I don’t like the forced playoff rivalries. Here’s why:
Geographic rivalries already exist from the regular season. That’s the point of that.
1 v 8 etc might create new rivalries that persist for a number of seasons. Those drive attendance for the upcoming season. For example, there is more of a thing with Dallas after the playoffs last year. If flames only played in division, that’s lost.
Playoffs generate the greatest intensity and therefore create new or foster existing rivalries.
Also on playoff revenue, it used to be captured and split. Is this no longer the case?
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Rogers bias. Hit McDavid? Get Brandon Manninged.
We had joy, we had fun, we had a season in the sun, but the wine and the fun like the season is all gone.
Average team is average. Average drafts, average results, average trades, average asset management, average vision, average outcomes. Average.
Eventually there won’t even be a regular season. It’ll just be an ever increasing field of play-ins, byes, crossovers, best of 3s, 5s, 7s, etc. All playoffs all the time!
Like Baseketball.
2 Man sack race for the Stanley Cup! lol
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This isn't new — it's the way the format worked last year, too. The Heat had a bye and ended up making it to the Western Conference Final.
The AHL's justification for it is they want to get as many young players valuable playoff experience as possible for their development.
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Last edited by TheScorpion; 01-26-2023 at 08:25 PM.
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Is it really the playoffs if everyone makes it? It’s just glorified regular season.
Well not everyone makes it. I agree it's diluted to an extent. But every round still has meaning I think.
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"This has been TheScorpion's shtick for years. All these hot takes, clickbait nonsense just to feed his social media algorithms." –Tuco
The NHL moved to a 16 team playoff after the WHA expansion, starting in 1979-80.
For the first 2 seasons, the playoffs were a simple 1-16 ranking. In 1980, some of the first round match-ups were: PHI-EDM, BUF-VAN, and NYI-LAK. The following year, the Sabres and Canucks met again in the first round, and LA again faced NY, but this time, the Rangers. The Habs played Edmonton in the first round and the Flames met Chicago in their first year in Calgary.
Then, in 1981-82, the format was switched to the 1-4 Division playoffs. This format remained through the 1992-93 season (12 years).
After many years of complaints about the Division playoffs, the League switched to the 1-8 Conference format starting in 1993-94. This format (with minor changes along the way as the league expanded to 30 teams) remained in place for 20 years, with its final year being the lockout-shortened 2012-13.
Starting in 2013-14, the League switched to the current 1-3 Division + Wildcard format. This will be the 10th season of this "new" format.
The time seems about right for people to start complaining about the format. It will probably take a few more years, but eventually enough people will want to switch back to the Conference format, then we'll get that for a decade or so.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
I think the whole elimination format is outdated, and likely to hurt players' self-esteem on all the teams that get eliminated, especially in the early rounds.
It would be better if they just had every team make the playoffs, and the team that either has the least penalty minutes, or the most McDavids, wins the cup regardless of the scores. And then all the players - even from the teams that didn't play the nicest or didn't have the most McDavids - get to drink from the cup anyway. But only Country Time lemonade, which is the official drink of fair play.
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The NHL moved to a 16 team playoff after the WHA expansion, starting in 1979-80.
For the first 2 seasons, the playoffs were a simple 1-16 ranking. In 1980, some of the first round match-ups were: PHI-EDM, BUF-VAN, and NYI-LAK. The following year, the Sabres and Canucks met again in the first round, and LA again faced NY, but this time, the Rangers. The Habs played Edmonton in the first round and the Flames met Chicago in their first year in Calgary.
Then, in 1981-82, the format was switched to the 1-4 Division playoffs. This format remained through the 1992-93 season (12 years).
After many years of complaints about the Division playoffs, the League switched to the 1-8 Conference format starting in 1993-94. This format (with minor changes along the way as the league expanded to 30 teams) remained in place for 20 years, with its final year being the lockout-shortened 2012-13.
Starting in 2013-14, the League switched to the current 1-3 Division + Wildcard format. This will be the 10th season of this "new" format.
The time seems about right for people to start complaining about the format. It will probably take a few more years, but eventually enough people will want to switch back to the Conference format, then we'll get that for a decade or so.
It should be noted however that no one complained about the 1v8 format. There were no calls from fans anywhere to bring back the crappy stupid division format and especially not this bastardized 1-3 plus wildcard garbage.
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It should be noted however that no one complained about the 1v8 format. There were no calls from fans anywhere to bring back the crappy stupid division format and especially not this bastardized 1-3 plus wildcard garbage.
Yeah I don't understand why the NHL likes the current format given how it produces unbalanced matchups in the first round. The old format ensured balanced first round matchups which should be the goal of any format.
This isn't new — it's the way the format worked last year, too. The Heat had a bye and ended up making it to the Western Conference Final.
The AHL's justification for it is they want to get as many young players valuable playoff experience as possible for their development.
Suspect the real justification is/was - all of our teams lost a bunch of money during covid so this is a way to get more of them some playoff gates/revenue.
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Suspect the real justification is/was - all of our teams lost a bunch of money during covid so this is a way to get more of them some playoff gates/revenue.
I'm sure owners who prioritize making the playoffs above all else like Edwards are all in favor of something like this as it provides them the extra revenue they badly crave.
Yeah I don't understand why the NHL likes the current format given how it produces unbalanced matchups in the first round. The old format ensured balanced first round matchups which should be the goal of any format.
I think the original intent was rivalries, but the wildcard and reduction in regular season in-division games makes that pretty much irrelevant, so now it’s just a weird shell of what it was supposed to be. I suppose it also gives lower-seeded teams a slightly higher chance to advance, which the NHL must like for some reason. Though if the playoffs started today, the matchups would be the exact same in the conference format for the western conference and the two middle matches would change in the east (but they’re all within a couple points of each others so hard to see it being a significant change).
I think the original intent was rivalries, but the wildcard and reduction in regular season in-division games makes that pretty much irrelevant, so now it’s just a weird shell of what it was supposed to be. I suppose it also gives lower-seeded teams a slightly higher chance to advance, which the NHL must like for some reason. Though if the playoffs started today, the matchups would be the exact same in the conference format for the western conference and the two middle matches would change in the east (but they’re all within a couple points of each others so hard to see it being a significant change).
Plus rivalries are, for the most part, a thing of the past. People rightly yearn for the old BOAs and what not, but that's just not how sports works anymore. These guys pal around more than ever, and have strong bonds between players on different teams. You simply aren't going to get to that level of hate even if you try to manufacture it with playoff formats.
Team rivalries don't exist except at nearly the same level they used to.
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Plus rivalries are, for the most part, a thing of the past. People rightly yearn for the old BOAs and what not, but that's just not how sports works anymore. These guys pal around more than ever, and have strong bonds between players on different teams. You simply aren't going to get to that level of hate even if you try to manufacture it with playoff formats.
Team rivalries don't exist except at nearly the same level they used to.
In last year's BOA I didn't see anything indicative of the old BOA days where they were extremely intense and physical affairs. In fact I found the Flames vs Stars series as much more intense and physical.
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