Playoff Format Complaint Thread

[Reign of Fire]

Go back to top 8 teams in conference seeding

[Philly06Cup]

Make the Stanley cup finals best of 9!

NBA somewhat recently copied NHL by requiring 16 playoff wins for a championship.
NHL needs to one-up them

[calgaryjohn87]

Originally Posted by Reign of Fire

Go back to top 8 teams in conference seeding

They are doing this

[CsInMyBlood]

Throw out the regular season and just have an 8 month long playoffs.

[bossy22]

I'm old. I miss the days when it was top 16 and 1 played 16, 2 played 15, 3 played 14, etc.

[dino7c]

Games near the end of the season more valuable lol

that is the dumbest thing I have every heard

your team won a few games after the pressure was off big ####ing deal...they where also playing many teams that had little to play for. I seem to remember the Flames knocking the Jets of when it actually mattered.

TBH games are harder at the start of the year when everyone thinks they are still in it and everyone is fresh

Maybe they should only count February wins and give the Flames the presidents trophy?

[Looch City]

Or have a month-based tiered point system.

From Oct to Dec - 2 points per win
From Jan to Apr (minus last game) - 3 points per win
Final game - 10 points for the win

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by MisterJoji

Well 68 teams make March Madness out of 347 total division 1 teams or 19.5%.

In the NHL 16 teams make the playoffs out of soon to be 31 total teams or 51.6%

So if we're going to follow the NCAA we should be reducing the amount of teams make the playoffs.

Exactly this...

Late season wins are important because the way the NCAA conferences are set up... typically, you have things like the B1G championships or SEC championships at the end of the year...and the big rivalry games tend to be at the end of the year.

but, there's 120 or so teams in college football

when polls determine which 4 teams make the playoffs, then style points matter... in the NHL its purely about points.... which eliminates any controversy - unless people what to make it controversial

[calgaryred]

Originally Posted by David Struch

If the playoffs were Conference 1st vs 8th.

Capitals vs Maple Leafs
Penguins vs Bruins
Blue Jackets vs Senators
Canadiens vs Rangers

Blackhawks vs Predators
Wild vs Flames
Ducks vs Sharks
Oilers vs Blues

Personally, I like the Divisional Format.

Capitals vs Rangers
Penguins vs Blue Jackets

Canadiens vs Maple Leafs
Senators vs Bruins

Blackhawks vs Predators
Wild vs Blues

Ducks vs Flames
Oilers vs Sharks

So does the league it was the NHLPA that fought for the wildcard

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[Rollin22x]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

Or have a month-based tiered point system.

From Oct to Dec - 2 points per win
From Jan to Apr (minus last game) - 3 points per win
Final game - 10 points for the win

And just for fun add a couple of weeks with negative points awarded for wins but the teams won't know when those apply until the end of the season. It sounds like the OP wants a semi lottery situation anyway.
End of season big reveal.
You thought your team was in... actually out.
Thought your team was out... but wait... you're in!

[transplant99]

[The Yen Man]

Wait, so your argument is that the point system is archaic? Lol, that's a new one.

Why not just make the preseason 82 games long, and then at the end, have lottery balls determine the Stanley Cup? I'm sure then the Oilers would actually have a chance at winning.

[stang]

Why not just use goals for as points. That way if Stamkos is healthy all year it really rewards the team.

Win 8-2... get 6 points.

Lose 8-2 get zero points.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by GGG

There should not be wildcard teams if 4 teams from the division make the playoffs regardless of totals.

Repetition being more insteresting than diversity is a matter of opinion.

As for mathgod's proposal... were different games weighed differently, teams would need to have their "strength of schedule" equally balanced between the first half and second half as well. Injuries in the second half would be more devastating than those in the first. Games against eliminated opponents would be be in the higher weighted side of the season... etc. There's a whole bunch of issues far beyond it being too confusing for simpletons.

[normtwofinger]

Let's go even more archaic. Only the top 4 teams in the league make the playoffs. 1v3, 2v4.

Seriously though, the 1980s divisional format is the best in my opinion.

[pseudoreality]

The games should have more value whenever the Flames have hot streaks and less valuable when they decide to play poorly.

[tsquared1967]

Originally Posted by stang

Why not just use goals for as points. That way if Stamkos is healthy all year it really rewards the team.

Win 8-2... get 6 points.

Lose 8-2 get zero points.

Lose 8-2 get subtracted 6 points if your top scorer is playing cause your team sucks even with him in the lineup.

[tsquared1967]

I remember the old 1 vs. 16 when the Calgary Flames played in their first playoffs in 1981. At that time the first round was a best of 5 and you played 4 games in 5 nights if the series went 4 games and 5 games in 7 nights if the series went the distance. Round 2 was the same except it was a best of seven that took 11 days to play if the series went 7. The semi final and the final was when they had rest days in between games. That year the Oilers had to play Montreal in the first round and then play the NY Islanders in the second round. That schedule and the travel was awful for Edmonton.

The Division playoffs system was brought in and the 8 games played against teams in the Divisision allowed for teams to travel less. A big problem with this occured in the late 80's when the Norris Division was an awful Division. The top 3 teams in the Smythe would have more points then the top team in the Norris but the league didn't do much about it. During this time the team that survived the Smythe Division playoffs went to the Stanley Cup Finals for 8 straight years winning 6 cups. The league did fix this problem with the 1 vs. 8 in the Conference and that was much better. They also extended the first round to best of 7 and added days off between games.

The new system is fine with the top 3 teams in each division and 2 wildcards but not perfect. You could have a team that is 8 (or possibly 9) the Conference but third in their Division have home ice advantage after the first round the rest of the way and win the Cup. That is why I like the 1 vs. 8 system better.

[Jagger]

The most amazing thing about this entire thread (and there's lot to be amazed at in these five pages) is that an obvious Lightning fan comes to a Flames message board and expects Flames fans to show any sympathy for them.

Seriously?

Seriously?

Do we really have to spell it out?

IT.......WAS........IN!!!

Personally, I'm glad that they missed out on making the playoffs, despite a late season run. I would have preferred them to actually be tied on points for the second wildcard place but miss out to the most obscure tiebreaker possible. Coin toss perhaps? Sure, that would work.

Bitter?

Nah. Just, I'm damned if I'm going to show any sympathy for the flippin' Tampa Bay Lightning.

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Point totals are inflated because of the 3 point games. Teams with excess of 100 points doesn't mean what it used to.

I look forward to the day when each division has 8 teams. The top 4 teams in each division would make it. No wildcards.

If you're not top 4 in your division, you can't really complain. First 2 rounds are in the division, then conference championship. While we're at it, bring back the old names too. Smythe, Norris etc.

I look forward to the day when each conference has 16 teams. The top 8 teams in each conference would make it. No silly divisions or wildcards, nice and simple.