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

[JC704]

Just wanted to chime in.

- Divisional winners automatically qualify
- Seed 1-8 by record.
- Keep the two division per conference alignment the same
- Apply head-to-head tiebreaker first when applicable

For example, this year's East:
1. Washington (Metro Division winner - automatic qualifier)
2. Pittsburgh
3. Columbus
4. Montreal (Atlantic Division winner - automatic qualifier)
5. New York
6. Ottawa
7. Boston
8. Toronto

West:
1. Chicago (Central Division winner - automatic qualifier)
2. Minnesota
3. Anaheim (Pacific Division winner - automatic qualifier)
4. Edmonton
5. St. Louis
6. San Jose
7. Calgary
8. Nashville

San Jose and St. Louis finished with the exact same regular season record of 46-29-7; St. Louis won all three games heads up, therefore get the higher seed.

Three of the eight first round match ups are the same, yes, but we don't get a funky "this doesn't feel right" series like Boston vs Ottawa. Also, with a two division per conference structure, chances are the other division winner is going to finish within the top four of the conference anyway (home ice). We almost saw a situation this year where the top four teams in the Metro were better than the Atlantic's best. Should that have happened, there should be no "obligation" to get that division winner home ice. It's silly. Then we're getting into discussions about how often so and so teams played "better teams" and weighted schedule arguments. It's too much. Keep it simple.

I think this works the best. I like the divisional format and premise, but the seeding is too funky for my liking. I think there are pros for reseeding after the first round and keeping the fixed bracket. Either or, I just want the initial eight to feel like they're seeded more properly.

 

[SAK11]

That's the strangest part about this, I mean I can listen to an argument that a division winner should get home ice regardless of wins/points, but where is the logic in the higher point team not getting home ice in round 2? Not that I care, because the Rangers are the best road team in the NHL

They'd have to re-seed the teams for the 2nd round because it would make even less sense for the Rangers to have home ice against Ottawa while Pittsburgh, who finished ahead of NYR, has to play the better team and start on the road for their series.

The current playoff format is stupid, and people will counter by saying that the old format had it's flaws and that the NFL format has flaws, as if other format's having flaws makes it any better for this format to be as stupid as it is. Every year under this format there have ridiculous matchups. This year with Boston/Ottawa, the last two years with Pittsburgh and Washington in the 2nd round, a few years back with Calgary and Vancouver in the 1st round, and on and on.

Just go back to the 1-8 format, maybe you can ensure that winning the division gets you home-ice but not necessarily the number 2 seed. If they want to make it where winning the division gets you nothing more than a playoff spot I'd be fine with that too [I believe this is what the NBA does].

 

[GordonGecko]

They'd have to re-seed the teams for the 2nd round because it would make even less sense for the Rangers to have home ice against Ottawa while Pittsburgh, who finished ahead of NYR, has to play the better team and start on the road for their series.

That doesn't follow at all. Matchups being set, the PIT/WAS series has nothing to do with the NYR/OTT series, each team in their respective series should have home ice based on who has more points.

That would be like saying it isn't fair that a team in the WCF gets home advantage because even if they have more points than their opponent, both teams in the ECF have more points.

 

[55sensfan]

They'd have to re-seed the teams for the 2nd round because it would make even less sense for the Rangers to have home ice against Ottawa while Pittsburgh, who finished ahead of NYR, has to play the better team and start on the road for their series.

The current playoff format is stupid, and people will counter by saying that the old format had it's flaws and that the NFL format has flaws, as if other format's having flaws makes it any better for this format to be as stupid as it is. Every year under this format there have ridiculous matchups. This year with Boston/Ottawa, the last two years with Pittsburgh and Washington in the 2nd round, a few years back with Calgary and Vancouver in the 1st round, and on and on.

Just go back to the 1-8 format, maybe you can ensure that winning the division gets you home-ice but not necessarily the number 2 seed. If they want to make it where winning the division gets you nothing more than a playoff spot I'd be fine with that too [I believe this is what the NBA does].

A 1-8 format means that Divisions need to be eliminated. The whole point of Divisions is to encourage rivalries and therefore more heated playoff series. I think the goal of encouraging rivalries is good for the sport and that occurs when there are important games in the last couple of weeks in the season and even more so when there are multiple playoff series against the same opponent. Once we do away from Divisions, it becomes much more difficult to schedule games that matter at the end of the season and much less likely that there will be repeat playoff series.

We all saw what happened when the Sens and Leafs met 4 times between 2000 and 2004, perhaps the most intense rivalry of the time.

 

[Individual 1]

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.

What an absurd conclusion, the bottom 4 Metro teams averaged 84.75 points, while the bottom 4 Atlantic teams averaged 83 points. The weaker Metro teams were absolutely not the reason for the dominant seasons by the Caps, Pens, and Blue Jackets.

We can even compare the Metro bottom 4 to the Western divisions bottom 4 which will include 2 playoff teams.

Central 77 points
Pacific 79.75 points.

The Metro actually has the strongest bottom teams out of all the divisions. I am sure the Islanders, Flyers, and Carolina would have fared much better in different divisions not having to play so many games against 100 point teams.

 

[Puikiou]

The home team is now 5 for 5 in the series!