Standings or rankings are listings which compare sports teams or individuals, institutions, nations, companies, or other entities by ranking them in order of ability or achievement. A table or chart (such as a league table, a ladder or a leaderboard) may be employed to display such listings. A league table may list several related statistics, but they are generally sorted by the primary one that determines the rankings. Many industries and institutions may compete in league tables in order to help bring in new customers and clients. Those tables ranking sports teams are generally used to help determine who may advance to the playoffs or another tournament, who is promoted or relegated, or who gets a higher draft pick. Sport In sport, league tables group teams of similar abilities in a chart to show the current standing of the participants (teams or individuals) in a sports league or competition. These lists are generally published in newspapers and other media, as well as the official web sites of the sports leagues and competitions. The standings shows where each team ranks in their conference or division. Teams may be ranked in terms of simple winning percentage (the proportion of the games played to date which the team won), or based on total points, with differing numbers of points awarded for wins and ties (draws). Many league tables show further statistics and may display: wins losses ties (draws) goal differential (Goals scored minus goals conceded) goals scored goals allowed (conceded) home/away win–loss records Usually, if a league is divided into conferences and divisions, the league table will also be. Often, a less specific table is also included. For example, National Hockey League tables will normally have a detailed table for each division, plus a table for each conference showing just the points totals. As an example, below is the league table for the Northeast Division of the National Hockey League, as of March 31, 2004: Team GP W L T OL GF GA Pts x-Boston 79 40 18 14 7 201 179 101 x-Toronto 80 43 24 10 3 234 204 99 x-Ottawa 79 41 22 10 6 254 178 98 x-Montreal 79 40 28 7 4 201 182 91 Buffalo 79 36 32 7 4 213 210 83 x - clinched a playoff spot y - clinched the division championship In the above table, an "'X" placed before a team's name shows