The promise of ROW: Why the Bruins are still finding a way to boost their numbers in the NHL's primary tiebreaker

Rarely does a single statistic hold the game changing power that the newly created "ROW Column" does. 

Born out of the stagnant days of the 2004-2005 NHL lockout, this single statistic remains one of the lone bright-spots among some of the NHL's darkest days as well as being the one undisputed change among a revamped 2005 rule book that included  the instigation of the shootout, the "shooting the puck over the glass" penalty and many others. Fact is, with a whole year without hockey, fans had a long time to think about the game they loved and for that reason nearly everything that came out of that work stoppage has been heavily scrutinized and in some cases unfairly judged. Such was not the case with the enigma that is the penalty shootout. 

To this day, the shootout sits right beside fighting as the most controversial part of a hockey game soliciting Tuukka Tantrums and fulfilling feeling following wins league wide.  There is no doubt about the fact that fans love shootouts but as the same time it is also no secret that most NHL players feel the absolute opposite. Never before has there been such a divide in opinions between players and fans and yet as support for the shootout begins to dwindle, the Tuukka Tantrums return and the Bruins respond by valiantly staving off the shootout their goalie hates so much a slight sliver of attention now turns to the ROW statistic that has been here all along.  

As it is officially defined, ROW is classified as the number of regulation or overtime wins a team accrues over the course of the season. To rephrase that, ROW is the teams regular season victories minus those achieved via the shootout. It is that last part that is in the very center of ROW's sheer purpose.  

"I F*****G hate [shootouts]" Tuukka Rask said but sadly, that thought is not shared among NHL teams and it has been proven that when ROW is no longer a factor many mediocre teams are fully contempt with playing for overtime and in turn the shootout in turn earning 1 out of 2 available points even if they end up on the wrong side of the post-game final.  

What ROW does is forces teams to play until the buzzer and all someone needs to do to see an example of this is to look at the very Bruins who many of us so rabidly follow. Back on October 24th, the Bruins saw what might be the most thrilling moment of their season when, with the game tied late in the 3rd, David Krejci beat the clock and won the game with just .8 seconds left on the clock.  

Goals like this are fun but for teams they come in the form of a serious gamble. When you have the puck in the final seconds of the game it is much easier to just old the puck behind the net rather than force it up into the opponents zone where there will be a whole host of defenders just waiting to take the puck off your stick and win the game. But on October 24th Krejci cast that all aside and upon his tipping the puck into the net he proved the full beneficial intent of ROW.  

But there it more to the story and it lies within the 5 minutes between the conclusion of the 3rd period and the beginning of the shootout. Close to 95% of a team’s ROW wins are obviously accumulated via regulation but for the Bruins, they have already nabbed 3 out of their 15 ROW wins in overtime rather than regulation. In the last 2 of those 3 wins, the Bruins have assaulted their opponents with a Bill Belicheck esque therom for aggressive winning.  

In each of their last 2 games, the contest has necessitated extra time and in both of them, Claude Jullian has ran a 3 forwards, 1 defender form of offence and in Monday's game especially, that strategy paid huge dividends.  

Torey Krug scored just 34 seconds into overtime and yet afterwards there were no Tuukka Tantrums. Instead he was down to earth, cool headed and simply reveling in the glory of just one more ROW win. 

"We went out in overtime and took the puck to their zone and then scored a goal I think that's the sign of a good team that you don't get down on yourself after a goal like that." He said. 

The shootout is a question without no definitive answer but especially in a town riddled with the hated our players harbor of the game ending method, the assistance of ROW helps provide a slight motivation for teams not to settle. When you are talking about pro sports it seems silly to talk about how motivation must be infused into a game and yet the ROW statistic does just that and still does not seem the slightest bit trivial.