[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Macindoc

Three things:

First, the current format encourages geographic rivalries. This elevates the level of play because everyone is more emotionally involved. The matchups that we would have had in the first round under the old format were hardly compelling, while we had some great matchups in both rounds with the current format.

Second, you usually have to go through the good teams to win it all anyway, and isn't it fairer to do so when everyone is reasonably healthy?

Third, if you get a matchup of two strong teams in the earlier rounds under the current format, is that necessarily a bad thing? If one of them was upset in an earlier round, they never would have met and the opportunity to have that great matchup would have been lost.

Some geographic rivalries are encouraging, but not all and it doesn't always increase emotion. Some matchups of the previous format in the 1st round were definitely compelling such as Bhawks-Canucks.

Teams are reasonably healthy or not at anytime, what do you mean by it being fair? Having a strong team being upset in an earlier round (1st or 2nd losing to 7th or 8th) is not a bad thing either.