Playoff Match Ups #3-#6 Determined By Fan Vote

[citygoogs]

It's 2015. You can do anything from your phone or the internet, and technology is making an increasing impact on everyday life. Fan voting determines everything from All-Star starters, to plays of the year, to the EA Sports cover athlete. With the NHL's perpetual quest to maintain a comparable level of popularity with the other major sports, what do you think about setting the middle playoff match ups with a fan vote?

For example:

Division champions get the first two seeds.

Currently in the East:

#1 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. #8 Washington Capitals
#2 New York Islanders vs. #7 Boston Bruins

In order of current points that leaves:

#3 Montreal Canadiens
#4 Detroit Red Wings
#5 Pittsburgh Penguins
#6 New York Rangers

What match ups do you want to see? Any combination of these 4 teams would be determined by a fan vote for the first round.

In the West:

#1 Nashville Predators vs. #8 Vancouver Canucks
#2 Anaheim Ducks vs. #7 Calgary Flames

In order of current points that leaves:

#3 St. Louis Blues
#4 Chicago Blackhawks
#5 San Jose Sharks
#6 Winnipeg Jets

Now this year you could argue that at least in the East, the current match ups are all ideal. This is true. But going forward I can't imagine that happens every year. This would give us a chance to make it happen.

Just a crazy thought I had that I wanted to share. What do you think?

Click to read more...

 

[De Montreal]

I'm really excited for next playoff. Especially for whoever faces Canadiens in the 1st round.

TBL, BOS, NYR vs Mtl would make a great revenge scenario

Detroit vs Montreal would make for some great high paced hockey too

 

[The Podium]

What happens when fans start voting for the best teams to go up against each other to get them out of the way? It's also a system biased towards larger fanbases

 

[citygoogs]

What happens when fans start voting for the best teams to go up against each other to get them out of the way? It's also a system biased towards larger fanbases

Agreed about the large fan bases. It could be a problem. They could limit the voting to one vote per IP address rather than the 10 a day like All-Star voting. Not foolproof, but a little more fair. To your other point, isn't that essentially what the #2-#3 division match ups create now?

 

[tarheelhockey]

So what's the point of trying to pass anyone in the standings if you're in that range? If you're the #3 team you can probably rest your stars for the final month of the season since dropping in the standings doesn't matter anymore.

 

[Beerfish]

Any suggestion, in any sport that has the words 'fan vote' in it is a very bad idea.

 

[citygoogs]

So what's the point of trying to pass anyone in the standings if you're in that range? If you're the #3 team you can probably rest your stars for the final month of the season since dropping in the standings doesn't matter anymore.

For the same reason you try to pass teams in the standings now. Home ice advantage.

 

[Tacos]

Up, Up, Down, Down, B, A, Select, Start

My team now plays against the Sabres/Oilers til the SCF

 

[MAHJ71]

Not a fan of fan voting. And thats coming from a CBJ fan who's team benefited during ASG/Skills challenge from it.

 

[Shimso]

A fan vote can have many bad results.

I'd rather have the #1 seed pick any of the other 7 teams as its opponent, the next seed picks from the remaining 6 teams, etc. It could be spun off into a show where they announce their picks and why they picked them, and lead to new rivalries by some teams feeling snubbed/disrespected, etc.

 

[talkinaway]

Fan vote makes no sense. First of all, rivalries are already ensured by having two pseudo-divisional brackets instead of one giant 1-8 bracket. All teams being equal, about 7/8 of the time, the Bruins are going to have to go through two of the Habs, Sens, Leafs, Red Wings, Bolts, Panthers, and Sabres. (That means 1/4 of the time, the Bruins get a WC seed, which gets Metro'ed 1/2 the time.)

There is absolutely NO incentive for teams to advance from 6 to 3. The main incentive for advancing within the bracket is almost always to get a better seeding and play against worse opponents. Home ice is only an advantage if the series is tied 3-3 and you need a seventh game - that happens less than a third of the time. (It's 20/64 all teams being equal, and way less than that if a team has an advantage.) And the actual advantage of home ice isn't as big as you'd think. As a Boston fan, I'd give home ice to the Caps WAY before I'd even think of playing on our home ice against the Islanders.

You'll also kill small market hockey, when the NHL has been trying their best to grow into places like Florida, Nashville, and Arizona. And with hockey being the national sport of Canada, and without the distraction of the NBA Finals, I guarantee every Canadian team is going to get their pick.

Don't put hockey's future in the hands of 15 year old girls with cellphones surgically attached to their thumbs. Of all the things in hockey that are broken (I'm talking to you, shootouts), this isn't one of them.

 

[GAGLine]

You also have to consider the time it takes for the voting. The final playoff spot might be decided on the last day of the regular season. The playoffs start 3 days later. That doesn't leave much time for logistics like booking arenas, hotels, flights, etc. Adding a fan vote would only complicate the process as they would have to wait until the vote is complete before they could do any of that stuff. How long would the vote last? 1 day? Would that be enough time?

I don't think it's an idea worth pursuing. Fans voting for the allstar game is one thing. The game is meaningless. The playoffs are too important to leave anything up to the fans.

 

[talkinaway]

A fan vote can have many bad results.

I'd rather have the #1 seed pick any of the other 7 teams as its opponent, the next seed picks from the remaining 6 teams, etc. It could be spun off into a show where they announce their picks and why they picked them, and lead to new rivalries by some teams feeling snubbed/disrespected, etc.

I used to think this all the time, too. However, the way seeding works, it doesn't only give an advantage to the top teams - in, in theory, should give an advantage to the bottom teams, too.

Right now, let's say that, for some reason, Tampa Bay (1) picks the Rangers (6). That gives an immediate advantage to the Caps (8), who no longer have to play the best team. It also gives a disadvantage to the Rangers, despite having earned it by being seeded higher than the Caps.

 

[Sidney BrOSSby*]

Or ... The team is IPO'd like a corporation in order to raise Capital. Share holders vote on a number of things.

A hair-cut is then a play on words.

 

[f1nn]

no. please. just no.

 

[Filip Forceberg]

Jesus, no.

 

[Oak]

Very cool idea but leaves too much possibility for exploitation. I know there have to be some anonymous hacker hockey fans out there. Imagine the power they would yield!

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Honestly this is one of the worst ideas ever

 

[tony d]

No offense but bad idea, when you get a guy like Grigensons voted to go to the All Star Game you know fan voting's a bad idea.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

It's 2015. You can do anything from your phone

Doesn't mean we should.

 

[Quarter]

This is by far the worst idea I've ever seen.

 

[Sidney BrOSSby*]

This is by far the worst idea I've ever seen.

Idea for consideration:

Brendan Shanahan changes his name to Brenden Shan*ahem*.

 

[Dragon Priest]

Not a fan of anything when it comes to "fan voting".

Sort of an interesting idea, but just wouldn't work out. Don't like it.

 

[BacklundtoBartschi*]

Don't like it.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Fan vote? Absolutely no.