Marc Crawford takes a look at why parity persists in the league this season:

In the Western Conference, as of Nov. 18, there is no club that is less than two games under .500. In the East, just two teams are three games under .500, and if you look at the league as a whole, there are only six clubs that are less than a game under .500.

Yes, if you don’t count OTL/SOL as losses. 

He mentions a dearth of elite scorers and netminders around the league, and special team trends.  Maybe so.   

But to me, the most important reason is the stat which he throws in at the end:  That “third point has been awarded 68 times already this season,” in 278 games played thus far.  That means that 24.5% of games played this season are worth three points, and the other 3/4 are worth two.  And of course that figure will increase as the playoffs approach.

You know where I’m going with this.  Although it pleases me to note that the Capitals have earned only 3 of those “third points.”  The Penguins have earned 6 of them so far.

(As an aside, the Caps earned four of those “third points” since February 1 last season, on their way to the dramatic SE division title victory.  Given the number of teams that they were chasing, the Caps definitely got into the playoffs last year in spite of that “third point” system, and not because of it.)