The NHL should keep the Division-bubbles

[justHypnos]

i like the way the playoffs worked, i would like to see the same playoff format with the normal divisions, i think this is cool, but playing 8 times vs the same teams is not fun.

also i think its funny that everyone seems to think there will never be a strong Canadian team for the rest of history. if that proves to be the case, the league will simply tax adjust the salary cap to make it fair like when they introduced the salary cap.

 

[rojac]

I say they go with 15 divisions of only two teams. You play the same team every game, alternative between home and away. Then you play another best-of-15 playoff against that team. Then a single-elimination tournament for the Cup.

Which two teams are you throwing out of the league?

 

[Sanchise90]

This is an atrocious take. Before I even get into the competitive aspects of this, there's a huge fundamental issue with segregating the divisions under your proposal. What would you say the primary goal of the NHL is? To increase revenues, grow the game etc. right? How would you grow the game and get more eyes on the product if your team doesn't play 24/32 teams in the NHL. I'm a Stars fan, if the format was the same every year, why would I care about what Seattle is doing or what the Rangers are doing? I'd never get to see their stars on TV or in person and the odds of Dallas playing them would be extremely low under your scenario.

Not to mention, you'll never build mainstream stars that way, which hockey struggles with as is. Great teams and players are an attraction. How do you think NBA fans would react if they went to a similar format and all of a sudden, my team wouldn't play Lebron, Zion, Jokic, Luka etc? How's that increase their reach and stardom? Under your scenario, why should I care about Seattle? They'd play in a division that I wouldn't interact with and I'd never see them play unless I went out of my way to do so? How does that benefit Seattle? How does that help Seattle grow as an organization and as a franchise?

There's a lot more at play than "It would help a Canadian team" get to the finals and "the specialness of the bubble divisions". That's just an extremely myopic viewpoint...

 

[treple13]

The second I saw the thread I knew it would be a North Division fan.

No one else wants to play the same few teams all season.

An Eastern Canadian North team fan. Calgary/Vancouver/Edmonton got an even easier division next year, so we're not going to clamour to keep the North division

 

[BruinsBtn]

Which two teams are you throwing out of the league?

Buffalo and no Kraken, obvi

 

[MSLs absurd thighs]

No. The NHL needs a Bruins/Habs rivalry and Bruins/Habs games.

 

[Breakers]

NO, they shouldn’t

 

[GrandmaSlices51631]

No, interconference play is interesting, I always like seeing those teams that only meet twice a year play. Also, watching the same matchups over and over gets redundant

 

[Johnny Tomala]

No way. Enough of this garbage, go back to normal division format and back to 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 playoffs with re-seeding after first round.

 

[Blowfish]

Thinking this would work out extremely well for the Northern league until they actually play NHL calibre teams.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Hard pass. By the midway point, I was getting thoroughly bored of seeing the same teams over and over again. It's one of the reasons I didn't want a lot of games. It also see it taking away from the playoff hype relatively fast. Montreal vs. Toronto was interesting this year because neither team faced one another in 30 years despite their storied rivalry. How much hype do you see either team's fanbases having when they'll have played each other 20+ times in a two year span?

 

[weinsink]

There is something special about a whole season caught in a bubble against the same teams, and only that sub-league's champion get to play against the other champions.

As a Habs fan, I miss us playing the Bruins, but I also like the fact that no matter what, we'll have a Canadian team in the Final Four. And I know that makes good business sense for the NHL

Everyone can prognosticate that "oh the Northern Division is garbage" but truth is, we won't actually know until we actually see them play outside of their division.

And even if a division genuinely turns out to be "garbage", well the fans of the garbage teams still get to enjoy competitive playoffs until the end.

Finally, if Canada was their own sub-league of their own, we could potential consider expansion teams to internal market without considering the American TV audience for these new teams. Nobody in the US gives a shit if Québec gets a new team, but nobody has to give a shit if the Nordique 2.0 get to play mostly against other Canadian teams.

The current format has a lot of business advantage, can lead to a lot of speculation and uncertainty regarding the Final Four's interaction.

Maybe allow for one inter-Division game per team midseason? Ya know, make a big event out of it. Promote the "winter classic" as an early taste of inter-division hockey, just to tease the audience.

Never gonna happen again,like everyone knows the north is weak!

 

[Mickey Marner]

I'd be okay with this if they re-seeded the divisions snake-style every year based on the previous standings.

Division one

• 1st
• 8th
• 9th
• 16th
• 17th
• 24th
• 25th
• 32nd

Division two

• 2nd
• 7th
• 10th
• 15th
• 18th
• 23rd
• 26th
• 31st

Division Three

• 3rd
• 6th
• 11th
• 14th
• 19th
• 22nd
• 27th
• 30th

Division Four

• 4th
• 5th
• 12th
• 13th
• 20th
• 21st
• 28th
• 29th

 

[MuckOG]

Looking forward to the Wild back in the Central and normal start times.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

There's zero chance that this format is maintained past Covid restrictions. While a certain type of Canadian fan loves the Canadian "mini-league", I don't think this viewpoint has a ton of friends in the league office. It's bad for various commercial reasons regardless of what OP thinks.

I wouldn't mind these actual divisions sticking around as long as there's a normal schedule with plenty of cross-division and cross-conference games, but even that is exceedingly unlikely.

 

[joestevens29]

Looking forward to the Wild back in the Central and normal start times.

I by no means am a Habs fan, but I felt for their fans when they had a game start at 11pm this year. Maybe it was midnight

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

I dont give a shit if a Canadian team makes the final four. The travel times for the north division aren't practical for any other reason than a pandemic bubble.

The best teams need to play the best teams. If you can't beat the best teams you don't deserve to make the final four.

Any of the Canadian teams this year would have been waxed in the first round. All would have been lower seeds except Toronto and rightfully so.

And Toronto is Toronto... so whatever wildcard team they faced in the first round would have done them in.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

These divisions were truly trash. Acceptable in the short-term given the circumstances, but another season of seeing the same f***ing teams over and over and over again and I'll lose interest real fast. I haven't felt this out of touch with the 'rest of the league' since I was a kid without internet in a one TV house.

 

[lottster14]

Most hockey fans got bored with it in a 56 game season. No way it's happening again.

 

[These Are The Days]

lmao you just want an excuse for a Canadian team in the final 4 because they aren't good enough to do it on their own

 

[chauron]

Few years of this bubble thing and people will see it as new normal after getting used to it, and refuses to let it go.

 

[These Are The Days]

These divisions were truly trash. Acceptable in the short-term given the circumstances, but another season of seeing the same f***ing teams over and over and over again and I'll lose interest real fast. I haven't felt this out of touch with the 'rest of the league' since I was a kid without internet in a one TV house.

Really puts into perspective what baseball fans went through for how many decades before interleague play

 

[shortfuze]

Pass. Watching the same teams play each other in a 56 game bubble was boring. Couldn’t imaging an 82 game schedule.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Playing the same 7 teams all season is boring as hell.

 

[Neil Racki]

Nope.

I would be on board with divisional playoffs sticking around, as it would finally do away with that ham-fisted wildcard system they currently have.

But the teams all need to play eachother. Imagine being a season ticket holder in, say, San Jose, thinking you may never see Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby unless your team plays him in the playoffs. Gotta have that full mix.

This, season ticket holders would hate it. Cool thing about season tickets is you get to see the stars.

As a Caps fan I got to see a ton of Lemieux and co. but only had a chance to see Gretzky maybe once or twice a year and those times were special. Often my mom would go just to the Gretzky games so me or one of my brothers got bumped and couldnt go. When Magic and the Lakers came to DC, it was a big deal.

Why even have season tickets. Id just do like a 10 game plan and be good with it.