NHL playoffs expanding?

[HedleyLamarr]

Mad Mac, your math is off. It would be 20 out of the 30 teams, not 24 teams, under this planned format.

Anyway, this would possibly water down the regular season. Hell, over half of the league goes on to the postseason. Why add more teams?

Read the actual text. 4 from each Conference is what's listed above.

16 current +

4 from the East +

4 from the West

24 teams

20 or 24 - either way, its too damned many.

If it's 24 teams, how will they have 4 rounds of best-of-7 afterwards?

I don't want this preliminary round. It will cheapen the worth or the 7th and 8th seeds that are hard earned and give the 9th and 10th seeds who legitimately missed the playoffs a last chance at redemption.

--Roger "Time?" Clemente.

Easy. Use a 16-team bracket, and the top 4 teams get a bye.

1 bye

8 vs. 9

4 bye

5 vs. 12

2 bye

7 vs. 10

3 bye

6 vs. 11

[Mac the Knife]

I really can't see how that would be good for anyone. I mean, you'd take 4 bubble teams, two of which probably have losing records, and have them play an extra round for the right to face the top 2 seeded teams?

So you'd have one of two things happen:

1. Your lowest seeds reach the 'real' playoffs tired, against a rested top seed, and get blown out anyway.

or

2. Your "rested' top seeds come out stale from not playing for a week and get bounced by some 10th-ranked squad that managed to wait until the end of April to get hot.

Sorry, but I'm with Dick Van Patten on this.

Yeah, but then there's the third thing:

3. Increased revenue for the teams involved, and for the NHL as a whole.

Which is what its all about.

[winters in buffalo]

Yeah, but then there's the third thing:

3. Increased revenue for the teams involved, and for the NHL as a whole.

Which is what its all about.

Ah, but increased revenue from more games for only those lower seeded teams. The top teams don't get extra games. Playoff revenue comes from home games, hence the incentive to finish high and host more playoff games.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

the top 16 getting in is enough. if you can't be in the top 16, then you don't belong in the playoffs.

personally i'd like to see the conference seeding done away with and have the teams seeded 1 - 16 based on overall points and end the division winners being entitled to the top 6 seeds. 1 play 16, 2 play 17 and so on.

for example if the playoffs started tonight:

1. Detroit*

2. Carolina*

3. Dallas*

4. Ottawa*

5. Buffalo

6. Nashville

7. Calgary*

8. New York Rangers*

9. New Jersey

10. San Jose

11. Philadelphia

12. Anaheim

13. Colorado

14. Montreal

15. Edmonton

16. Tampa Bay

*Denotes Division winner

Note:

Dallas and Ottawa are tied for points, so i used games won as the tie braker

New Jersey, San Jose and Philadelphia are are tied for points; New jersey had more points than SJ and Philly so they would get the 9th seed. San Jose and Philly had identical records and points, so i used goals scored as the tie braker. SJ had more goals scored than Philly, so SJ gets the 10th seed and Philly gets the 11th seed.

Montreal and Edmonton are tied for points; i used games won as the tie braker and thus Montreal gets the 14th seed and Edmonton the 15th seed.

if the playoffs started heres the matches that would go down:

16. Tampa Bay vs. 1. Detroit

15. Edmonton vs. 2. Carolina

14. Montreal vs. 3. Dallas

13. Colorado vs. 4. Ottawa

12. Anaheim vs. 5. Buffalo

11. Philadelphia vs. 6. Nashville

10. San Jose vs. 7. Calgary

9. New Jersey vs. 8. New York Rangers

if the top 8 seeds advanced:

8. New York Rangers vs. 1. Detroit

7. Calgary vs. 2. Carolina

6. Nashville vs. 3. Dallas

5. Buffalo vs. 4. Ottawa

Then the top 4:

4. Ottawa vs. 1. Detroit

3. Dallas vs. 2. Carolina

SCF:

2. Carolina vs. 1. Detroit

obviously this is in a more perfect world but to mearly show an example of how the seeding would work round after round. however theoretically the west or east could be completely gone after the first couple of rounds. setting up an either all east final or all west final.

[OOJ]

Heck, why not just go all the way and have all 30 teams make the playoffs!

[Stampman]

Ugh. The playoffs drag on for months already. If anything, they should cut the number of teams down, although that would make the brackets uneven.

It's the opposite of MLB, where not nearly enough teams get in.

If anything, the NHL should cut the regular season down by 20 games, and have best of five opening playoff round.

I love hockey--but yeah--the playoffs can drag on and on now--although it was exciting in 2004--well it was for me--most of the way.

I'd rather see the number stay at 16, and shorten the regular season a bit.

When the NHL first went to 4 playoff rounds the first round was a best of 3 then a best of 5 before changing to best of 7.

[OMMF]

BTW, OMMF, where'd you get your hands on an electronic copy of the CBA?

I have sources. It's a prelim copy as I understand they aren't completely finished with the full thing.

PM me and I'll see if I can email it to you.

[OMMF]

if the playoffs started heres the matches that would go down:

15. Edmonton vs. 2. Carolina

14. Montreal vs. 3. Dallas

13. Colorado vs. 4. Ottawa

12. Anaheim vs. 5. Buffalo

That's some murderous travel. Those series would have to be 2-3-2 to save on time, travel and costs.

[Mac the Knife]

Ah, but increased revenue from more games for only those lower seeded teams. The top teams don't get extra games. Playoff revenue comes from home games, hence the incentive to finish high and host more playoff games.

Right: increased revenue for teams that wouldn't get it otherwise. The higher seeded teams are going to get theirs, so why not expand the playoffs (without, technically, expanding them in their eyes) and give these teams some extra bucks they otherwise wouldn't get?

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

if the playoffs started heres the matches that would go down:

15. Edmonton vs. 2. Carolina

14. Montreal vs. 3. Dallas

13. Colorado vs. 4. Ottawa

12. Anaheim vs. 5. Buffalo

That's some murderous travel. Those series would have to be 2-3-2 to save on time, travel and costs.

that would be a very big con in having a 1-16 seeding would be the travel. your right though, teams would have to switch to a 2-3-2 format or go to a 5 game series for the first round. im not sure why teams don't go 2-3-2 anyway, i've never been a fan of 2-2-1-1-1, i think most teams would prefer a 2-3-2 system.

[HedleyLamarr]

if the playoffs started heres the matches that would go down:

15. Edmonton vs. 2. Carolina

14. Montreal vs. 3. Dallas

13. Colorado vs. 4. Ottawa

12. Anaheim vs. 5. Buffalo

That's some murderous travel. Those series would have to be 2-3-2 to save on time, travel and costs.

They should make all series 2-3-2 to cut down on travel.

[OMMF]

if the playoffs started heres the matches that would go down:

15. Edmonton vs. 2. Carolina

14. Montreal vs. 3. Dallas

13. Colorado vs. 4. Ottawa

12. Anaheim vs. 5. Buffalo

That's some murderous travel. Those series would have to be 2-3-2 to save on time, travel and costs.

They should make all series 2-3-2 to cut down on travel.

The drawback, even if you don't believe in home-ice advantage, is that all you have to do is split the first two then, all of a sudden, the lower seeded team gets 3 games at home and winning all three nets them the series. Same amount of games in the same places but the arrangement does make a small difference.

[spyboy1]

If I ruled the world, things would be different.

I'd have just FOUR divisions playing a schedule that had all NHL teams playing each other once home and away. The rest of the schedule would be played within your division.

When the playoffs come the top four teams in each division would make the playoffs, with 1 against 4 and 2 playing 3 WITHIN your own division. The winners advance to play for the "division title".

This builds rivalries much more than the current, stupid unbalanced regular season schedule which kept Kovalchuk, Lecavalier, Jagr, Brodeur, Crosby and Ovechkin from visiting Vancouver, Colorado, Edmonton, Minnesota and Calgary at all this year.

Then, and here's my favorite part, the remaining four teams that advance from their divisions are RESEEDED 1-4 based on regular season points, REGARDLESS of East/West conferences.

This eliminates the possiblity of two lesser teams getting hot in the playoffs in one conference and forcing the best two remaining teams to meet in the semi-finals and ALSO opens up the possiblity of some killer rivalires meeting once again in the finals.

JeffB

[OMMF]

*bump*

Bumped to provide link for full and official CBA.

http://www.nhlpa.com/CBA/2005CBA.asp

[CC97]

if the playoffs started heres the matches that would go down:

15. Edmonton vs. 2. Carolina

nice.

[ninersdd]

Dallas and Edmonton were like 2000 miles away from each other when they played each other so travel might not be as much of a factor as it seems