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

[Seanaconda]

People defending this ridiculous system was always hilarious, especially when 6 people are all contradicting each other trying to defend it.

Other sports have wildcard spots . Casual fans are fine .

Idk why the concept of the divisions being their own entity for three spots confuses you .

 

[SwaggySpungo]

I feel like you must be the only person confused about how this works .

Read the thread. Most supporters of this system have no clue.

 

[Cellee]

People defending this ridiculous system was always hilarious, especially when 6 people are all contradicting each other trying to defend it.

So, you took information. presented to you in a way where you knew what he was saying and then decided to overcomplicate it.

Then got upset when someone did the same to you.

 

[Cellee]

Other sports have wildcard spots . Casual fans are fine .

Idk why the concept of the divisions being their own entity for three spots confuses you .

Actually we can all follow this playoff format very easily with no struggle

 

[Section337]

Life isn't fair. when you have 31 teams, a league and a union coming up with solutions they are rarely going to rely on some Math Department to make a decision. They are going to come up with a compromise that everybody will accept without kicking up too big of stink. This also goes for the points handed out in a game.

 

[Seanaconda]

Actually we can all follow this playoff format very easily with no struggle

I was talking about op who seems to be struggling or just purposely making it seem complicated when it's not

 

[Pinkfloyd]

The crossover wild card is not a difficult to concept to understand.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Other sports have wildcard spots . Casual fans are fine .

Idk why the concept of the divisions being their own entity for three spots confuses you .

Divisions aren't the only entity for the NHL, the NBA or MLB. I don't follow the NFL, so I can't speak on that. In MLB, for example, you can play a team from your own division in the 1st round, or you can play the 1st place team from another division.

The irony of those supporting this system continually displaying their confusion is pretty great.

 

[WesMcCauley]

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

Why?

 

[Cellee]

I was talking about op who seems to be struggling or just purposely making it seem complicated when it's not

I actually meant to quote his "no clue" post...my bad

 

[Seanaconda]

Why?

Then every team has the same competition making it the most fair and having the actual best teams in the playoffs .

I don't mind how it is anyways but if you wanted it to be the most fair that's how you would do it.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

I was talking about op who seems to be struggling or just purposely making it seem complicated when it's not

The standings are the issue, not the playoffs. And you seem quite confused yourself.

It should be top 8 in each conference or top 4 in each division. If they want to retain the wildcard, then top 5 in each division with 4 vs. 5 for the 4th seed.

 

[Seanaconda]

The standings are the issue, not the playoffs. And you seem quite confused yourself.

It should be top 8 in each conference or top 4 in each division. If they want to retain the wildcard, then top 5 in each division with 4 vs. 5 for the 4th seed.

So the standings that the casual fans can't possibly follow aren't the issue ? You just want the playoffs the way you want and that's just an opinion .

They will prob go to top 4 in each division with no wildcard once Seattle is in anyways .

 

[SwaggySpungo]

So the standings that the casual fans can't possibly follow aren't the issue ?

I literally just said the standings ARE the issue. A casual fan or a kid should be able to glance at the standings and immediately tell where every team stands, how close your team is to a playoff spot, and who they would be playing in the 1st round, in my opinion.

When you look at the "Wild Card standings", you need to have it stored in your memory which teams and in which divisions for it to fully make sense. Or you have to swap back and forth between "Wild Card standings" and "Division standings". I think it's a bad system.

2018-19 NHL Wild Card Standings | ESPN

They will prob go to top 4 in each division with no wildcard once Seattle is in anyways .

Knowing the NHL, I doubt they will. But I hope they do.

 

[Seanaconda]

I literally just said they ARE the issue.



Knowing the NHL, I doubt they will. But I hope they do.

Anyways you're just mad that the pens division sucks so they are farther to the wild card than third in their division ?

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Anyways you're just mad that the pens division sucks so they are farther to the wild card than third in their division ?

No. I don't care about the Pens. I grew up in the old 4-division format (Smyth, Norris, Adams, Patrick), then 2 conference (East, West). Both were infinitely better than this wild card garbage. I just used the Pens as an example.

 

[Seanaconda]

No. I don't care about the Pens. I grew up in the old 4-division format (Smyth, Norris, Adams, Patrick), then 2 conference (East, West). Both were infinitely better than this wildcard garbage.

The old way would just be 6 or 5 (depending on number of divisions ) wildcard spots and the division winners.

So you could have a team closer to winning their division 2ND than they are to whatever other playoff spot say 6th seed and it would be the same problem as pens closer to third than eighth

 

[Puckstuff]

I agree with OP and I think most people do as well

 

[SwaggySpungo]

The old way would just be 6 or 5 (depending on number of divisions ) wildcard spots and the division winners.

So you could have a team closer to winning their division 2ND than they are to whatever other playoff spot say 6th seed and it would be the same problem as pens closer to third than eighth

You are being disingenuous. The old system had division winners getting the top seeds in each conference. There was no wildcard. Top 8 in each conference made the playoffs. It was very simple.

 

[Seanaconda]

You are being disingenuous. The old system had division winners getting the top seeds in each conference. There was no wildcard. Top 8 in each conference made the playoffs. It was very simple.

Still you could be closer to 2ND place than you were to fifth or sixth place . The version we have right now has the top three for each division and then the two next best teams . Instead of being 2 and 6 it's 6 and 2

 

[These Are The Days]

The wildcard bull is nothing more than an excuse to imitate football and baseball for the sole reason that those fans already know what a wild card is and the NHL wants crossover

 

[Mattilaus]

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

But the 4th and 5th place team just played 82 games to determine who was better. I don't get the desire to give the 5th place team here yet another shot after they've already had 82 of them.

 

[KingsFan7824]

NHL Hockey Standings

Is that really all that complicated?

The wildcard bull is nothing more than an excuse to imitate football and baseball for the sole reason that those fans already know what a wild card is and the NHL wants crossover

The original idea in 2013 was going to be a strict top 4 again. They threw in the wild card because the PA had questions(and/or just wanted to be difficult for CBA negotiations), and to make it fair for the 5th place team in one division or another. Why would it have anything to do with football or baseball? Football and baseball have different playoff formats from each other, and people understand each of them. All 4 sports have different playoff formats from each other. With a minimum amount of reading, you can understand all of them at the same time.

 

[KingsFan7824]

So great watching the same teams play each other in the playoffs every year, in cases like you some years the 2nd round results in 2 high seeded teams playing each other before the conference "finals" which desolves the purpose of seeding. How many rivalries has it generated?

The previous format rewarded top teams with progressively harder matchups as they advance and vice versa for lower teams but of course the NHL doesn't like logic.

You're probably thinking the same teams play each other more often than they do. It's more than 1-8, but it's not that much more. As of right now, there would be 1 similar 1st round series from last year. One that most people won't watch anyway because it's on at 10:30EST.

The league didn't have an issue with the logic behind 1-8. Not to ruin a rant, but that's not why they changed it up.

 

[tony d]

Not a fan of the wild card either. To me it should be 1 vs. 16 league wide playoffs, 1 vs. 8 conference playoffs, or 1 vs. 4 division playoffs. Anything's better than the wild card.