Current Playoff Format has been Terrible for Division Winners

[Daisy Jane]

I would love to see a 1-16 just because I like the idea of classic match ups for the cup... Boston VS Montreal or Toronto VS Montreal or Chicago VS St. Louis or Flames VS Oil... just love the idea that anyone can play anyone... 1-16 bracket style, no re-seed...

this way you can have the 2 best teams in regular season potentially playing for the cup as well

or go 1-8 with or without re-seeding after every round

as much as that would be awesome, there'll be whinging about travel.
why they don't do a 2-3-2 is beyond me. that would solve the travel issue right there.

 

[illpucks]

If you win your division you should get to choose your opponent. Tampa/Bos picks first, then Caps.

Not this joke where the lesser teams rest half their team because they want a different opponent

 

[Richard]

Just get one more team and get rid of the Wildcard; problem solved. Intra-division playoffs are good. You should have to play your division. That sells tickets.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Milwaukee cannot support the NHL.

The Caps for NHL purposes, are aligned with the NY and PA teams. Putting the Caps with Carolina, Florida and Nashville at the expense of the 95 corridor would be a disaster.

So you'd rather lose to the Pens every year? Doesn't make any sense at all. The whole point was to make it less likely you'd run into them in the playoffs. And for the record, Washington is already with Carolina in the Metro.

And if Milwaukee is a no-go, there's always Kansas City.

 

[berlin]

Current format blows, nothing wrong with the old one.

 

[lwvs84]

Just go back to the old format but no re-seeding. Don't penalize lower teams for upsetting a higher seed. Make it like the NBA: 1 vs. 8 plays the winner of 4 vs. 5, 2 vs. 7 plays the winner of 3 vs. 6. I wouldn't even mind the division winners not being guaranteed top 2 spots. Make it truly the top 8 in that order.

 

[coolboarder]

I would like the NHL to scrap the conference format once Seattle joins the league. Make it 4-teams division and playoffs would be like this: 1 v 2 then reseed from round 2 with 1 v 8, 2 v 7, etc. Schedule matrix should be 8 games each in division during the season and 2 games vs rest of teams in the league. Whosever comes out the regular season with better record in division would get the best chance of coming out of round 1 as a winner than a 1 v 4 set-up due to 4-5 games in season meeting and schedule matrix do not determine who is best team in the division due to 3 games against other division in the same conference. It is a case of having too many teams. The fewer teams within one column to determine the playoffs with heavy emphasis to scheduling more divisional games has a better chance of being a survivor in round 1.