Should Gary Bettman and the NHL RETHINK the Current Divisional Playoff Format?

The playoffs are almost here, and the Black Hawks are not in it, and it's surprisingly.

Oh man.

If only they were in the Pacific Division, which is not-

They'd still be not in the playoffs.

They'd still be not in the playoffs.

But closer.

But they'd be closer.

Absolutely.

The Pacific Division this year, it's been-

A pillow fight.

Joaked about forever.

Yeah, Connor McDavid called it a pillow fight, and that's pretty accurate.

Which has me thinking, and I think we've-

A lot of people have been thinking about this for years, and I think we've-

A lot of people have been thinking about this for years.

Understood where the NHL was, when they switched the playoffs format to the wildcard,

they wanted to grow some regional rivalries with teams that are more familiar in the division,

guaranteeing matchups against each other.

You want to make sure that a really good team isn't left out simply because of the 1-8 game?

I don't think it's accomplished what it has set out to accomplish.

The biggest gripe that has just been constant, and it happens every year,

is that you're running into first and second round games, or matchups.

That should be, if it's-

A lot of times, a first round matchup is like, man, one of these teams could have won the whole thing,

and they're out.

And then a second round matchups, how many years, seemingly in a row,

did Pittsburgh and Washington always meet?

And it was just like, those were the best two teams in the East,

and one of them's out in the second round, and we're going to run into a situation this year,

where it's likely, like, Dallas and Colorado could potentially meet in the second round.

And it's just like, well, those are the two best teams of the Western Conference,

and one of them's not going to be in the final.

And look, you've got Dallas and Minnesota, if it started, we're going on Thursday night,

where the Sandings are at.

You've got Dallas and Minnesota in the first round.

Right.

So one of the three best teams in the West has gone right away.

You've got Tampa and Montreal in the East, two teams that could certainly make a run.

Maybe Montreal is a little bit further down in that Stanley Cup favorite list,

but it wouldn't be the most shocking thing to see them jump up.

But it just, it just feels like, you know what,

appreciated what you were trying to do.

See it, give it, let's give it a few years to see if it works.

I really don't feel like around the league that existing rivalries have gotten more intense,

or that new ones have been born.

And I think what was great about the one through eight format that they'd used forever

is that it was really good at developing non-traditional rivalries.

Right.

The Hawks and Connox are nowhere near each other.

That was the best rivalry and hockey for a long time.

Yeah.

For the three, four years, it was, it was those two.

And they met up every year, basically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I think the, when they made the change, like I understood what they were going for,

and especially like trying to market the league,

and, you know, you marketed the rivalries, and the original six was like a,

was, they went hard on that to, you know, push the, the, the league and, and the sport.

But I think it's changed now.

It's changed now to where, you know, teams are not necessarily the push.

It's the players.

And, and I think, you know, the rivalries are born from the highest intensity situations,

and that's the playoffs.

It doesn't matter if, you know, it's, it's Chicago and St. Louis or something like that.

Like if it's a play or, or it's randomly, Edmonton and Anaheim or something.

Yeah.

If it's the playoffs, it's going to be intense.

It doesn't, it doesn't need to have to be a set in stone.

This is already a rivalry.

They meet six times a year.

And now it's the playoffs.

And now, like, no.

Because it's already established.

Yeah.

It's already established.

But these teams are going to face off in the best of seven.

And it's the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So it's basically murder is allowed.

And it's going to be, it's going to be the most intense hockey you've seen.

What's not changed that?

And, and it doesn't, it doesn't matter if it's a already standing rivalry or not.

It's like the intensity is going to be there.

So I think if you were able to, if you were able to go back to a different setup,

if it was back to the, the one through eight in the conference,

you would still accomplish matching up teams that are going to, and, and even still,

like, you would still match up teams that could be rivalries when you wanted to see them.

And the point of even, even if it is one through eight and you're taking out the divisional.

So let's look at it again.

This is using Thursday night standings.

Currently, Carolina would face Columbus.

Pitted rivalry.

Yeah, right.

Pittsburgh and the islanders Buffalo, Boston, Tampa, Montreal.

There's your East matchups.

That, if it, if I started today, that's what it would be.

Your West is Colorado LA, Dallas, Minnesota, Anaheim, Utah, Edmonton, Vegas.

Dallas, Minnesota.

I mean, it's just a, it's a great series.

Yeah, but it's like that could be the West fine.

It couldn't, maybe should be.

Yeah.

If not, if somehow Colorado falls off.

Now, if you switch to the one through eight, tell me that this doesn't feel more satisfying.

As a hockey fan, as a hockey consumer, Carolina Columbus, Buffalo, New York,

Islanders, lightning, penguins, Canadians, Bruins.

Now, there you go.

That feels right.

And you still feel like that's arrival.

Yeah.

And like, could Columbus be Carolina?

Maybe.

But I think the other thing too is you earn the best record in the Eastern Conference.

You should have the easiest matchup automatically.

And the wild card, too, doesn't necessarily guarantee that that is the worst playoff team.

That's what I don't love about it.

So Western Conference would be Colorado LA, Dallas, Vegas, Minnesota, Utah, Anaheim, Edmonton.

Those feel like the favorites have earned their favorite spots.

That's what it should be.

And it should be.

That's what it feels like it should be.

Yes.

That feels fair.

And it also doesn't feel like none of those lower seats have a chance.

But you don't feel like you're going to lose one of the best teams in the league right off the hop.

And you are guaranteed in the current format that either the wild or stars are going away in the first round.

Right.

And that's, I don't think that's right.

Yeah.

No, they could lose to the, they could lose the wild could end up losing their first round matchups.

Right.

Sure.

But you're, you're asking them to potentially, in the wild and the first round have to beat the co favorites for the West.

Right.

That's true.

Yeah.

It doesn't, I don't, I'm not a big fan of that because you want it to get, you want your best teams to get the furthest because that's, that's what everyone wants to see.

Yeah.

And yeah, there are, there have been some really good teams that have gone on runs as eight seats.

And maybe are they traditional eight seats?

No, but like they're, they just land up and end up in the wild card.

But yeah, I mean, you want to give your best teams the, the advantage because that's, that's what they earn.

Right.

That's right.

Yeah.

If you were to, if you were to tell Minnesota, like you'd, one, you don't get home ice and you're facing, you know, in, in division, like cup favorite.

Yeah.

It's kind of a rough draw.

That's really tough.

Yeah.

All right.

And just for fun, we ran it.

If they went one through 16 and ignored conferences, conferences out of it.

So you'd have Colorado, Washington, Carolina, Philly, Buffalo Detroit.

Dallas, Ottawa, Tampa, Anaheim, Montreal, Columbus, Minnesota, and the islanders, Boston and Pittsburgh.

Of the 16, four Western conferences seems to make the playoffs.

Yeah.

It solves your travel problems.

Sure.

Yeah.

It stays an East Coast favorable setup there.

But I mean, you look at the Eastern conference and you look at the wild card race and almost every team in the wild card race would leave.

The Pacific division or, you know, it's just, it, it's just silly.

And if you were to go through the one through 16, like all those teams, you'd say, like, yeah.

Like even though right now they're not playoff teams, those teams are better than the wild card teams in the West.

Like without a question.

So if you were to go through this format, you say, well, yeah, you took the best teams possible.

And I think travel aside that sets up for finding out who the best teams in the league are.

Like the fact that teams like Detroit and Ottawa who have had good seasons potentially could miss the playoffs.

Like for the league, that, that stinks because you're, you're leaving out really good teams, you're leaving out really good players.

Again, like I think the, the one through 16, I don't think it will works because then it will never do it.

You would, you would basically, you'd take away divisions and conferences.

You would just say everyone plays everybody twice and then teams regionally you play more often.

But you've mentioned the first round of Anaheim Tampa would be quite the hellish travel for that.

That would definitely suck for that.

That's insane.

Yes, that would be rough.

But that's really the only one that I want you to be rough to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know.

They'll never do that.

But appreciate the effort that the NHL made in trying to try something different.

Yeah.

Trying to ramp up some rivalries.

It hasn't worked.

Let's go back to one versus eight.

It just feels a lot more sense.

You know, we need to go back to the playing round.

Oh, I will play off format that way the Hawks can get in.

They can win a playoffs series.

All right.

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