Is there a way we can make the regular season more meaningful?

[Spawn]

I don’t have a dog in this fight tonight (Boston vs Florida). In fact, my team (CBJ) is one of the biggest beneficiaries of a huge playoff upset and the “variance” of playoff hockey.

But I’m starting to get to a point where I’m wondering what’s even the point of watching hockey October through March? Seems like it’s only meaningful if you’re a bubble team (which is maybe 1/3 of the league). If you’re above that, it doesn’t matter at all. (And if you’re below, it of course doesn’t matter, either, but I have less issue with that than it being meaningless for teams at the top.)

Home-ice is meaningless. Seeding is not particularly meaningful. Is there anything that can be done to at least make it feel/be somewhat more meaningful?

The point of watching hockey October through March is that watching hockey is about being entertained. Bruins fans had the enjoyment of watching the greatest regular season ever* for 82 games. Yeah it has all come crashing down. But that doesn't mean that they didn't get 6 months of amazing hockey to watch.

 

[The Nemesis]

This is silly. The meaning of the regular season is that boston got the best chance to move on by playing the weakest possible opponent based on regular season finish. The fact that Florida pulled off the upset doesn't invalidate that, it just means that upsets happen sometimes. The meaning and value is that if you replayed that series 100 times Boston probably wins it the vast majority of the time even if this wasn't one of those times.

The existence of upsets or flukes is not a flaw, it's the reality of random chance. If you're going to impart more "meaning" on the regular season by using it to increasingly rig or favor better teams come playoff time then you end up with basically the opposite of this thread's intent: The playoffs become so tilted in favor of the better regular season team that you might as well not even bother watching playoff series and just award the cup to the team with the most regular season points.

People complain when favorites win all the time and the playoffs aren't exciting or unpredictable and powerful teams roll to victory unopposed. Then they complain when upsets happen because it "invalidates" their regular season work. It can't be both ways.

Like I've seen people whinge about the WHL playoffs because of the 8 first round matchups there were 0 upsets, 4 sweeps and 2 more series that only went 5 games. That there was no point in anything until the conference finals because Seattle, Kamloops, and Winnipeg were so head and shoulders above every other team that they would never be challenged, and indeed all 3 of them made the conference finals with a combined record of of 28 wins against 5 losses, 2 of which are Kamloops losing WCF games to Seattle. But now we have an NHL thread that almost wants this because they're perturbed that Boston got beaten in a razor thin 7 game series by the Panthers? Like... seriously?

This is what the playoffs are about. It's gonna happen sometimes even though it doesn't happen all the time. Just go along for the ride and if your team is on the ass end of one of those series, then shrug your shoulders, be mad for a day or two, and get over it.

-Signed,
A guy whose team has been both reverse swept (ie pissed away a 3-0 series lead) and lost in the opening round as the President's Trophy winner to an 8th seed that was like 26 points worse than them (including losing both of the first two games at home).

 

[LeafGrief]

Step one is to ignore the forums and the stupid, "championships are the only thing that matters" narratives. That's pure crabs in a bucket talk from other fans who's team haven't won either and don't want anyone to be happy about anything. It's a huge shame that it's become a driving narrative in NA sports, because it really does kill interest when the fans buy into it.

Step two is for the league to put some respect on the President's trophy and division winners. They don't need to hang banners, but maybe they should think about it. It doesn't need rewards for the team, players are competitive and all it really takes is an attitude change to be something that matters and guys will play for it. If beer league benders like me care about the difference between 6th and 3rd in the league standings, NHL players will care.

Congrats to the Bruins on having one of the best teams of all time. Losing in the playoffs is part of the story, but nothing can take away the fact that they shredded the league and that matters.

 

[Guttersniped]

Not an echo, because I never indicated anything like that.

But what I am saying is maybe in the future: there should be a bye for higher seeded teams (more through lower-seeded teams having to play an extra round to win the Cup than now, rather than higher-seed teams having to play one fewer round than now), maybe an extra home game for higher-seeded teams (although, again, number of home games seems pretty meaningless itself), I'm not sure.

Considering the negative effects of rust are often a bigger factor than the benefits of rest in the short term in the NHL, careful what you wish for when giving top teams byes.

When they first added the bye week into the NHL schedule, “rested” teams got slaughtered when they played teams who didn’t have a bye. Link

[In 2016-17] teams coming off the break had, at one point, a combined 8-14-4 record by March as they were facing teams that had not come off a break in their first game back.

That’s why they tried to have multiple teams share the same bye week.

There might be long term benefit from it but players have trouble getting back to playing at NHL game speed after a bye in a regular season.

How do you think it will go for a team that might have cruised into the playoffs who then has to play at team that already has played a bunch of NHL playoff games?

Now we sort of had that in the 2020 bubble playoffs and most of the teams with byes did win.

Boston won 4-1 vs CAR in 1st Rd (lost in 2nd Rd to TBL)
St Louis lost 3-4 vs VAN in 1st Rd
Colorado won 4-1 vs ARI in 1st Rd (lost in 2nd Rd to DAL)
Tampa won 4-1 vs COL in 1st Rd (won Cup)
Washington lost 4-1 vs NYI in 1st Rd
Philly won 4-2 vs MTL in 1st Rd (lost in 2nd Rd to NYI)
Vegas won 4-1 vs CHI in 1st Rd (lost in WCF to DAL)
Dallas won 4-2 vs CGY in Rd (lost in SCF to TBL)

Not sure how the chaos in the Qualifying round and this made the regular season more “meaningful” though.

The Qualifying Round got a non-playoff team to the ECF. The team with the 2nd most points in the NHL was out in the 1st Rd, as was the winner of the Metro Division.

Eventually teams have to win a series and upsets happen.

The NHL have had several dominant team win multiple Cups lately and a healthy Colorado team could probably have won it again, it’s generally not that unpredictable. Just because the Bruins couldn’t get their shit together doesn’t make the regular season meaningless or life meaningless or whatever.

 

[BluesyShoes]

Here's a way: Start acting like winning each game matters, and drop the idea that the only thing that matters is winning the cup.

The cup or bust attitude ruins it for a lot of fans too, with the tanking talk taking over for many teams.

I think this is key, although an 82 game season where you have to double check the schedule to see which team you are playing for the nth time doesn't help. I don't think going to a shorter season will help the salary cap, but I think other things could be done. During the Covid isolation divisions, there were often mini-series during the regular season which actually made things interesting. If you see a team once a year for a 3 or 5 game series, maybe not all consecutively but in a shorter time frame, I think there's a good chance the rivalries and bragging rights would be better for fans and players. It would also make early season matter more if it is the only time you see a divisional rival.

There could also be a different format in the season to emulate playoff play-ins, where early season is more or less normal but with more out of conference games, then after the all star break it leans towards mini-series against divisional and conference rivals for the playoff race.

 

[egelband]

It's fine the way it is, maybe some fewer games to keep the quality higher. But it's a lesson that playoff hockey is a different ballgame.

fewer regular season games. yes, please.

 

[Pavels Dog]

fewer regular season games. yes, please.

you can just watch less of them. Red Wings 19-20 season was like a 40 game season for me.

 

[ViD]

A good half of this season was a very new and unique experience for me - cheering for my team to lose and legit get upset and even mad when my team won.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

fewer regular season games. yes, please.

It'll never happen but 10 fewer games would be great. Fewer back to backs, games have more meaning.

 

[Video Nasty]

Find your own points of interest inside a season and perhaps have something else going on in life besides hockey. Can’t really relate to the people who want the season shortened significantly because their attention span is shot and/or they don’t understand that everyone has different schedules and lives.

I’d imagine that the way it is set up now lets the average person have a life and still catch a decent amount of games throughout the season.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Agree. I’m 50/50 on the divisional format vs the division winners getting seeds 1 and 2 and then reseeding but this has been a fun 1st round and it’s not even finished.

Ya it’s kinda a hybrid, you get all the 2/3 division matchups, and the 1,2 seeds play the 7,8 seeds.

And you get to have it as a bracket format before playoffs start, fun for pools.

 

[RebuildinVan]

Probably the best solution is for the best teams play the best hockey in the playoffs and win?

 

[JKG33]

The ref whining crowd (aka Toronto and Edmonton) won't like this, but if you wanna up the regular season excitement call it like the playoffs.

 

[SomeDude]

As you wish. One random fan from the team that loses any regular season game has to have a finger cut off. That’s pretty meaningful.

 

[Jeremy Hronek]

2020-style playoffs

Top 25% of the league get a bye. Middle 50% have to go through the playins. Bottom 25% miss the playoffs.

Teams like the Bruins would still have to win 4 series to win the cup. This really just gives teams like the Canucks and Senators who have no business even having a shot at the cup, with a chance to win. In a league with so much parity, we need less playoff spots not more.

 

[Leafs87]

Maybe have a format where the seeding isn’t pretty much set in stone by Christmas that creates repeat matches often and usually eliminates the best matchups in round 1

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Easy fix, make it seed #1 vs #16 // #2 vs #15, etc, and the higher seed gets to pick the schedule at either:

2H-2A-2H-1A
4H-3A

H=home
A=away

 

[Reality Czech]

Skip the playoffs
The winner of the Presidents cup wins the Stanley cup
Make it like how it is in the premier football league
Hockey should end in Spring and not in the summer

So let's just get rid of the most exciting and dramatic part of the year? Great idea.

 

[Pavels Dog]

It'll never happen but 10 fewer games would be great. Fewer back to backs, games have more meaning.

Just start gambling. 10 less games would not make any difference to how meaningful the players view the games so it's all in your head anyway.

 

[bert]

With 32 teams in the league the play in style like the NBA makes alot of sense. Rewards the top teams more and gives more teams a chance but with not as good odds.

 

[mxcrossb]

I think it’s only worth discussing if the quality of the game declines, and I don’t think we’re seeing that. I think these guys play with a lot of pride and intensity in the regular season, and it’s not like the nba where only superstars matter so one guy resting ruins the game.

Too much of an advantage for a higher seed starts to discourage teams from getting the wild card in favor of tanking. The chaos is good, even if it cost my Bruins.

But I have pity for Toronto/Tampa, who basically got stuck with that matchup so far in advance. Last year the Bruins were basically locked in to the 8th seed, which also kind of sucked. Maybe going 1-16 would make the standings more dynamic.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Just start gambling. 10 less games would not make any difference to how meaningful the players view the games so it's all in your head anyway.

The primary goal would be to have fewer back to backs, healthier rested players, slightly less of a grind of a season for better quality hockey. That's not in my head.

But also with 10 games less there's fewer points available so yes, coaches and management would encourage players to take every game more seriously.

Skip the playoffs
The winner of the Presidents cup wins the Stanley cup
Make it like how it is in the premier football league
Hockey should end in Spring and not in the summer

Hard, hard hard no.

 

[LarKing]

Let the top teams choose their opponents. Would be a fun event to watch and would make the regular season games more meaningful. Could add to rivalries, more stories, etc. I don't see why not.

 

[BigEezyE22]

They should award a trophy to the team with the best regular season record. That'll make it special.

 

[TMLeafer]

Aside from not having 1 v 8 seeding, I think NHL playoffs are pretty much perfect.