Where We Stand

There's a lot to learn from the NHL standings, whether you are a newbie fan or hockey diehard.

Let's start with Saturday's Kraken overtime loss in Columbus.
You can lose in the NHL and still gain points. If you lose in regulation (three 20-minute periods), then the loss garners zero points. But if the game is tied after 60 minutes, each team is in position to earn at least one point in the standings.
Taking the game into the extra five minutes of OT guaranteed Seattle one point in the league standings on Saturday night. If a Kraken player scored during overtime, the team would have earned the two points associated with a win.

The Kraken's Record So Far

After five games, the Kraken's record in the standings is 1-3-1, which translates to one win (2 points), three regulation losses (zero points) and one overtime loss (1 point). Of a possible 10 team points the Kraken could have earned, they notched three points.

'Three-Point Games'

Three total points are always rewarded if a game goes into overtime, whether the game is decided by a goal in five minutes of 3-on-3 play or goes to shootout.
If neither team scores during the five-minute overtime period, the game is decided by a shootout in which each team gets three penalty shots or "breakaways" with just the shooter bearing down on the goaltender. Best of three wins the shootout; if the shootout goals are equal after three attempts each, then the team continues each round until one player scores but the opponent does not.
It's likely the Kraken will go to a shootout soon enough.
Losing in shootouts still provides one point for loser and two points for winner. If you hear a hockey analyst, coach or player refer to "three-point games," this is what they mean.
Losing in overtime or by shootout still provides one point for loser and two points for winner.

Conference Call

The standings are typically presented by division grouped by Western Conference and Eastern Conference.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
The Pacific Division includes the Kraken, of course, plus Vegas, three California teams (LA Kings, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks) and trio of western Canada entries (Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton).
The Central Division features Colorado, St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, Minnesota, Winnipeg and, starting this season, Arizona, to make room for the Kraken joining the Pacific.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
The Metropolitan Division includes Washington, all three New York area teams (Rangers, Islanders and New Jersey Devils), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Carolina and Columbus. For Seattleites who hoped the 32nd franchise would be called the Metropolitans, this division name is one reason why NHL commissioner Gary Bettman didn't like the idea.
The Atlantic division features back-to-back Cup-winning Tampa Bay, plus Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Florida, Ottawa, Buffalo and Detroit. That adds up to 16 teams in the East and another 16 in our West.

Who Makes the Playoffs?

With an 82-game regular season schedule, there is a maximum of 164 points for any team. If NHL teams surpass 100 points, it almost always qualifies them as a top-three finisher in their divisions. The top team each year is usually above 115 points. In the last full NHL season not shortened due to the pandemic, Tampa Bay finished with an incredible 128 points.
The divisional standings format is the default mode because the first 12 teams to qualify for each spring's 16-team playoffs derive from the first-, second- and third-place teams in each division. That covers six of eight spots in the Eastern Conference and same for the West.
Next it gets a bit more complicated because the fourth-place finishers in each division are not guaranteed to qualify for the playoffs. The final two spots in each conference are awarded to the two remaining "Wild Card" teams in the conference with the best record. It could be the fourth-place teams from each division or two from the same division (fourth- and fifth-place finishers).
This Wild-Card format, sometimes labeled "Playoffs" by media, keeps more fans engaged and hopeful.
That's why most media outlets list sortable NHL standings for both "Division" and "Wild Card"-prompting newbies to ask hockey-fan friends to explain, hey, why the two formats? Here's a quick example: The sixth-place team in a strong division like the 2021-22 Central might be discouragingly far out of third place in the division come March but only a three- or four-win streak from rising to Western Conference wild-card contention among fourth- and fifth-place teams in both the Central and Pacific divisions.

Extra Credit Reading: Postseason Tiebreakers

Read on if you are prepared for some geeking out on the standings (as opposed to the fan-friendly "Geekie-ing" out about a certain promising Kraken forward. Otherwise, if you know what '1-1-1' means in the NHL standings, feel free to skip to the next section.
Here's an important nuance where the standings provide more intrigue. If a team wins in regulation or overtime or shootout, it receives two points. But winning in regulation has the most meaning during tiebreakers that determine postseason placement. If two teams have the same number of team points, the team with the most regulation wins (the "RW" column) breaks the tie.
If those same two teams have the same number of team points and same number of regulation wins (RW), then the next tiebreaker is regulation or overtime wins (the "ROW" column).
Winning in overtime is considered a "better" win than shootout win, but the latter still has value. If the deadlocked teams have the same number of wins, RW and ROW, the third tiebreaker is which team has the most total wins, including shootouts.

What Else the Standings Can Show

No matter where the Kraken are positioned,
a full NHL standings
can reveal even more about your team's trends.
You can determine if a team has played fewer or more games played (GP). You can track wins-losses-OT records, which means number of wins (W, two points), losses (L, no points) and OT (overtime losses, one point).
Along with the straight numbers, the NHL standings provide data that analytics experts use to determine if a team is playing better/worse than its team points. For instance, goal differential is the number of goals scored by the team minus the goals against.
A positive goal differential is typically associated with teams higher in standings, while net-negative goal differential might show that a team in a higher place in the standings is potentially headed for demise.
More numbers in the standings to study: An extended NHL standings will chart a team's record at home and away. This is always a fascinating statistic in team sports; some coaches and players contend their teams pick up energy from a boisterous home crowd while other coaches and players say road trips can bring a team together to focus on the need to win games down the stretch of the regular season.
Two more columns with stories within stories: How the team has played the last 10 games (L10), not only to check out your squad but to determine if competitors are trending up or down.
Plus, you can check out the "Streak" column (STRK) to determine if a team is a on a winning run or struggling to get wins (though the latter might still be gaining a few points for losses in overtime or shootouts).