c9777666
Registered User
- Aug 31, 2016
- 19,892
- 5,876
#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.
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.