stange tie-breaker, you'd think you'd go for goal-difference instead...

[@CSLucasEpic]

The thing about sports that have rules that say that a game needs to end with a winner (as in, the rules don't allow for a tie) AND the sport itself has no clock (like how Football or Basketball has a clock, but Baseball does not, for example) is that, if the game cannot be untied, then a game can go on forever. A ping pong match, a tennis match, a baseball game, those things can, in theory, go on forever. And in some cases, like Basketball, even with a clock, the game can go on forever if there is no tiebreaker after every single overtime. We can play 1000 overtimes in basketball, in theory, and the game wouldn't actually end if there is no winner after any of said overtimes.

[@Snookbone]

Which is why overtime in the regular season should not be used.

[@88porpoise]

Don't wanna play forever? Win the bloody game.

[@tiger5869]

The Habs should've been playing every minute of that game that they weren't ahead 6 on 5.

[@Timbo_Slice]

I feel like Ryan doesn't really comprehend what a tie breaker is in the intro. Because he kept referencing an overtime period, not a statistical tie breaker.

[@joeflosion]

Thanks for making hockey videos Will!

[@marcor815]

Imagine lf Montreal had scored one Goal (ir two) in the last minute, resulting in a high hope situation for getting the goals needed to qualify, but then missing just one goal in the end

[@BL3446]

So many people misunderstand the premise of the tiebreaker. They complain that it is different from the main game. But that's literally the point. A clear winner could not be determined within the confines of the normal rules. So another type of competition and rules are needed. It is not meant to be just another replay of the same game. It's not meant to be like a baseball series of sorts where you play multiple games.

[@SoftBank47]

I remember reading about this as a kid! It was in a book called “Hockey’s Greatest Rivalries” by Stan Fischler. Chicago basically took revenge on Montreal for beating them in the Cup Finals either the previous year or sometime nearby.

[@KeegoTheWise]

Fun recent NHL tiebreaker shenanigans (also involving the Red Wings): in the 2015-16 season, Detroit stole the final Atlantic playoff spot from Boston despite both teams having 93 points and Boston having more wins than Detroit (BOS-42/DET-41). Apparently the first tiebreaker before the head-to-head record is actually ROW, or Regulation+Overtime Wins, which means shootout wins don’t count. Since Boston won in four shootouts compared to Detroit’s two, they ended up with a lower ROW (38) than the Red Wings (39). And like the Rangers of this video, the Wings made the most of their undeserved postseason invitation by getting bounced 4-1 in the opening round

[@demoman1596sh]

I acknowledge that the Red Wings probably weren’t going to beat Tampa that year, but why would winning more games in regulation+overtime vs. in shootouts lead you to use the word “undeserved”? If the Bruins couldn’t win those games in regulation or overtime, in my mind, that’s on them. Let’s be real here. The teams vying to make it into the playoffs on the basis of tiebreakers usually aren’t going to win the Stanley Cup. This includes the teams that end up on the “wrong” end of those tiebreakers.

[@bigbadzeus8321]

Can y’all explain the weird rule about how the Cowboys won the NFC east last season based off some “Strength of victory” tiebreaker after the Raiders beat the Broncos in week 16?

[@Snookbone]

It's not that weird

[@raimarulightning]

@@khamjaninja. But what if those teams with losing records only lost to teams with 9+wins? Surely the caliber of the loss should be accounted for if the caliber of win is.

[@SeanCMonahan]

@@raimarulightning I wonder if that reaches an equilibrium at some point, and, if so, how often the rank ordering is different from the single layer. (Wins, then total wins of teams you beat, then total wins of the teams-you-beat's teams they beat, etc.)

[@FrostyFrostySnow]

They threw everything they had...against a brick wall

[@JayTemple]

1:10 Allowing a 0-0 tie in a FIFA match is why soccer doesn't have much of an American audience.

[@ajm5007]

My issue with a lot of tiebreakers (statistical or actually played) is that they can very much screw over a team that has a very particular skillset. The "goals scored" tiebreaker screws over strong defensive teams. Penalty kicks/shots screw over teams with good team defense but few superstar scorers, as well.

[@jdotoz]

Or, it rewards teams that read the rules and adjust to be ready for the tiebreaker scenario.

[@ajm5007]

@@jdotoz It also (unfairly) rewards the teams that don't NEED to make such adjustments because the tiebreaker plays directly into their strengths. You can easily end up with two teams that are very evenly matched head-to-head, but one blows out the other in a tiebreaker because they DON'T need to make adjustments . . . whereas some other tiebreaker method would have the exact OPPOSITE result. This makes the winner rather ad hoc.

[@JayTemple]

Two words: point (under whatever name) differential

[@jdotoz]

@@ajm5007 Whatever the tiebreaker is, it's part of the game and all teams are free to approach it as they see fit. Let's make up a game with offense and defense. I'll call it Timmyball. The regulation period of Timmyball is perfectly balanced between offense and defense. The tiebreaker is a competitive demonstration of the main offensive skill, with the defense not even participating. All teams know this going in. They are free to spend their resources perfectly balancing offense and defense, or leaning a little toward offense in case of a tiebreaker situation. Of course, if they do that, their lack of defense in regulation may cause them to lose in regulation, making their tiebreaker advantage irrelevant. The best strategy will reveal itself, and all teams are free to adopt it. That's perfectly fair. Your complaint, in other words, is that the rules favor the teams which are built to take advantage of the rules. But that will always be the case.

[@lifetake3103]

@@jdotoz The point is that in this scenario Hockey (I will also bring up soccer) is a game about playing both an offensive and defensive game. And you are nearly completely dropping defense aspect when it comes to shootouts in both Hockey and Soccer (penalty kicks). Yes this is fair because of the rules that everyone agreed to, but it is a question on if it is good for the game? There is a huge reason why shootouts in both hockey and soccer are for the majority disliked. Because as said in this video its like a minigame separated from the sport. It's why college football had one of the most praised tiebreaker systems because it held many of the values of the sport in its system, but has gain dislike to due to the changes made recently making it lose some of the values eventually.

[@anamoose461]

I love the idea of it being a fixed game just to piss off Habs fans

[@madison_crvt]

love the hockey content recently! i’d watch secret base take on frisbee golf but it’s always nice to see my fav sport, especially history that even a hockey sicko like me didn’t know about

[@theenglishman]

A rewinder of the 1972 Summit Series would be great, especially since this year is the 50th anniversary.

[@uncleogrimacy]

"Montreal should have burned down the building" Almost happened 15 years earlier with the Richard Riots!

[@bruhmagic1323]

Love this recent NHL content!!!🔥

[@stardustie]

absolute Chad move wouldve been to play 5on6 the whole game just to score 6 goals

[@Hockeydudemaddox]

video idea the rise and fall of the arizona coyotes from 2012 confrence finals to 1 playoff game win in 10 years to the bottem of the league.

[@mfdixon1985]

It didn't come up (at least not with the USA) but the funniest possible one I remember was when the USA played Colombia in the final game of group. If memory serves, as long as it was a 9-inning game, all the USA had to do was lose by 2 or better, including a win. So when they were up by a run going into the 9th inning, they were in. Since Colombia was the home team, if they were ever in a position where they could win the game by 3 or more with a walk-off homer, the USA would just intentionally walk the winning run home.

[@dannycomellas]

They really should've just played the entire game without a goalie, given the system

[@rickytavilla4259]

Super fun one thanks. I’m embarrassed I didn’t know about this .fantastic job guys

[@jonion7884]

Will could make good money going out with strangers to weddings etc. and laughing at their jokes

[@tobin1677]

A couple fun ones to mention on weird tiebreaks would be the Big XII football rules. For example if the average number of conference games played by teams is 8, and the 2nd and 3rd teams are 6-2 and 5-2, but the 5-2 team has a win over the 6-2 team, then the 5-2 team advances despite the slightly worse win ratio. There is also the 3+ way tie break of drawing the name from a hat. Gotta love picking the CCG participants from a hat right?

[@paulywrath]

NHL beatdown usually means something different

[@Matt-hw5tt]

"Montreal" sounds like « Muntreal », just like « Munday » or « muney ». O's sound like U's sometimes. It's a strange world and the rules are made to confuse you. Great vid, thanks.

[@Matt-hw5tt]

Ou bien, « Montréal », mais je ne peux pas vous enseigner français ici. The english pronunciation is enough for one day.

[@tomtalley2192]

I remember this game, because if Chicago won, they would finish first and my Bruins second. Was pissed when Montreal pulled the goalie, but what else could they do? Oh, and the Bruins swept Chicago in the playoffs, then the Blues for their first Stanley cup in 21 years.

[@JDW1110]

The 2021/22 Raiders got the 5 seed over the Patriots because of Strength-of-schedule

[@AJZ0626]

So, you're telling me that, not only did Montreal miss the playoffs, but the Bruins won the Cup, as well? Win-Win

[@paulybeefs8588]

Kinda feel like we may have missed an opportunity for something great. The moment that Chicago went up 4-0, the Habs were in a position where they either needed to score 4 goals while holding off the Hawkks to tie it, or score 5 goals to either win or get the goals-scored tiebreaker. Seems like they should have immediately pulled their goalie when it became 4-0.

[@breyrichmond9854]

You should do a video on Elijah Moore fake pee that led to a loss in the egg bowl in 2019 and how it impacted coaches and both programs to this point

[@jaxsonbateman]

This is why most sports and leagues that currently use goals as a tiebreaker use goal differential. A team that scores 100 goals but concedes 100 goals is much worse than a team that scores 90 goals but concedes 60.

[@briansinger5258]

The World Cup of soccer: play 120 minutes of keep away so you can do a shootout. Hopefully you can afford to purchase the officials.

[@jhouston2000]

Weird Rules request: why do NFL kickers always take field goals from 7 yards behind the LoS? If you really needed a kick to not be blocked, couldn't you set up 10 yards back? 15? Hell, if you're lining up for a 30yd game winner, get the long snapper in there. E Z P Z

[@Bradshaw_Staudt]

We should use fights after the first round of shootouts. Zdeno Chara might just come out of retirement

[@Pranaynaynay]

The celebration if they made those goals would be like in 'Semi-pro' when they celebrate fourth place

[@Christian_Martel]

Fun fact: The season after this happened the Montreal Canadiens snuck in the playoffs in 3rd place in Eastern Division. The beat the Stanley Cup Champs Boston Bruins in 7 games in the 1st round. And after a smooth win in 6 over Minnesota, they reached the Cup Final which series extended to a 7th game. Canadiens in game 7, on the road, we’re trailing 2-0 in the second period… then Jacques Lemaire and Henri Richard, twice, gave the Canadiens an unexpected Cup win. But who was the opponent ??? The Chicago Black Hawks! Ps: This was also Jean Beliveau’s last game ever.

[@nydwarf1]

Montreal had 92 points that year, they had more points than all the teams in the Western Conference and 4 of those teams made the playoffs. It really sucked because Montreal was Stanley Cup winner the previous 2 seasons and the winner the next season. So they would have had a chance to win 4 in a row.

[@andlabs]

1:20 Of course now baseball doesn't even have that tiebreaker game anymore, or at least will have them less frequently, since head-to-head results now get considered, as any Mets fan this year will "happily" tell you =P (And I say that as someone who wanted to see the Mets get that 2-seed!) As for this 1970 NHL playoffs, New York specifically lost to Boston, who also beat Chicago on their way to win the Stanley Cup that year. Montreal came back and won the Cup the next year (and over Chicago to boot), so it worked out for them I guess??? (Incidentally, New York wouldn't win the Cup until the last year of Montreal's playoff streak, in 1994.)

[@iangalt6899]

At a certain point, you gotta just like tell Chicago to let in three more goals in exchange for thirty

[@brandontownsend2756]

Start the game with an empty net to score 5 goals

[@moharikram1687]

Should also tell what happen in the next season when Montreal manage to pull an impossible comeback in Stanley Cup final against...... that goddamn Chicago (and still got no.1 pick anyway... lol).

[@Bajirkus]

Honestly, Montreal's accusation of collaboration carries more water than you might think: During the Original Six era, Red Wings owner James Norris owned the Blackhawks' arena, as well as having significant influence over Blackhawks ownership, a group he helped organize. He was a minority shareholder in Madison Square Garden (which owned the New York Rangers), and had enough support from the board that he effectively controlled the Rangers as well. Lastly, Norris had made several loans to the Boston Bruins, giving him a measure of influence over them as well (although noticeably less than his near total control over New York and Chicago). During the Original Six era, 4 of the 6 teams made the playoffs. Montreal made the playoffs 24/25 times, Detroit made the playoffs 22/25 times, and Toronto made the playoffs 21/25 times. This effectively left the Bruins, Blackhawks, and Rangers scrapping for that last playoff spot, with 8 seasons permitting two of them in. During the Original Six era, the Rangers and Blackhawks combined for a single Stanley Cup and six playoff series wins. Now, James E. Norris died in 1952, but his son Bruce inherited the Red Wings, while Bruce's brother James D. Norris was a board member of the Blackhawks and Rangers, with the younger James D. Norris not passing until 1966. Bruce, however, lived into the 1980s, and had control of the team after ousting his sister in the 1950s (no less an authority than Gordie Howe would write in his autobiography that he felt Marguerite Norris's removal sparked the reversal of the Red Wings' fortunes, which ultimately resulted in a decades long Stanley Cup drought). It's possible that relationships and understandings cultivated by the Norrises permitted a degree of collusion.

[@mrmoose6619]

Also Fun Fact: This is the last time the Black Hawks (or as it is today Blackhawks) would win the Prince of Wales Trophy... unless something weird happens like the 2020 Habs winning the Clarence Campbell Trophy...

[@guardianeifie]

The correct play as the Habs was to headhunt from the first minute of the game. Headhunting is when you use intentional hard hits and dangerous play to injure opposing stars. The Blackhawks, looking at an upcoming playoff series, would need their stars on the ice for their playoff series. Putting them in to keep the Canadiens out of the playoffs when their own playoff run is already secured isn't worth it if the Habs come out throwing punches, body slamming people into walls, tripping people up, and throwing elbows to the face. The Blackhawks would pull their stars, at which point the Habs stop playing to hurt and start playing to score. The now playoff-bound Habs would have run over the second and third string players on the Blackhawks bench, who are nowhere near as good as the first string Blackhawks.

[@holstorrsceadus1990]

Thanks to Rangers and Blackhawks for eliminating the Habs -Sincerely, The City of Boston

[@jnerdsblog]

I did indeed enjoy this video, love this series!

[@Snookbone]

Well done

[@derekjohnston8832]

I think we need a rewinder on game 7 Canucks v Blackhawks in the 2011 playoffs

[@Justin3Santiago]

Speak for yourself I love how tiebreakers gave us that situation where the Brewers played 3 games in 3 different cities, in 3 different timezones, in 4 days just to make the Playoffs

[@nn26376]

And this is why the NHL now uses goal differential instead of goals for.

[@davesimms8825]

I remember listening to this game as it was on the CBC’s Sunday night Hockey Night in Canada on a national radio broadcast. It was wonderful because I hated the canadiens.

[@SyxxPunk]

It's weird to think that tiebreakers are such a problem in sports.

[@a.z.w.7506]

love the growling keeper

[@aaronghunter]

I have one foot each in the "continue until you win" and "rematch on every tie" boats.

[@Snookbone]

But why is OT even necessary in the regular season?

[@aaronghunter]

@@Snookbone It isn't, but it is fun because it changes some core conceits of the standard match. Less predictable.

[@billym6445]

I have an idea for weird rules: in football (soccer) you can win lose and tie a game all at once. Great example is spurs vs Ajax

[@bucketsoyeah]

Love hockey, great story

[@E-Brightvoid]

JaguarGator9: Stay out of my territory

[@txa1265]

So is ‘flying Bobby Orr’ something everyone familiar with hockey knows, or is it just because I’m Boston born GenX? 😅

[@Liquiddna89blaa]

I love it that SB hired Charlie Day for this video

[@MF-fd2ug]

i dont know why americans are so violently scared of ties tbh

[@Legault397]

imagine having this issue and not just playing the whole game without a goalie

[@Legault397]

like why did they wait 'til the final ten minutes?? You're probably not beating these guys!

[@xxxxbigrich5752]

And that's why 8% of sports watcher. Actually sit down and watch this game, it's like watching paint dry.

[@zhihuangxu6551]

They could just compromise for a 6-5 and party for the rest of the game

[@douglasbrinkman5937]

14-6 would have been a better ending.

[@Oudmealsoup]

Still want to see them talk about the final of the 2019 cricket world cup which featured 2 different tie breaker rules and a scoring error which, without it, meant the game wouldn't have been tied.

[@Snookbone]

You can't say for sure the match wouldn't have been tied without the umpire's (not scorer's) error. England may well have chosen a slightly more aggressive shot on any given ball that could have tied it anyway

[@Oudmealsoup]

@@Snookbone they definitely would have had a significantly worse chance since it would have meant Adil Rashid would have been facing instead of Ben Stokes.

[@BaronBytes]

they played 10 minutes without a goalie and it still wasn't the highest scoring game in NHL history. Montreal scored 16 goals in one game in 1920.

[@mjdryden]

Haha, Ryan was pretty clearly not on the same page at the beginning of this video; talking about mini games and ways to end games, not how to break ties in the standings.

[@NoPowerintheVerse]

As a former goalie I hated tie breakers.

[@amkirby10]

The best part of this story, which they didn't even mention, was that this was the only time between 1949 and 1994 Montreal missed the playoffs. So if they had made it this year without this back-ass tiebreaker, they would have been in the playoffs for 46 consecutive years, which would shatter the real-life record of 29 years, held by Boston. So thanks weird rules!

[@fintanoclery2698]

Everytime i hear of the Habs storied history I'm reminded that The Leafs haven't won the Cup since Christ was a cowboy. I'm a grandfather and they haven't won it in my lifetime. As a long time hater of the Leafs and the city in general it makes me very happy.