The NHL Playoffs is some of the best sportsball watching available. Outside of the first (and best) in a lifetime Four Nations Cup, which features best on best globally, not much gets better than the intensity of NHL Hockey.
My one gripe is how they restructured the playoff brackets. In the “good old days”, it was conference based, top seed versus 8, and reseed based on who wins the round. Which, using that standard formatting would result in these matchups. The Square brackets are the points differential between the teams.
Eastern Conference
- Washington (1) vs Montreal (8). [20]
- Toronto (2) vs New Jersey (7) [17]
- Tampa Bay (3) vs Ottawa (6) [5]
- Carolina (4) vs Florida (5) [1]
Western Conference
- Winnipeg (1) vs St. Louis (8) [20]
- Vegas (2) vs Minnesota (7) [13]
- Dallas (3) vs Edmonton (6) [5]
- LA (4) vs Colorado (5) [3]
Instead, these are the current matchups.
Eastern Conference
- Washington (1) vs Montreal (8) [20]
- Toronto (2) vs Ottawa (6) [9]
- Tampa Bay (3) vs Florida (5) [4]
- Carolina (4) vs New Jersey (7) [8]
Western Conference
- Winnipeg (1) vs St. Louis (8) [20]
- Vegas (2) vs Minnesota (7) [13]
- Dallas (3) vs Colorado (5) [4]
- LA (4) vs Edmonton (6) [4]
Points wise, things are pretty tight (20 points separate top from bottom in the East AND the West) where Toronto’s point differential difference is 8, which seems to be the big miss and Carolina gets gifted 7 points to play against a much weaker opponent in the first round as they should – at the expense of Toronto. Tampa Bay gets to face the Stanley Cup champions in the first round instead of Ottawa – and ask any Tampa Bay-an who they would rather play (hint: Not Florida).
The west was so tight that even if switched is only a 1 point differential in the swapped matchups but still, I think Colorado would rather be facing LA versus Dallas.
I get why they changed it, to create rivalries but it just doesn’t work well as it also creates imbalanced and boring matchups. Toronto played Tampa Bay 4 years in a row in the first round, and that wasn’t more fun for the fans or players than seeing a different opponent. It also doesn’t reward teams for playing better in the regular season, either.
Still, the hockey is great but I wish they would go back to the better system. I do think they have plenty of opportunities to improve the game in other ways (points for a win = 3, OT win = 2, Shootout = 1, Loss =0 ) as it would prioritize playing to win versus playing to tie, even with 3 on three. The implications of this would be massive, though.
Are you a hockey fan? What (if anything) would you change?
AI generated graphic!
Can’t believe I missed this post for a week! While not a fan of this particular bracket system, there’s so much league parity now that all the first round series themselves are exciting. I’ve spent every night watching something ridiculous come from it, notably the 2 recent game 7s.
I also have tickets to the PWHL (both daughters and my wife play, so it’s really something to see their reaction) and I think their system has some nice tweaks. The #1 team gets to pick their opponent… imagine the types of matchups we’d get from that. Not everything there works, but the jailbreak rule, no change on penalty, and point system are some things that would have some neat implications in the NHL.
It’s truly a sport of attrition and survival. The team doctors are busy as bees.