Fundamentally, the playoffs are not a true test of who the best team is. European football has it right - the team that can sustain over the course of a long season and finishes 1st is the best team, not the team that wins the FA cup. Over the short sample size, there is too much influence played by chance - injuries, goalie gets hot or goes cold, lucky breaks as far as match-ups, refereeing, etc. Carolina was not the best team in 2006 - they happened to get a lot of lucky breaks. Tampa was far and away the best team this season. It's just that the North American sports fans needs the "knockout" tournament. However, the NHL compounds the problem by letting way too many teams in, so the regular season becomes relatively meaningless, and we are just suckers who pay money to watch meaningless games. Baseball has it right (and had it "righter" before the WC) - the season is truly meaningful in terms of weeding teams out, and then the playoffs truly pit best against best. In the NHL you can wind up with a couple of crap/mediocre teams playing for the championship (like in 2006 or this year).
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