Would 3rd straight Pens win over Caps make playoff format changes inevitable?

Honour Over Glory

Fire Sully
Jan 30, 2012
77,316
42,447
Support.

I fear for the minds of the Caps fans, pretty sure they can't take it any longer.

:sarcasm:
Caps fans?

Their players can't even take it anymore. I still remember how broken they were when a reporter asked them about any thing they had to say about the series and it was like impending doom and sadness.
 

Braunbaer

Registered User
May 21, 2012
3,752
1,101
What I don't like about that format is that the match-ups are pretty much set.
You have 3 good teams in one division? Well, you know they are all gonna play each other in the first 2 rounds.
E.g. we knew in December that the Bruins would play against the Leafs in the first round.

I also loved the old format, because the outcome of one series could change the match-ups for every other series.
 

Armourboy

Hey! You suck!
Jan 20, 2014
19,005
10,371
Shelbyville, TN
My issue with the current format is that it more or less helps to devalue the regular season and I could see at some point where teams start trying to lose games to position themselves better in the format. I look at the West and you have Winnipeg with the 2nd best record in the West who will need to face the 1st team in the West in the 2nd round. Meanwhile basically the 3rd and 4th teams in the West get to battle it out with the 3rd team having home ice advantage while the #2 team doesn't.

I get the idea of wanting to create rivalries, but if you are Winnipeg you would have almost been better off getting the 1st wildcard rather than 2nd in the West. It's just wonky tbh.
 

ES

Registered User
Feb 14, 2004
4,151
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Finland
For the past two years they have been the best two teams advancing and this year (if it happens) the worst two teams advancing, based on regular season points.
 

Drake1588

UNATCO
Sponsor
Jul 2, 2002
30,083
2,431
Northern Virginia
The landscape is different this season. Those are not the best two teams in the league, not this year. Just in the East, it would not be difficult to rank Tampa, Pittsburgh, and Boston ahead of the Capitals. In the recent past, a second-round Pens-Caps series might very well have been the top two teams in the league, but those days are gone. The Caps have fallen off as they've aged and faced cap casualties.

You'd have a better case in the west this year in arguing that the Nashville-Winnipeg series is coming too early... and that's only if you dismiss Vegas, which led the NHL for much of the season.

In the East, TB-Boston and Pittsburgh-Washington seems to be fairly distributed, no?
 

end

Registered User
Mar 18, 2007
16,857
791
Arklay Mansion
Seriously guys, if the entire 'plan' of having playoffs was just to have the 1st ranked team in the regular season play the 2nd ranked team in the regular season in the Final we would just make the regular season last an additional six weeks and then say the Stanley Cup Final is between 1st and 2nd. We play a tournament with seeding based on traditional divisions because that is the playoff format we want. You guys are trying to gerrymander the standings so that 'the best teams' meet in the later rounds, why even have the tournament?
 
Jun 16, 2008
2,016
931
Blighty
(Obligatory "Caps could still beat the Pens" response goes here.)

I hate the playoff format too but the league isn't going to do anything about it anytime soon.
 

CDN24

Registered User
Jun 17, 2009
3,458
2,768
Toronto had the 4th best record in the Eastern Conference. If we did a 1 v 8 seeding it would have been Toronto vs Pittsburgh.

I personally like the current format because of the rivalries. I am also okay with a 1-vs 8 format if the schedule is balanced. Currently teams play more games in their division. We cannot truly say that Toronto had a better Regular Season than Pittsburgh as they did not play the same opponents. Leafs got an extra game against Mtl-Ottawa- Sabers and Wings (4 of the 5 worst teams overall) Give the Pens the Leafs schedule with those extra game and Give the Leafs the Pens schedule with the extra games in the Metro that is stronger esp at the bottom, Do the Leafs still finish 5 points up on the Pens??

If you want to be the best you gotta beat all comers.
 

fsanford

Registered User
Jul 4, 2009
7,498
2,874
My issue with the current format is that it more or less helps to devalue the regular season and I could see at some point where teams start trying to lose games to position themselves better in the format. I look at the West and you have Winnipeg with the 2nd best record in the West who will need to face the 1st team in the West in the 2nd round. Meanwhile basically the 3rd and 4th teams in the West get to battle it out with the 3rd team having home ice advantage while the #2 team doesn't.

I get the idea of wanting to create rivalries, but if you are Winnipeg you would have almost been better off getting the 1st wildcard rather than 2nd in the West. It's just wonky tbh.

So you have to play a 100 Plus point team in Vegas the first round, vs a weaker opponent in the Wild. Not to mention having to go play in the snake pit that Vegas has become.


Seems to me Vegas won the season series against the the Jets, and the game the lost they were on their 4th or 5th string goalie

Looking at actual wins, Vegas had 51, Winnipeg 52, and Nashville 53.

I am guessing the Jets are fine with getting Minnesota first vs Vegas.
 

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