[SuperMatt18]

I don't like a play-in round to be honest unless it's just to eliminate tiebreakers. I don't want a play in every year, but I also hate tie breakers. So I think if two teams are tied for the final playoff spot, then a one game play off should be the tiebreaker. Not regulation wins or some other abstract difference. Make them play for it.

Divison leaders getting the 1 and 2 seeds and then the rest of the seeds getting 3-8 is what has been discussed for it to be more fair.

But I don't think the league and broadcast partners care about "fairness" in the playoffs. They want the most intriguing matchups.

And TBH the 2 vs 3 in division seeds generally do give you more intriguing rivalry matchups earlier in the playoffs, even if it means a team gets a tougher matchup than maybe they deserve.

And this year it's not really a huge difference.

In the East it would still be Leafs-Tampa in round 1 and Carolina vs New Jersey in this structure or more of a 1-8 structure.

In the West it would be Edmonton-Colorado and Dallas-LA instead of Edmonton-LA and Colorado - Dallas.

But LA and Colorado have been flip flopping enough it might end up the same way anyways.

Honestly in the end it's generally not a huge deal.