This reads like a junior high essay struggling to hit the word count. The issue isn’t even seeding – the idea that teams get unfavorable matchups in the playoffs is totally irrelevant. If you want to win the cup you have to go through multiple teams, if the matchups scare you, you shouldn’t be in the playoffs anyway. There is a real argument about how we reward trips to overtime, which seems to be what this author is hinting at, but he used ChatGPT to write the article so it never hit that depth.
Megatriorchis
I’ve never been a fan of division seeding. If an entire division is at the bottom of the conference, that whole division should take the post season off.
As an aside, one point for OTL makes certainly doesn’t help the situation where wildcard teams have more points than seeds. Points that can just appear from the ether when the game is tied after regulation is stupidity.
GroundbreakingCow775
I hate this format even though I doubt it has impacted my team any 🥺
IndependentTalk4413
I grew up back when each division had 5 teams and 4 made the playoffs. Playoffs were 1v4 2v3 in the 1st round and much like today stayed in the division 2nd rd. Division winners faced off in the Conference finals.
So, today’s format seems very familiar and I don’t hate it and I lived through the 80s as a Canucks fan vs the Oilers/Flames teams every damn year. The rivalry thing was much bigger but granted, back then Smythe was Western Canada + LA.
mattcojo2
Dude I have no issue with the playoff format.
TheWeakestLink1
There are no easy teams in the playoffs. At some point, you have to beat one or two of the Avs, Stars, Oilers, Rangers, Panthers, hurricanes regardless of the bracket. Complaining that the jets didnt get to play the predators is dumb. No one wanted to play them cause they were the hottest team going into it. At the end of the day, you need to win 16 games against the top teams in the league.
If anything, the fact that the stars drew vegas in the first round is much worse for them. Hey, congrats on winning the conference, heres the stanley cup champions with an extra $10 mil of salary.
RhythmTimeDivision
Rangers 114, Carolina 111, Florida 110, Boston 109.
Dallas 113, Vancouver 109, Colorado 107, Edmonton 104, (Vegas 98)
Carolina is a good example of the forced division focus, but the Rangers missing Boston or Dallas (assuming they win) missing Edmonton would be better. Totally agree the first two rounds are fucked by this format.
LionBig1760
Memo for Toronto fans: changing the playoff format isn’t going to fix your problems.
sovieeee
if you want the cup, you’ll have to beat the best team at some point. 1st round or cup final, doesn’t matter, if you can’t beat the best team, you’re not winning the cup. stop blaming the format, your team isn’t good enough.
4four4MN
Honestly, I don’t care. The winner earned the Stanley Cup every year.
RICHAPX
My main problem with this format is the play offs get less interesting as they go on. Boston/Toronto first round great, Vancouver/Edmonton round 2, amazing. But after that the rivalries are gone and it’s just less interesting
CardiCopia
This format does not reward a team for playing well during the regular season. Dumb 1-8 seeding makes way more sense
OhioState1001
The entire east would been the exact same if you did 1-8 for the conference
Mauri416
Maple leaf fan/journalist writes think piece after his team can’t be a better team in the playoffs for a Toronto centric sports media platform. Cool
You need to beat good teams to win in the playoffs, if you can’t, you get bounced
JayBeeTea25
This complaint again? I’m curious what the article says, but not curious enough to reward them with a click. So let’s say the NHL went with the old 1-8 format. This year in the east we’d have..
1 Rangers vs. 8 Caps
2 Canes vs. 7 Islanders
3 Panthers vs. 6 Lightning
stop me if you’ve heard this before..
4 Bruins vs. 5 Leafs
I might be missing something, but that’s no change at all.
In the west?
1 Dallas vs. 8 LTIR
2 Jets vs. 7 Kings
3 Canucks vs. 6 Preds
4 Avs vs. 5 Oilers
So half the series stay the same? If we reward the division champs with the top 2 seeds in their conference, you’d have Panthers/Islanders and Canes/Lightning in the east and Canucks/Kings and Jets/Preds in the west which still leaves the 2 matchups I’ve seen the most complaints about intact, Dallas/Vegas and Leafs/Bruins. The Panthers probably have an easier first round matchup as division champs in the Islanders, but the Leafs still lose to the Bruins in round 1 and let’s be honest that’s what most of the complaining is about.
dbag3o1
Please just put us out of our misery, company!
moutonbleu
“The solution is dead simple: Seed teams one through eight, then reseed after each round. The best regular-season teams get the easiest path. The teams that just sneak through as the 8-seeds have to play tougher opponents as they progress.”
Amen. This “regional rivalry” set up is stupid. Does any other professional sport league do it this way? Last chart I saw was the NHL is #7 or #8 in popularity in the U.S.
ThadTheImpalzord
Dear God please go back to the 1vs8 format. I can only see the same match up every year for so long. They’re not even rivalries anymore, it’s predictable af.
Proskills500
Maybe it’s just my soccer fandom speaking out but a regulation win should be 3 points and OT wins should be 2, that would offset some of the OTL unfairness we’ve seen but I see nothing wrong with the current playoff format as far as divisional matchups go.
Maybe they could make it top 2 in the division go to playoffs and not top 3 adding more WC’s but other than that this format has been pretty great, especially in building more rivalry throughout the league.
Naffypruss
I miss the 1-8 format, but I don’t think the current format is that bad. What I like about 1-8 is the different opening matchups, whereas now the middle of the pack teams face each other over and over again, like LA and Edmonton.
The western conference would have been: DAL vs VGK, WPG vs LA, VAN vs NSH, COL vs EDM. So 2 different matchups.
GoAvEsGo
It’s only awful for the Leafs fans 😂😂
NewGuy10002
Funny this is written the day after Toronto gets knocked out
BillyJayJersey505
Out of the four major sports leagues, the NHL is the only league with a hard bracket. The only people who have a problem with it are just sad that their favorite team(s) lost.
Future_Gain_7549
You people aren’t real fans. You’re worse than Star Wars fans. What’s the point of being here if you hate everything?
Deep-Ad2155
Canadian teams still won’t win…this reeks of desperation lol
smash2477
Non issue. I couldn’t read the whole story. Too pathetic
Nice2See
The big dawgs don’t fear any other team. You think the Panthers / Hurricanes / Rangers / Oilers are afraid of anyone? Nah.
Back in my day when the Canucks were rolling, I didn’t care who we played (well maybe the Blackhawks but never mind that).
Liam_M
thefuq. So because the advantage awarded the top finishers isn’t so drastic the result is a foregone conclusion it’s awful? The playoff format is working just fine
RoboZoninator91
I can’t believe people actually enjoy this system, every year two top 10 teams end up playing in the first round because they happen to play in the same division
throwmeaway_6996
Playoff format is not the issue here
Right_Bank_1921
Why do we play a regular season? You can theoretically play 28 games in a playoff, that’s over a third of the length of the regular season. A team with 39 wins all season has the same shot at the cup after 82 games as a team with 55.
The playoffs are a meat grinder that will reward whichever team can survive 110 games, not the best team
416Mike
Imagine they change the format of the playoffs and the Leafs win… there’d be no living it down.
PurePokedex117
LTIR
Datacin3728
With the exception of two series in the West, the first round of the playoffs this year WAS 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc.
mythoughtson-this
My biggest problem is with the arrangement of the divisions. As a Bruins fan, I would be more passionate rooting against one of the NY teams or Philly than either Florida team or Detroit. There is genuine sports hatred between Boston and those other cities and current format limits the chances of those teams playing
Mrdean2013
Sounds like cope from a guy whose team chokes every year.
CheesecakeOdd2087
Always Leaf fans crying about the playoff format like that’s the reason they lose in Round 1 every year.
Ok_Employee_9612
Jesus, did a sixth grader accidentally post their persuasive essay in the wrong spot?
Lanky-Performer-4557
After this round 1 they are keeping it lol
xTomato72
1-8 is better, but the current system isn’t as horrible as some people say it is
brackygen
Did a leaf’s fan write this after yesterday?
CurtP31477
If you want to be the best team, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO YOU FACE! If a team beats you, they were better. Players, management, and the fan base may not like it and may refuse to accept they lost. To be the best you have to beat the best. First round or fourth, you still have to win. I don’t actually care about the format, put good teams against each other and let’s see some of the best hockey played by the best players on earth!
Quit bitching and let’s hockey!
kdex86
The NHL was forced by COVID to use different playoff formats in both 2020 and 2021. But in 2022, they chose to go back to this ridiculous structure. Why?
ILSmokeItAll
Keep it. The only people that hate this are the ones that are pissed they can’t advance out of their own division and are tired of getting g their asses kicked by their division rivals so fucking always.
No one who’s winning is bitching. Just the losers.
44 Comments
This reads like a junior high essay struggling to hit the word count. The issue isn’t even seeding – the idea that teams get unfavorable matchups in the playoffs is totally irrelevant. If you want to win the cup you have to go through multiple teams, if the matchups scare you, you shouldn’t be in the playoffs anyway. There is a real argument about how we reward trips to overtime, which seems to be what this author is hinting at, but he used ChatGPT to write the article so it never hit that depth.
I’ve never been a fan of division seeding. If an entire division is at the bottom of the conference, that whole division should take the post season off.
As an aside, one point for OTL makes certainly doesn’t help the situation where wildcard teams have more points than seeds. Points that can just appear from the ether when the game is tied after regulation is stupidity.
I hate this format even though I doubt it has impacted my team any 🥺
I grew up back when each division had 5 teams and 4 made the playoffs. Playoffs were 1v4 2v3 in the 1st round and much like today stayed in the division 2nd rd. Division winners faced off in the Conference finals.
So, today’s format seems very familiar and I don’t hate it and I lived through the 80s as a Canucks fan vs the Oilers/Flames teams every damn year. The rivalry thing was much bigger but granted, back then Smythe was Western Canada + LA.
Dude I have no issue with the playoff format.
There are no easy teams in the playoffs. At some point, you have to beat one or two of the Avs, Stars, Oilers, Rangers, Panthers, hurricanes regardless of the bracket. Complaining that the jets didnt get to play the predators is dumb. No one wanted to play them cause they were the hottest team going into it. At the end of the day, you need to win 16 games against the top teams in the league.
If anything, the fact that the stars drew vegas in the first round is much worse for them. Hey, congrats on winning the conference, heres the stanley cup champions with an extra $10 mil of salary.
Rangers 114, Carolina 111, Florida 110, Boston 109.
Dallas 113, Vancouver 109, Colorado 107, Edmonton 104, (Vegas 98)
Carolina is a good example of the forced division focus, but the Rangers missing Boston or Dallas (assuming they win) missing Edmonton would be better. Totally agree the first two rounds are fucked by this format.
Memo for Toronto fans: changing the playoff format isn’t going to fix your problems.
if you want the cup, you’ll have to beat the best team at some point. 1st round or cup final, doesn’t matter, if you can’t beat the best team, you’re not winning the cup. stop blaming the format, your team isn’t good enough.
Honestly, I don’t care. The winner earned the Stanley Cup every year.
My main problem with this format is the play offs get less interesting as they go on. Boston/Toronto first round great, Vancouver/Edmonton round 2, amazing. But after that the rivalries are gone and it’s just less interesting
This format does not reward a team for playing well during the regular season. Dumb 1-8 seeding makes way more sense
The entire east would been the exact same if you did 1-8 for the conference
Maple leaf fan/journalist writes think piece after his team can’t be a better team in the playoffs for a Toronto centric sports media platform.
Cool
You need to beat good teams to win in the playoffs, if you can’t, you get bounced
This complaint again? I’m curious what the article says, but not curious enough to reward them with a click. So let’s say the NHL went with the old 1-8 format. This year in the east we’d have..
1 Rangers vs. 8 Caps
2 Canes vs. 7 Islanders
3 Panthers vs. 6 Lightning
stop me if you’ve heard this before..
4 Bruins vs. 5 Leafs
I might be missing something, but that’s no change at all.
In the west?
1 Dallas vs. 8 LTIR
2 Jets vs. 7 Kings
3 Canucks vs. 6 Preds
4 Avs vs. 5 Oilers
So half the series stay the same? If we reward the division champs with the top 2 seeds in their conference, you’d have Panthers/Islanders and Canes/Lightning in the east and Canucks/Kings and Jets/Preds in the west which still leaves the 2 matchups I’ve seen the most complaints about intact, Dallas/Vegas and Leafs/Bruins. The Panthers probably have an easier first round matchup as division champs in the Islanders, but the Leafs still lose to the Bruins in round 1 and let’s be honest that’s what most of the complaining is about.
Please just put us out of our misery, company!
“The solution is dead simple: Seed teams one through eight, then reseed after each round. The best regular-season teams get the easiest path. The teams that just sneak through as the 8-seeds have to play tougher opponents as they progress.”
Amen. This “regional rivalry” set up is stupid. Does any other professional sport league do it this way? Last chart I saw was the NHL is #7 or #8 in popularity in the U.S.
Dear God please go back to the 1vs8 format. I can only see the same match up every year for so long. They’re not even rivalries anymore, it’s predictable af.
Maybe it’s just my soccer fandom speaking out but a regulation win should be 3 points and OT wins should be 2, that would offset some of the OTL unfairness we’ve seen but I see nothing wrong with the current playoff format as far as divisional matchups go.
Maybe they could make it top 2 in the division go to playoffs and not top 3 adding more WC’s but other than that this format has been pretty great, especially in building more rivalry throughout the league.
I miss the 1-8 format, but I don’t think the current format is that bad. What I like about 1-8 is the different opening matchups, whereas now the middle of the pack teams face each other over and over again, like LA and Edmonton.
The western conference would have been: DAL vs VGK, WPG vs LA, VAN vs NSH, COL vs EDM. So 2 different matchups.
It’s only awful for the Leafs fans 😂😂
Funny this is written the day after Toronto gets knocked out
Out of the four major sports leagues, the NHL is the only league with a hard bracket. The only people who have a problem with it are just sad that their favorite team(s) lost.
You people aren’t real fans. You’re worse than Star Wars fans. What’s the point of being here if you hate everything?
Canadian teams still won’t win…this reeks of desperation lol
Non issue. I couldn’t read the whole story. Too pathetic
The big dawgs don’t fear any other team. You think the Panthers / Hurricanes / Rangers / Oilers are afraid of anyone? Nah.
Back in my day when the Canucks were rolling, I didn’t care who we played (well maybe the Blackhawks but never mind that).
thefuq. So because the advantage awarded the top finishers isn’t so drastic the result is a foregone conclusion it’s awful? The playoff format is working just fine
I can’t believe people actually enjoy this system, every year two top 10 teams end up playing in the first round because they happen to play in the same division
Playoff format is not the issue here
Why do we play a regular season? You can theoretically play 28 games in a playoff, that’s over a third of the length of the regular season. A team with 39 wins all season has the same shot at the cup after 82 games as a team with 55.
The playoffs are a meat grinder that will reward whichever team can survive 110 games, not the best team
Imagine they change the format of the playoffs and the Leafs win… there’d be no living it down.
LTIR
With the exception of two series in the West, the first round of the playoffs this year WAS 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc.
My biggest problem is with the arrangement of the divisions. As a Bruins fan, I would be more passionate rooting against one of the NY teams or Philly than either Florida team or Detroit. There is genuine sports hatred between Boston and those other cities and current format limits the chances of those teams playing
Sounds like cope from a guy whose team chokes every year.
Always Leaf fans crying about the playoff format like that’s the reason they lose in Round 1 every year.
Jesus, did a sixth grader accidentally post their persuasive essay in the wrong spot?
After this round 1 they are keeping it lol
1-8 is better, but the current system isn’t as horrible as some people say it is
Did a leaf’s fan write this after yesterday?
If you want to be the best team, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO YOU FACE! If a team beats you, they were better. Players, management, and the fan base may not like it and may refuse to accept they lost. To be the best you have to beat the best. First round or fourth, you still have to win. I don’t actually care about the format, put good teams against each other and let’s see some of the best hockey played by the best players on earth!
Quit bitching and let’s hockey!
The NHL was forced by COVID to use different playoff formats in both 2020 and 2021. But in 2022, they chose to go back to this ridiculous structure. Why?
Keep it. The only people that hate this are the ones that are pissed they can’t advance out of their own division and are tired of getting g their asses kicked by their division rivals so fucking always.
No one who’s winning is bitching. Just the losers.