[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Schedule now is great. They offset it by make rivalries where it really counts, division playoffs.

Originally Posted by Robbob

Rivalries are born in the playoffs and spill over to the regular season. The playoff format is what will help rivalries because now you have to go through your division to get to the next round (unless you are a WC and get flipped to the other division).

The schedule is inferior now. The divisional format can make it boring by having the same teams play each other over and over. It does take the excitement out of following the standings down the stretch as the 2nd and 3rd place teams are basically locked in to play each other with about 10 games left in the regular season. The previous format had a far better chance of not knowing who was playing who until the last day of the season, that was really fun to follow. Rivalries are born in the playoffs and are killed with the current format. The Canucks-Bhawks and Flyers-Bruins rivalries were strong but are unlikely now. You want div rivals to play each other but again, it's unlikely they can play in the 3rd round now.