No reason to get excited in October

[FinRanger]

Regular season is 82 games! Half of the teams qualify for the playoffs. So basically you play 82 games and your goal is to be in the middle of the pack. Your goal is to be mediocre for 82 games. Because now we can see again how team like Toronto who barely made it to the playoffs has the upper hand against President Trophy winner team, Washington.

Some might see this as a good and exciting thing but I don`t. I have nothing against Toronto. They are great young and exciting team. But I have seen this story play out far too often to get excited. I think these "stories" diminish the significance of regular season. To me it is kind of funny that we have to play 82 games and then everything can blow up if you lose 4 games out of 7. You can be the best team after 82 games but then after you win 3 out of 7 your season is over.

I know that the thing is to live in the moment but when you see the bigger picture there a lot of things are meaningless. In fall people are like "this team has won 10 in a row. How can anyone beat this team!" Why to get excited over those kind of win streaks. Yes it means that they are playing pretty well at that time and making case for a playoff spot. But that should be it. Nothing more to get excited. Because only thing that matters is playoffs. Things like home advantage are highly overrated.

NHL is largely a show. And I know Bettman et. all want to make NHL as gimmicky as possible. Declining Olympics fits right into this. But how to improve the league? Maybe they should shorten regular season and make playoffs longer? To me it seems kind of unfair that some team is the best team over 82 games sample size and after that if they lose 3 out of 7 they are out. Yes they get rewarded with home advantage (yippie kay yay) and some lesser opponent (well that "lesser" opponent could get hot right before playoffs). Winning Presidents Trophy should be a huge thing cause you were the best team over 82 games! Winning President Trophy should mean more. Winning team should get to skip the first round or something to make it mean more.

Also the playoff system is extremely effed up at the moment. Columbus was the 4th best team in the regular season and gets to face Penguins (2nd) in the first round.

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[ablueleaf]

Personally, I prefer the previous seeding format but I'm really not complaining too much with the new system. It seems to produce exciting hockey. I'm not just saying this as a Leafs homer.

 

[Community]

No reason to get excited in October? EVEN when the Leafs had no future I got excited in October because it meant hockey was back. I enjoy watching all games (playoffs are obviously more intense, but all hockey is fun to watch).

Should there be changes to seeding? Absolutely, but you're not going to get a shorter season and I don't know why it's the end of the world to get to watch more hockey... if I had the choice between making the season 60 games and 2 months shorter or keeping it at 82, I'm sticking with 82.

 

[FinRanger]

No reason to get excited in October? EVEN when the Leafs had no future I got excited in October because it meant hockey was back. I enjoy watching all games (playoffs are obviously more intense, but all hockey is fun to watch).

Should there be changes to seeding? Absolutely, but you're not going to get a shorter season and I don't know why it's the end of the world to get to watch more hockey... if I had the choice between making the season 60 games and 2 months shorter or keeping it at 82, I'm sticking with 82.

The title is a little bit over the top, I admit! I like to watch hockey too but I feel like there is not that much at stake in the regular season. I don`t mean that every game should be played in 100% because that would be unhealthy for the players. Well I guess there are not many options. Maybe reward the president trophy winner better? Make playoffs 5 out of 9 and make regular season shorter?

If Caps lose in first round, I don`t know how Caps fans could get excited over anything next regular season

 

[MapleLeafs9]

LOL this thread.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Yeah I think the top seed should only have to win 1 game while the underdog has to win 4, they're the top seed for a reason, they need additional advantages

How else are you supposed to do it? The playoffs are already 2+ months as is, and you sort of have to make a team win more games than their opponent to advance. So winning 4 in 7 is basically the only requirement you can make. Any other suggestions?

 

[Ezekial]

Following sports would be pretty boring if we weren't allowed to speculate or get excited in the moment, regardless of the time of year.

 

[TBC]

Regular season is always excited for many reasons, the main being the chase for a playoff spot. No game is "meaningless".

 

[Burynai]

I might as well say I might as well not get excited at all because I'm a Blues fan. But I'm here......

 

[Grifter3511]

It's kind of the nature of the first round. Teams like Toronto have been in playoff mode for weeks whereas Washington has been in maintenance mode. That's why the 1st round is so great; we get the majority of the upsets in this round.

After the first round the cream tends to rise to the top.

 

[aufheben]

Why is an 8th seed beating the 1st seed a bad thing? FYI that series is not close to over.

 

[Leafidelity]

Because now we can see again how team like Toronto who barely made it to the playoffs has the upper hand against President Trophy winner team, Washington.

Leafs were 2nd in the Atlantic with two weeks left in the year

 

[Willy Styles]

sure if you want hockey to be more european and like football

In soccer the team that wins the regular season is the real champion. The playoffs are just a gimick.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Trolololololololol

 

[Egghead1999]

Did OP know who won the Stanley cup in 2012

 

[Oilers93]

If anything wouldn't that make it even less of a reason to be excited in October? If it's "pre-determined" so to speak that the Presidents Trophy Winner will be in the finals then a fan of a team like Toronto or Nashville would have no reason to even bother watching at all... much like in soccer when Chelsea has the Premier League wrapped up with a month left it diminishes the importance of the remaining matches for the rest of the league.

 

[c9777666]

Other than the 2012 Kings/1995 Devils, we haven't exactly had Cup winners in our times with such low seedings/records

 

[Dicdonya]

Is there a sport that slightly above average teams can't make the playoffs?

Does any sport have a playoff system where upsets can't happen?

Hell in football we see teams go 9-7 or I think even a couple at 8-8 get in, literally average teams.

I actually think playoff hockey is the most exciting for the very reasons you mentioned, and the regular season is great because it's length allows for the best teams to get in. It does that by making streaky play less impactful. So no team can be "out" of the playoff hunt by the end of November simply because they were playing poorly for a couple months. A bad February might put you out of the playoffs, but there's still 1.5 months to claw your way back in, and enter with a full head of steam.

Also having a lot of teams in the playoffs I would assume means more fan bases are excited and engaged in the regular season knowing their team has a pretty decent shot at making the playoffs any given year. Also once the playoffs start there are 16 excited fan bases, instead of like 8 or 12 or whatever, that seems better to me.

I get that not every game in an 82 game schedule will be a nail biting, balls to the walls type game, but that's why we all, I assume, get so riled up when the playoffs start.

 

[lidstromiscool]

Honestly, it's a lot harder to win the Presidents trophy than the cup. I would say the best team generally wins the presidents trophy while the hottest/healthiest team wins the cup. It would be interesting to see how the league would be if it were like European soccer and no playoffs. But I love watching playoff hockey too much to actually want that. OP makes some fair points imo

 

[Mikeshane]

In general the problem is the team with the most points already has enough of an advantage so making it even easier for them is boring since it means they'll win so often.

 

[coolboarder]

You got a point there, OP. I hate that when a team would just be mediocre for a whole season then all of a sudden turn it on in the playoffs for years. My solution is to create a 3 phases of the season, 60 games in each phase and another 22 games in phase 2, sort of like a baseball format in minor league, first half winner and a second half winner make the playoffs. Giving teams that had a bad start a wipe slate start in second half. This also prevents teams from having a bad luck injury-wise in both side of the phases. For example, Arizona had a strong second half playing as a playoff team pace from January.

Here is what I would do:

First half is focused on the top 8 in a whole league make the playoffs at end of 60 games regardless of division make the playoffs. Those 60 games schedule is based on the schedule games against league-wide, home and home series.

To maintain fairness, the trade deadlines shall be after 60th game and once second half starts, no more trades can be made. Teams must make a decision whether to buy or sell even if they still have a chance with standing wiped clean.

Second half, the schedule consists of divisional games. The next one or teams in each division that is not of top 8 makes the playoffs.

Playoff system (5 different scenarios, divisional playoff system in a playoff year for 4 divisions in the NHL) depending on if top 8 teams maintain their status as second half winner.

Scenario #1
Both team finished in top 2 shall then 3rd place and 4th place shall be set up as a page playoff system like curling but first round shall be 1 v 2, 3 v 4 in a best of 3 series, the winner advanced straight to the final while second round shall be best of 3 series. 1 v 2 is not an elimination series while 3 v 4 is in a best of 3 series.

Scenario #2
Only one top 8 team finished top 2 in second half shall get first round bye.

That divisional bracket shall be set up: 2 v 3 with best of 3 with best overall in the standing between teams from first half and second half shall host the first round then 1 v winner of first round. The second round shall be best of 11 series. In that, it requires 6 games to advance to the Stanley cup Semi-finals. The purpose of best of 3 series is not to make top team rusty for their first game of playoffs.

Scenario #3

If neither top 8 finished in top 2 in second half shall play as normal 1 v 4, 2 v 3 in a divisional playoff bracket in a best of 7 series.

Scenario #4

If there are 3 teams in top 8 from a division, it shall be only 2 teams and all of 3 are guaranteed first round rest while 4 v 5 is played out with best of 3 first round. To maintain top 2 or 3 is not required in that case for rest of second half.

Scenario #5

If there are only 1 team in a division is top 8 then that team must finish top 2 in that division to maintain their first round bye while 2 v 3 in that division shall play best of 3 first round bye with best of 11 series second round. If they failed to maintain top 2 then they must play as normal 1 v 4 and 2 v 3.
playoffs.

Draft pick order. Non-playoff teams shall be determined as a head to head against non-playoffs teams via the lowest points against them getting first overall pick, that will eliminate the lottery and tanking as well since they all get a wipe slate clean in that case for second half, a second life at the playoff hope.

I could talk more of this but it's pointless because we are steep into the tradition of how playoff system is being played out to determine the Stanley cup does not reflect the best team in the league, aka LA Kings in 2013. It's my only complaint that a team that could get hot at a right time while top teams might lose some of their form due to late season games.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Winning the President's does not mean much. That's not what teams are playing for. The President's trophy winner gets home ice in the playoffs. And to acknowledge the accomplishment, the title "President's trophy winner". That's enough. If they can't win in the playoffs, then that's their problem.
And, I get very excited in October. I don't think that's ever going to go away, that's one the best things about sports, starting a new season.

 

[FinRanger]

...

I don`t know if I understood everything perfectly but I think that you have a great point there! Your system encourages every team to try their best during the second half also. In your system there is a a possibility that last game of regular season would mean a lot for a team that was in top 8 during the first phase of the season. For example if top 8 team was in 3rd place in second phase of the season, that team would have huge incentive to win that last game so that they could advance straight to the second round in playoffs. I like this!

It would take time for people to get used to this but so what! I would be all in for something like this! I don`t think it is a good starting point that multimillionaires play 82 games during regular season where lot of those games don`t have that much meaning.

But we have to also remember that hockey is pretty rough sport so making more games meaningful would take a toll on players` bodies.