10 Ways To Improve The NHL

[Webhamster]

2. Realign the conferences so that each has an East, Central, and West division...or make the playoffs inter-conference. I'm tired of East vs. West finals every year.

not going to happen. if anything it would create a logistical nightmare with travel costs. I however don't mind a playoff system where you take the top 16 teams and seed them according to record where you have 1 play 16 and 2 play 15 etc. i could go for that.

It works for MLB. But yeah, it's not likely to happen. Moving back to the inter-conference playoff system would be better. But I'd pit 1st v. 9th, 2nd v. 10th to make things a little more exciting. Chances are that 1 vs. 16 will just be a blowout.

3. Move the trading deadline to February 15th in an effort to try to prevent teams from loading up on players from eliminated teams for the playoffs.

the reason eliminated teams trade their players to contending teams is to give the veteran players a shot at the cup. Theres some teams that are eliminated from the playoff by the end of december. So this really wouldn't stop contenders from raiding the eliminated. I do however like moving it up to february, to give players that they do trade for more time with the team to develop chemestry.

But some teams may still have a realistic shot in mid-Feb and wouldn't be easily giving up some of the players they do.

4. Stop awarding the extra point for an overtime/shootout loss (well technically regulation time tie). It's stupid. If you lose, you lose. That's life. Sometimes it sucks. Deal with it.

Yeah i don't like the point system. I rather have a more simplified system. if you win you get 2 points either in regulation or ot/shootout. If you lose in either regulation or ot/shootout, you get nothing.

And really, if we're going to do that, what's the point of the point-based system? Move to a winning percentage/games-behind-leader system.

Points only work if ties are allowed so some teams may end up with an odd number. If everyone ends up with an even number it becomes pretty useless. If there are no ties in the NHL there should be no points.

5. The NHL is the only "major" sports league I can think of that has more than 50% of its teams qualify for the post-season. That's too many. 12 would be good, eight would be better.

i actually like the NHL/NBA system of awarding 16 teams playoff spots. I don't like the idea of awarding only 8 teams a playoff spot. To me it takes the interest out of the season. If my team isn't a lock for the top 4 seeds, then i have lost interest in the rest of the season and i'm on to another sport or something totally different. thats why i really don't watch baseball. i generally don't like watching the same 4 teams year and year out with the occasional cinderella team.

I can see your point and I forgot about the NBA (not a big basketball fan).

And one of my stranger not-fully-fleshed-out notions:

Give the other team the option of trading in a minor penalty (hooking, holding, slashing, boarding, etc) for a penalty shot (except on off-setting penalties), but they can only do it once per game and not in the last 5 minutes of the game (or OT). Like timeouts in football to stop the clock it becomes a strategic call. The player who was the "victim" of the penalty gets to take the shot.

not sure if i like this idea. i'd have to see this in action to judge whether or not its a good idea.

Yeah, like I said, it came up while talking with friends a while ago. I'm not sure how workable it is, it was just a thought. It has the potential to even up a game more than a power-play which is why it has to be limited. Plus, fans love penalty shots. They're dramatic. But I still hate the shootout.

I can't believe that people think the Flyers should be contracted. Sure, we sucked this year, but we still have one of the best fan bases in the league. People in Philly and in surrounding areas actually do care about the team, and how can you get rid of a team with so much history (only 1 Stanley Cup, but tons of great players)?

2 Stanley Cups.

[The_Admiral]

I can't believe that people think the Flyers should be contracted. Sure, we sucked this year, but we still have one of the best fan bases in the league. People in Philly and in surrounding areas actually do care about the team, and how can you get rid of a team with so much history (only 1 Stanley Cup, but tons of great players)?

They won the Cup two years in a row, superfan.