I like down goes brown’s playoff format from earlier this year (in the athletic).
Conference 1-8 seeded by points, no regard to division winners.
Round 1: 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 etc
Round 2: Re-seed the remaining teams by points in each conference and 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3
Round 3: The remaining teams go 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 regardless of conference.
I love this idea as it means that potentially two teams from the same conference could meet in the finals. Leafs vs habs for the cup? Flames vs Oilers (haha)? Rangers vs Islanders?
This system also would avoid two top teams playing each other in round 2 like last year, or potentially the first round this year (bruins vs leafs). Top that all off with potential huge rivalries for the cup? Yes please.
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