A decade of NHL playoff format should be enough

Written by Scott Stinson


May 5, 2:35 p.m

The Winnipeg Jets had a great regular season. They have won 46 more times than any team in the National Hockey League. Even with the statistical noise of the points lost, the Jets finished with the second-best mark in the Western Conference, a cool 110 points.

For that, they were given a first-round matchup against the 109-point Colorado Avalanche, who carpet-bombed them into oblivion. (Technical 4-1 series loss.)

The Carolina Hurricanes also had a great regular season. They scored 111 points, tied for the most wins in the Eastern Conference with 44 and, most impressively, played in front of sellout crowds all season long in what has been a desolate place at various points in its NHL life. Great job, Cans.

For that, even after dusting the New York Islanders in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Hurricanes were allowed to face the New York Rangers in the second round, the only team in the East ranked above them in the regular season. June.

Welcome back to the amazing divisional playoff format of the NHL. It's one of the dumbest things the league has ever done – and it's the same NHL that has been insisting for years that everything failed with the Arizona Coyotes.

Each spring, the divisional format eliminates unfair pairings. Fairness is, of course, a nebulous concept in professional sports, but in this case, it refers to the idea that the NHL regular season has meaning, rather than just an 82-game dress rehearsal for restarting the playoffs. Teams that perform well in this six-month slog should have a distinct advantage in the early playoff rounds. The NHL even recognizes this to a point, giving the four division winners first-round matchups against the four wild-card teams. But instead of seeding the conferences one through eight, the second- and third-place teams in each division are paired.

Aside from the problematic situations where wild-card teams have more points than playoff teams in weaker divisions, the system actually happens more often when one division is stronger than another. This year's Central has three teams with more points than any team in the Pacific except the Canucks. The Metropolitans' top two teams, the Rangers and the Hurricanes, had more points than any Atlantic team. So instead of a soft matchup against Predators or Kings, you end up with the Flyers stuck against the Avalanche. The Oilers, six points behind Winnipeg in the West and coming off a 7-point win, will pair up with the 99-point Kings and knock them off without much fuss.

If this disparity has any merit, it would be easier to understand. The NHL thinks it has, and commissioner Gary Bettman, when asked about it, insists the league wants to keep regional matchups in the early rounds to take advantage of classic rivalries. But this rarely happens. Three of the four divisions are geographically very large, meaning the system can result in pairings of teams that don't approach regional competition.

Edmonton has now played Los Angeles three times in the playoffs. They are about a 30 hour drive away, maybe a little less if you really nail it. As the Maple Leafs try to get out of the Atlantic Division, hockey's version of the deep and tough American League East, they're often compared to a team that won't compete with Toronto in Florida unless the tourists join the ranks. At Walt Disney World.

The divisional playoff format also has the unintended consequence of draining the life out of hot jockeys for postseason seeding as the regular season draws to a close. If one team moves up to a bigger division, the next two know they'll be playoff opponents by January. Instead of a playoff picture filled with uncertainty until the final days of the regular season, most of the pairings become clear weeks in advance.

None of this seems new or unexpected. This format has been in place since 2013-14, except for the shortened COVID season. Its problems have been evident for ten years. The solution is simple: seed groups one through eight, then reseed after each round. The best regular season teams take the easiest route. Teams past 8th will have to play tougher opponents as they progress. Don't like it? Don't finish eighth.

Of course, this potential solution sat there for ten years. And it's not like it's a foreign concept: The NHL has used pre-conference seeding and reseeding before. Despite the shortcomings of the current system, he now refuses to go back to that format.

It can be stubborn, this is the league. But you can hope. After all, it was about Arizona.

Scott Stinson is a contributor to theScore.