The standings are such a joke. Either adopt the expanded wildcard or get rid of it altogether

[SwaggySpungo]

You look at the wildcard standings and the Penguins are 3 points behind Montreal for the final wildcard spot. A reasonable person says to himself, "Hmm... I guess the Pens are 3 points away from a playoff spot. This is fun!"

But that reasonable person would be dead wrong. He now needs to switch to the Division standings, take out his trusty calculator, and then enroll in an 'Intro to Quantum Physics 101' course at his local University to understand what the hell is actually going on.

Because you see, the Pens are indeed 3 points away from the 8th seed, BUT they are also tied for the 3rd seed in their division, which means they are ALSO tied for the 6th seed in the playoffs. Get it?

The Pens are trailing the 8th seed by 3 points, but tied with the 6th seed and tied for 3rd in their division. It makes perfect sense! They are 9th place, tied for 6th place and tied for 3rd place ... all at the same time. It's simple! This is a great way to get kids into hockey.

And don't get me started on the Red Wings.

If they refuse to go 1-4 in each division, just go back to the damn 1-8 in each conference already. At least it made sense.

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[Peiskos]

The 1-8 is the way to go, I hate to say it but the wild card system is just another American bastardization of the NHL, to go along with the Trapezoid, coaches challenge, boring uninspired division names and among a host of others.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

No, i wanna see u go off about RedWings now!!!

All seriousness, it is ridiculous i agree

 

[kladorf2005]

And don't get me started on the Red Wings.

Did we do something to get you started on the Penguins?

I remember there was a lot of excitement about the division realignment. Going from 6 divisions to 4. Would add playoff rivalries. Everything was better. Blah blah blah.

It has been far from perfect. And quite whacky the way it's setup and how things have played out over the handful of years since they switched to this format.

 

[Paperbagofglory]

You look at the wildcard standings and the Penguins are 3 points behind Montreal for the final wildcard spot. A reasonable person says to himself, "Hmm... I guess the Pens are 3 points away from a playoff spot. This is fun!"

But that reasonable person would be dead wrong. He now needs to switch to the Division standings, take out his trusty calculator, and then enroll in an 'Intro to Quantum Physics 101' course at his local University to understand what the hell is actually going on.

Because you see, the Pens are indeed 3 points away from the 8th seed, BUT they are also tied for the 3rd seed in their division, which means they are ALSO tied for the 6th seed in they playoffs. Get it?

The Pens are trailing the 8th seed by 3 points, but tied with the 6th seed and tied for 3rd in their division. It makes perfect sense! They are 9th place, tied for 6th place and tied for 3rd place ... all at the same time. It's simple! This is a great way to get kids into hockey.

And don't get me started on the Red Wings.

If they refuse to go 1-4 in each division, just go back to the damn 1-8 in each conference already. At least it made sense.

The division system is very popular in the NFL therefore it must work for the NHL.

Bettman Logic.

 

[Seanaconda]

You look at the wildcard standings and the Penguins are 3 points behind Montreal for the final wildcard spot. A reasonable person says to himself, "Hmm... I guess the Pens are 3 points away from a playoff spot. This is fun!"

But that reasonable person would be dead wrong. He now needs to switch to the Division standings, take out his trusty calculator, and then enroll in an 'Intro to Quantum Physics 101' course at his local University to understand what the hell is actually going on.

Because you see, the Pens are indeed 3 points away from the 8th seed, BUT they are also tied for the 3rd seed in their division, which means they are ALSO tied for the 6th seed in they playoffs. Get it?

The Pens are trailing the 8th seed by 3 points, but tied with the 6th seed and tied for 3rd in their division. It makes perfect sense! They are 9th place, tied for 6th place and tied for 3rd place ... all at the same time. It's simple! This is a great way to get kids into hockey.

And don't get me started on the Red Wings.

If they refuse to go 1-4 in each division, just go back to the damn 1-8 in each conference already. At least it made sense.

I don't think it's really that complicated at all but I guess they could go back to 1v8 with two division spots awarded or two groups of four in each conference and I wouldn't be upset with any version of it .

Once Seattle is in the league they will be able to have even divisions again so they will probably change it .

Also they are obv not tied they are losing whatever the tiebreaker is for them atm.

 

[Grimmas]

I'd rather see 1-3 in each division then 4-5 in the division play a wild card game winner makes playoffs.

 

[WesMcCauley]

Get rid of the division standings and WC spots. Top 8 teams in each conference get into the playoffs. Team #1 can pick the team they wanna play against in the first round, then team #2 can pick the team they wanna play against etc.

 

[Canadian Game]

I never realized until yesterday when I heard a comment from someone in the NHL (can't remember who) that the reason for having the playoff format the way it is, is to save travel time for some of the western teams. Not a fan of the format either but I guess that's why it's in place... or at least the reason given to the public.

 

[PsYcNeT]

oldmanyellsatcloud.jpeg

 

[Seanaconda]

Get rid of the division standings and WC spots. Top 8 teams in each conference get into the playoffs. Team #1 can pick the team they wanna play against in the first round, then team #2 can pick the team they wanna play against etc.

They would have to change the schedule to make this work fairly . Shorten the season to 64 games and have home v home for every team

 

[TheOtherOne]

It's not really important. Just sort by points and you get all the info you need until the last week, when you can easily find the details like "x needs at least 3 points to grab the last wildcard".

Alternatively, if it really is important to people, we can just add a column "ptp" = "points to playoffs". If the team's currently in a playoff spot, it would be -x where x is the number of points you'd have to subtract to have them out of a spot. If the team's out of the playoffs, it would be +x where x is the number of points you'd have to add to have them in a spot. That would be an easy enough number for a casual fan to understand.

 

[Sky04]

There was nothing wrong with 1-8, this new format has been so stupid.

 

[compan]

It wasn't broken before, so no idea why they tried to fix it. Hopefully it returns back to the old concept when Seattle enters the league at the very latest.

 

[qqaz]

It's fine. If you can't make a wildcard spot, then you don't deserve to be in the playoffs. If there's 5 teams in the Atlantic that are better than PIT, then I'm glad all 5 get to make it.

It would be far dumber to have 1-4 in each division make the playoffs, because then the Habs (as of today) would miss the playoffs even though they have a better record than PIT. Cry me a river about "tied for 3rd" garbage. If your division is trash, then I don't want to see a bunch of those trash teams in the playoffs just because of their division alignment. The current setup means the better team gets in.

 

[Legionnaire11]

1-8 is a better format. But I hardly think it's as difficult as you're making it out to be, to glance at the standings and figure out the wildcard race. Your statement saying the Pens are tied for 3rd is incorrect, and that's why you are personally having such an issue.

 

[Cellee]

1-8 is a better format. But I hardly think it's as difficult as you're making it out to be, to glance at the standings and figure out the wildcard race. Your statement saying the Pens are tied for 3rd is incorrect, and that's why you are personally having such an issue.

Exactly. They are not tied for third. Tie breakers exist in any format. Nobody is "tied".

 

[SwaggySpungo]

It's not really important. Just sort by points and you get all the info you need until the last week, when you can easily find the details like "x needs at least 3 points to grab the last wildcard".

Alternatively, if it really is important to people, we can just add a column "ptp" = "points to playoffs". If the team's currently in a playoff spot, it would be -x where x is the number of points you'd have to subtract to have them out of a spot. If the team's out of the playoffs, it would be +x where x is the number of points you'd have to add to have them in a spot. That would be an easy enough number for a casual fan to understand.

LOL. That's exactly what we need. Another column added to the standings and more math!

 

[SwaggySpungo]

1-8 is a better format. But I hardly think it's as difficult as you're making it out to be, to glance at the standings and figure out the wildcard race. Your statement saying the Pens are tied for 3rd is incorrect, and that's why you are personally having such an issue.

Nope. Pens are tied in points. Tie-breaker is only relevant after all 82 games have been played.

The current system is idiotic. You should be able to look at the standings and know exactly where your teams stands immediately. The NBA is a good example. You look at one page in the newspaper and it's all laid out very simply. You don't need to be adding and subtracting numbers, looking at different divisions, figuring out tie-breakers. Just ridiculous.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Exactly. They are not tied for third. Tie breakers exist in any format. Nobody is "tied".

Incorrect. They are tied at 32 points. The tie-breaker only comes into play after all 82 games have been played.

 

[Cellee]

Incorrect. They are tied. The tie-breaker only comes into play after all 82 games have been played.

If the season ended today you are looking at the order, I am quite certain.

 

[Rygu]

Seeds 1-8 in the conference make it, and 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7 etc is really the only logical way to do it.

However logic isn't really a strong suit of the NHL since it hit around 26 teams.

 

[Seanaconda]

It's fine. If you can't make a wildcard spot, then you don't deserve to be in the playoffs. If there's 5 teams in the Atlantic that are better than PIT, then I'm glad all 5 get to make it.

It would be far dumber to have 1-4 in each division make the playoffs, because then the Habs (as of today) would miss the playoffs even though they have a better record than PIT. Cry me a river about "tied for 3rd" garbage. If your division is trash, then I don't want to see a bunch of those trash teams in the playoffs just because of their division alignment. The current setup means the better team gets in.

If the bottom half of a division is trash then the decent teams will rack up points against them . If anything a strong division makes it harder to get points

 

[razkaz]

How many times has the NHL changed something and went back to it? I doubt they'll ever go back to a 1-8 conference seeding.

Why not make it a 1-20 league wide?

EDIT: would have to change the regular season to make it so there aren't more divisional games vs conference games etc

 

[kmo429]

Not that I am a fan in particular of the playoff format, but if you've followed the NHL for 2 weeks and have 83 IQ points you can figure out who is in and who is out and by how much by looking at the divisional standings for about 40 seconds.