Ever noticed that players always produce less in the playoffs?
Right. Because the opposition is better. That's also why a six-team league would be harder to play in: that's roughly 100 roster spots. Can you imagine the NHL with only their top 100 players?
Wrong. Players produce less because the refs swallow their whistles more.
I can imagine a league with 100 roster spots and it looks incredibly predictable, incredibly static, and incredibly non unique.Playing the sames teams constantly kills any sort of unknown to it all and the players end up just going through the motions.
The best effort the pens played this year was Ottawa but they certainly weren't the most talented. The pens dominated more talented teams like Columbus and Washington but they struggled against Ottawa because Ottawa had a unique style of defense. Uniqueness like that wouldn't exist in a 6 team league and therefore the same team would keep winning. Eventually, one team is just always going to have the other five team's numbers.
Also every example in history of a 6-8 team league flies in the face of the assumption that a smaller league is somehow "harder." The Boston Celtics played in an 8 team league and they had the biggest dynasty in sports.
Also at the end of the day, luck matters more than skill and your luck of winning is significantly more likely being 1/6 than 1/30 no matter how skilled you are.
And please don't tell me that 1 or 2 playoffs series before the cup is somehow harder than 3 before the cup.