Regular season: Ott 98pts, NYR 102pts - Ottawa has home ice advantage in round 2

[patnyrnyg]

Not a fan of this playoff system at all, but for now it is what it is. Capitals probably deserve to be the most pissed off team having to play Pittsburgh in the second round after winning the President's Trophy.

Yup, but the league and NBC want them meeting in the play-offs and this format is the best way for it to happen. One or both could lose against the Rangers/Ottawa in the 2nd round. Do you think the league would rather have the Crosbys Play the Ovechkins in round 2 or not at all?

 

[northeastern]

Caps and Pens fans right now -->

Haha yup. I don't like the format but this isn't the best argument against it

 

[tony d]

I noticed this as well. Yeah they need to tweak the playoff format I think. Could have been worse though. Had Toronto won last night they would have crossed over to the Metro bracket to take on Pittsburgh while Metro team the Rangers is now in the Atlantic bracket.

 

[KingsFan7824]

It is not the NHL, it is the geography of the United Stated. Once you get passed the imaginary line that connects Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, there really isn't much in terms of big cities until you get to the Pacific Coast. In the NFL, you have Denver and Arizona and soon Vegas. That's it. In terms of square mileage, you are talking about almost 1/3-1/2 of the lower 48 that only has 2 teams.

I meant a unique geography in the sports world. A 24/7 team split between two countries, only 1 team in Texas, and the NBA and MLB actually have more teams west of the eastern time zone than in the eastern time zone. In the NFL, divisions hardly matter, since they only play once per week.

 

[NDiesel]

So what? With the old system we had 95 point Florida one year as the 3rd seed. There will always be some complaints with the system, but if one extra home game is why you won't advance then pretty sure you don't deserve the cup (I'm not undercutting the importance home ice by any means, but the best teams will find a way to win).

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

30 ROAD WINS THIS SEASON. Plus it has nothing to do with home or road. The Rangers are just a better team than the Senators top to bottom and way more experienced. Not to mention we always bounce you when we play you in the playoffs and your team is weaker now than those teams and the Rangers are stronger now than those teams. It's as simple as that. Anything can happen on any given day. But aside from chance the truth is its not looking good for the Senators.

Just give them the Stanley Cup, and end this sham of a playoff system!

 

[Stuzchuk]

the 1-8 format was also flawed... I remember one year that a division champ would have been 7th (3rd as per rule) and that he was still host for the series... until they decide to seed by points 1-8, there will be issues with their system

 

[SanderSen]

I don't like the way that works out either. Home ice advantage is not what it once was when different cities had different size and shaped rinks with their own quirks. Now the ice and boards are all standardized so other than last change there isn't much to it. Sens-Bruins series, the home team one 1 of 6 games.

In some ways I would prefer for Ottawa to start on the road - with the home crowd the players often try to do to much and not stick to the plan, and if they drop a game it is the END OF THE WORLD.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Definitely on the Ottawa bandwagon! Go sens

This format is great. The rivalries will be insane in a few more years.

 

[patnyrnyg]

If they ever do go back to the top-8 in conference, I think they will use the set bracket like is done in the NBA and NCAA instead of re-seeding. They seem to think bracket pools may become a thing in the NHL.

 

[patnyrnyg]

I noticed this as well. Yeah they need to tweak the playoff format I think. Could have been worse though. Had Toronto won last night they would have crossed over to the Metro bracket to take on Pittsburgh while Metro team the Rangers is now in the Atlantic bracket.

They already did cross-over. If Toronto had won, they would have stayed where they were.

 

[patnyrnyg]

the 1-8 format was also flawed... I remember one year that a division champ would have been 7th (3rd as per rule) and that he was still host for the series... until they decide to seed by points 1-8, there will be issues with their system

That never bothered me. I think there should be some kind of reward for winning the division. Doesn't bother me in the NFL, either although people complain.

I think the NBA set it up so the division winners get the top-4, but if a second place team has a better record than a division winner, that team gets the higher seed. Toronto didn't win their division, but they are the 3 seed while Washington did and are the 4th. Doesn't really matter in the NBA as nobody in the East is beating the Cavs and nobody in the West has a shot against the Warriors.

 

[Pandaman11]

Yeah we've figured out that the new system is crap...

Same last year for the Islanders Lightning series.

 

[Guardian17]

I prefer the 1 vs 8 system.

 

[tailgunner]

If the Rangers win the cup with this current playoff format...Bettman's head will explode and the very next day he will revert back to the 1-8 system

 

[Sensin5]

Rangers in 4. I'm not seeing a weak offensive team like the Senators getting many goals past Lundquist, maybe not any.

Your calls on the first round were all so totally accurate, you should put all your money on your second round calls! Who needs a house?

 

[SA16]

If you watched the Rangers all season, you would know this is not the case.

I haven't missed a game in over 10 years and this was very much the case.

The entire difference was goaltender play. They had a 90.8 even strength save percentage at home. That was second worst in the league to Colorado. They scored 2.75 goals per 60 (9th best). They allowed 29.0 shots/60 (13th best).

They had a 93.7 even strength save percentage on the road. Best in the league by a lot. They scored 2.31 goals per 60 (10th best). They allowed 31.7 shots per 60 (10th worst).

There was basically nothing they did as a group better on the road except get significantly better goalie play.

 

[Caeldan]

The flaw is having a wildcard system.
Just have top 4 in each division move on.

Schedules are not balanced, so the points argument is comparing apples to oranges.

Atlantic had more parity than the Metro this season, not that it was a 'weaker' division. Top metro teams preyed on the weaker metro teams for extra points.

 

[Devils090]

Happened in the old system too

2012-Devils had 102 pts and Florida had 94 yet Florida got home ice for winning their weak division

 

[Devils090]

If the Rangers win the cup with this current playoff format...Bettman's head will explode and the very next day he will revert back to the 1-8 system

Yeah biggest market winning a cup sure would get Bettman mad...

 

[carter333167]

Under the current format, the Rangers get to play the Sens while the Caps must play the Pens. Regardless of home ice, Caps have far more about which to complain than Rangers' fans.

Are Rangers' fans actually complaining about the format??????

 

[Braunbaer]

home-ice does not matter.
Especially when the series doesn't go all the way.

 

[Chet Manley]

The flaw is having a wildcard system.
Just have top 4 in each division move on.

Schedules are not balanced, so the points argument is comparing apples to oranges.

Atlantic had more parity than the Metro this season, not that it was a 'weaker' division. Top metro teams preyed on the weaker metro teams for extra points.

Truth, plus as you said comparing points between teams with different schedules is flawed.

A wildcard winning in the 1st rnd creates the scenario people have a beef with, plus the return to division brackets(which IMO is great). Ranger fans should chill about home ice, they wouldn't have made the playoffs without the wildcard. WAS/PIT fans should chill since each spot in the 3rd round is reserved for the best from each division bracket ie both teams can't be in the ECF. Again the wildcard can screw that by making it to the 3rd rnd. So no wildcard? Don't personally care either way, but at least the fans of the wildcard teams don't feel cheated out of the postseason when they obviously belong there.

Edit: NYR would have made it as 4th in their division. oops memory

 

[Rand0m]

I like the Rangers AINEC crowd who fail to realize (as stated in the tread title) that the Sens were only 4 points back of the Rangers. If I'm not mistaken, the games this year were also pretty even/close.

 

[MiscBrah]

Truth, plus as you said comparing points between teams with different schedules is flawed.

A wildcard winning in the 1st rnd creates the scenario people have a beef with, plus the return to division brackets(which IMO is great). Ranger fans should chill about home ice, they wouldn't have made the playoffs without the wildcard. WAS/PIT fans should chill since each spot in the 3rd round is reserved for the best from each division bracket ie both teams can't be in the ECF. Again the wildcard can screw that by making it to the 3rd rnd. So no wildcard? Don't personally care either way, but at least the fans of the wildcard teams don't feel cheated out of the postseason when they obviously belong there.

Yeah this is the issue. It would have been solved if they went with the idea of having the wildcards play in their respective divisions regardless of ranking. So Washington would have played Rangers and MTL would have played leafs. People would be upset with that though as well.