What's the upside to this playoff format?

[NyQuil]

But as I've said before if the West fans prefers division as I think we do, and East wants conference, I don't see why the East can't be one big conference and the West keep the division format.

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

 

[TCL40]

I can think of 2.

Travel wise it’s easier for the western conference teams.

For teams in weak divisions, they get an easier road to the Conference final and can watch top teams beat each other and wear each other down.

 

[StreetHawk]

So what you’re saying is that those start times suck for everyone. You’re making my argument for me. The 1-8 system made the matchups between central and pacific teams far more frequent.

If we fast forward to when Seattle enters the mix, the NHL will have 7 PST teams in SEA, VAN, Vegas, LA, SJ, Ana along with AZ which does not observe daylight savings, thus is on PST during the playoffs.

CAL, EDM, COL are Mountain time.

STL, DAL, NAS, CHI, MIN, WIN are Central time.

If the NHL takes the fact that AZ will be PST during the playoffs, they may opt to swap CAL and EDM to the Central and move COL to the Pacific Division if they are going to maintain a division based playoff system. This allows for the first 2 rounds in the WEST to be played mostly in PST or CST.

Going to a 1-8 system puts it all out of whack. Is it a reward for a Nashville to have to travel to LA during round 1? Or a division winner on the west coast to have to go to Dallas or Minnesota in round 1?

You could justify having the EAST doing a 1-8 format since there is no time zone consideration. But, in the West, you probably want to have it division based. They did use 2-3-2 format back it the 90's, but the higher seeded team didn't like having fewer home games than the lower seed during the series.

 

[Chimpradamus]

Short answer, none.

Long answer, it's idiotic and makes no sense.

You're supposed to see repeat series between powerhouse divisional rivals which drives rivalries.

Maybe we haven't given it enough time.

If you're still seeing a good match-up a round or two earlier, who cares?

You're still getting to see that series.

Artificial rivalry and artificial parity. That's what you get in an entertainment business and not a sports league. You can't create artificial rivalries and there will never be rivalries like they used to be.

 

[backburner]

I personally love nothing more than a flyers penns game, followed by flyer vs devils or rangers .

Format works in my favor

 

[Hobble]

It sucked to be a Jets fan in the old days, when we were stuck playing Edmonton in the 2nd round.

But hey, Oilers were the best back then so we had to play through them eventually.

If your team isn't good enough to beat the Nashville's and Pittsburgh's in the 2nd round, who cares if they play them in the 3rd round. Just saves you 1 round of playoff ticket money.

 

[Sniper99]

Biggest upside is only having to deal with Leafs fans for one round.

awh, who kicked your dog?

 

[Deflectrick]

To be the best you need to beat the best doesn’t matter what round.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that but I would much rather watch the best of each conference play in the 3rd round instead of the 2nd.

 

[MessierII]

I don’t think anyone is arguing that but I would much rather watch the best of each conference play in the 3rd round instead of the 2nd.

I mean theoretically the best two teams should play in the final too. The only pure way to seed is 1-16 and it’s just not practical. I like the current format. Builds great rivalries like the 80’s.

 

[tony d]

I like this format sans the wild cards (Should be top 4 teams in each division), it's a good format and I hope it stays.

 

[Frank the Tank]

The league tipped their hand when the original 2013-14 proposal to change the playoffs format was made. They want to get rid of conferences, which makes 1-8 irrelevant. They also proposed that the semi-finals would be reseeded based on the records of the playoff division winners.

My guess is that it will happen once Seattle joins the league and re-balances the divisions with 8 teams each.

 

[JianYang]

Yeah, I don't hate this format. It's a bit of throwback to pre bettman days, when you played divisional opponents in the first two rounds. Those games were nasty because of the familiarity.

It's not perfect, but it's more fun for the average fan to see a geographic rivalry, usually.

 

[CuriousGeorge]

#4 is playing #2 in both conference- not just Leafs/Bruins, but Wild/Jets.

We saw this last year with Columbus/Pittsburgh (2 vs. 3), but also St. Louis/Chicago in 2016 (4th place Hawks whom under the old format host a 5 seed had to play the #2 team in the West and #4 overall in that stacked Blues team).

I get it, I get it, the NHL wants rivalries and they want to recapture why some people loved that 80s/90s format.... but when some divisions are really stacked, it just doesn't feel right.

TB/BOS and WPG/NSH if form holds will be 2 conference final caliber matchups in round 2! Same thing happened with STL/DAL and PIT/WSH 2 years ago.

It kinda hurts the third round (4 of the 8 conference finals since 2014 would have been 2nd round showdowns if you reseeded).

It almost feels like if you're a strong #3/#4 team in your conference, this format doesn't reward it like it used to.

If you want the format changed, it would be better to send a letter to the NHL.

 

[Roomtemperature]

To be the best you need to beat the best doesn’t matter what round.

The best team still wins the cup so I really, really don't care.

It does matter what round because players are humans and get tired and beat up. If you face a tougher opponent first you are more likely to be picked off in the 3rd round by a team that had a worse regular season but an easier way to the Conference Final. It makes the regular season pointless and not really a reward to do well and more just dumb luck. At least with a 1 to 8 format you determine in theory how tough your road will be to the conference finals.

I hate when people ignore this point with the "Got to beat the best teams" statement

 

[Hostile Offer]

It does matter what round because players are humans and get tired and beat up. If you face a tougher opponent first you are more likely to be picked off in the 3rd round by a team that had a worse regular season but an easier way to the Conference Final. It makes the regular season pointless and not really a reward to do well and more just dumb luck. At least with a 1 to 8 format you determine in theory how tough your road will be to the conference finals.

I hate when people ignore this point with the "Got to beat the best teams" statement

In the last two playoffs the Pens had to beat the Presidents' winning Caps in the second round. Did that stop them in ihe third round? Imo you're overthinking this. There is such parity in the league anyway that after the first round practically all the series are really tough no matter who you're facing.

 

[Roomtemperature]

In the last two playoffs the Pens had to beat the Presidents' winning Caps in the second round. Did that stop them in ihe third round? Imo you're overthinking this. There is such parity in the league anyway that after the first round practically all the series are really tough no matter who you're facing.

Shouldn't this prove my point in that if the Capitals had the better regular season so they should have had the Penguins when they faced a tougher 2nd round then them thus easier to face as a reward for their regular season? (Yes I know about the Capitals in the 2nd round but that's the point)

 

[Hostile Offer]

Shouldn't this prove my point in that if the Capitals had the better regular season so they should have had the Penguins when they faced a tougher 2nd round then them thus easier to face as a reward for their regular season? (Yes I know about the Capitals in the 2nd round but that's the point)

Well, I mean, the Caps got the easier matchup in the first round (at least based on regular season standings) both years so they got their "reward" but still couldn't beat the Pens. I get where you're coming from but I don't think it matters a whole lot.

 

[Roomtemperature]

Well, I mean, the Caps got the easier matchup in the first round (at least based on regular season standings) both years so they got their "reward" but still couldn't beat the Pens. I get where you're coming from but I don't think it matters a whole lot.

No the reward of a great regular season should go through the whole playoffs in theory. Why not?

 

[supsens]

You're supposed to see repeat series between powerhouse divisional rivals which drives rivalries.

Maybe we haven't given it enough time.

If you're still seeing a good match-up a round or two earlier, who cares?

You're still getting to see that series.

And there is a better chance of an upset in round two if there hasn’t already been one so it’s even more likely you never get to see the powerhouse battle everyone wants

 

[Hostile Offer]

No the reward of a great regular season should go through the whole playoffs in theory. Why not?

Well it does, as the team with the better regular season gets the home ice advantage. As far as the teams go, I don't think the "reward" you're talking about is as big as you make it out to be.

 

[Roomtemperature]

Well it does, as the team with the better regular season gets the home ice advantage. As far as the teams go, I don't think the "reward" you're talking about is as big as you make it out to be.

It dissipates in the later rounds true but the fact you can be number 3 and play 4 in the first round furthers devalues any value and interest in the regular season for the 3 to 6 point getters in the conferenc3

 

[Hostile Offer]

It dissipates in the later rounds true but the fact you can be number 3 and play 4 in the first round furthers devalues any value and interest in the regular season for the 3 to 6 point getters in the conferenc3

Well I guess it might have some sort of impact in the last few games of the season but is it really much of an issue? Mind you, I don't think this playoff format is better than the old one, people are just way overreacting about it imo.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

There is no upside.

 

[HandshakeLineRespect]

Preds, Jets, Bolts, Bruins, Leafs all get hosed this year.

 

[BMOK33]

I think it needs to be reseeded after the first round.