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

[KCC]

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.

Yeah, it has never been very popular since the switch. The majority seem to agree that the old 1-8 system was fine the way it was.

 

[hockeyguy272]

The 1-8 system was and still would be an improvement, but that's not because the current system is too tough to understand.

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

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.

I agree that it needs to go 1-8 like the old days.

However, I think the league should take it to the next level and make it a league wide 1-16 and use the MLB format 2-3-2 for the series to cutdown on the travel. Would make for some really interesting matchups.

 

[aufheben]

The 1-8 system was and still would be an improvement, but that's not because the current system is too tough to understand.

Exactly lmao

Although personally I’ve never had a problem with the “new” one.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

I agree that it needs to go 1-8 like the old days.

However, I think the league should take it to the next level and make it a league wide 1-16 and use the MLB format 2-3-2 for the series to cutdown on the travel. Would make for some really interesting matchups.

I think time zones are more of an issue. I don't think the Leafs want 10:30 pm start times for the playoffs and the Canucks don't want 4:30 pm.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

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.

My personal preference is 1-4 division, but like you said, anything is better than what we have now.

 

[Kismet]

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



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

So, there wouldn't be an issue if the wild card standings included a column that showed the division for each team?

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

I think time zones are more of an issue. I don't think the Leafs want 10:30 pm start times for the playoffs and the Canucks don't want 4:30 pm.

Playoff day games :-D

 

[These Are The Days]

Why would it have anything to do with football or baseball?

Because the average baseball and football fans who don't watch hockey already know what a wildcard is and this offers immediate familiarity and the idea of some exciting push for the playoffs. Especially since those new to hockey are probably more likely to give it a try during the playoffs.

I am acutely aware of how stupid this sounds. But I also know the NHL has spent more time and money than I can count to reach out to new audiences and grow the product. I doubt they just went ahead and destroyed the best playoff format they had just because it was time to do something new. I think it's the result of research

All in all they did it because they figured out it would make the most money and I do believe they purposely modeled themselves after successful leagues hoping for crossover due to said similarity

 

[bossram]

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.

The issue with the standings isn't that it's complicated. It doesn't take much intelligence to figure out how it works. I mean, general sports fans will already be familiar, as the NFL and MLB have wildcard divisional systems too.

The issue is that it's not fair. It doesn't reward good teams. Teams with fewer points can actually be seeded higher than others. Or teams that are really 2-3 in the entire league may have to play a first-round matchup.

 

[end]

1-8 without divisions is disgusting. That ain't tradition. 1-4 division is obviously the ultimate, but the wild card prevents really stupid things from happening. So the wild card should stay, though it should have a proviso that if the wild cards are split between divisions, teams default to their appropriate division. I don't care about 'unfair seeding'. This is not a bye league.

If you really want to see good regular season teams rewarded for being good in the regular season, why not just skip the playoffs and hand the Cup to the points leader? That's really rewarding good teams. The tournament exists to find divisional champions, then conference champions, then league champions; it does not exist to reward teams for their regular season record.

 

[Ace]

In a league where some games are worth 3 total points and others are worth 2 how we seed the teams that make the playoffs is a low priority. Let’s fix the point share first.

 

[wetcoast]

I'm actually a fan of 1-16, ie 1 plays 16, 2 plays 15 ect...

That way it will be more likely that the 2 best teams make the finals and some of those eastern teams will appreciate what western teams go through in terms of travel.

 

[Liver King]

id like to see wildcard games like the NFL where you play to make it into the playoffs

team 1-7 make it

teams 8-11 play 1 game elimination tournament (8 vs 11 / 9 vs 10 / winner vs winner) - last team takes the 8th playoff spot.

6 awesome games to kickoff the playoffs

more teams with the potential to make the playoffs = hopefully more deadline action

 

[joepeps]

how about the Atlantic and Central having the top 3 teams and they have to play each other in round 1 and 2...

NHL is a joke of a league.

 

[Bladerunner]

My big two takeaways from skimming this thread.

1) Many think we should go to a 1-8 playoff format. But we won't cause Gary and it's the NHL.

2) There are may ways that Pittsburgh is close to a playoff spot, but are not in a playoff spot. All at the moment.
Update Pitt just lost to a WC bottom feeder.
So there are still may ways that Pittsburgh is close to a playoff spot, but are not in a playoff spot. All at the moment

 

[Bladerunner]

how about the Atlantic and Central having the top 3 teams and they have to play each other in round 1 and 2...

NHL is a joke of a league.

How about when the Caps and Pens faced off in the 2nd round it was essentially the real EC Finals.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

1-8 without divisions is disgusting. That ain't tradition. 1-4 division is obviously the ultimate, but the wild card prevents really stupid things from happening. So the wild card should stay, though it should have a proviso that if the wild cards are split between divisions, teams default to their appropriate division. I don't care about 'unfair seeding'. This is not a bye league.

If you really want to see good regular season teams rewarded for being good in the regular season, why not just skip the playoffs and hand the Cup to the points leader? That's really rewarding good teams. The tournament exists to find divisional champions, then conference champions, then league champions; it does not exist to reward teams for their regular season record.

How can you have divisional champions if you want to keep the asinine wildcard? A team from the Atlantic can win the Metropolitan division. So dumb.

 

[22Brad Park]

Playoff format is a joke.A team with less points SHOULD NEVER be seeded higher then teams with more.

 

[joepeps]

How about when the Caps and Pens faced off in the 2nd round it was essentially the real EC Finals.

It was BS lol and I complained about it. It's not just stupid because it's the leafs... it's stupid because it makes no sense.

Its a flawed system from the start... I didn't like pitts playing washington all the time.

 

[48g90a138pts]

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.

I'm sure they went with the wildcard format because inferior teams were heading to the post season, and 1 or 2 teams with better records were missing out.

Also the NHL wouldn't want too many teams in weak divisions going into cruise control before the playoffs. With this system it keeps not only the fans of more teams engaged with the playoff hunt but the teams have to compete to the end season more often.

The league wants to keep as many teams possible eligible for the playoffs for as long as possible. Something something ratings.

I don't see them changing the format anytime soon.

 

[Field of Dreams]

Prefer the old 1-8 format. Not that the new system is confusing or anything like that. I would prefer to see regular season success be rewarded in a meaningful way.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

1-8 has to happen. Far better.

 

[txpd]

Yeah, it has never been very popular since the switch. The majority seem to agree that the old 1-8 system was fine the way it was.

I think the data shows that it is popular. The playoffs in recent years have been great and the tv numbers have been strong. The revenue has been strong.

 

[txpd]

1-8 has to happen. Far better.

You mean the no divisions 1-8. Yes?