New York Rangers Earn Tough Draw in NHL Playoffs

NHL Playoffs Negate the Regular Season to the Best of Its Ability

After six months of grueling regular season play, the NHL playoffs are finally here. The old adage of having a clean slate once playoff time hits rings true again. Only, perhaps too true this year for the New York Rangers.

In case you are unaware, during the final night of the regular season, the Islanders sat some of their key players and lost at home to the Flyers. Now, you could just say they were resting in preparation of the playoffs, which is partly true. However, that loss resulted in an easier route to the Eastern Conference Finals, so resting their top stars was the only move.

So, how exactly did this happen? Well, the way the NHL structures their playoffs is by putting eight teams from each conference into their own little four team bracket, with the division winning team placed against a wild card team (the #1 overall team playing the second wild card team), while the second place seed takes on the third. The winners of each mini bracket then play each other in the Conference Finals. This structure renders the regular season meaningless, because now the fourth best record in the east will not see a home ice advantage at all these playoffs.

The New York Rangers, would have earned home ice for at least the first round, if playoff formatting was still reasonable and that final regular season game between the Islanders and Flyers would have held a lot more meaning. An Islanders win would have meant the fourth seed and home ice against the New York Rangers in the first round. Now, that would have made the regular season seem a little more important.

NHL Levels the Playing Field

The NHL playoffs epitomize the “just get in and you have a chance” attitude, more so than any other major sport, which is fine and it does make for an exciting two months. Hockey is a sport that breeds momentum and the margin of victory for even the best teams can be extremely narrow, but at least the re-seeding ensured that a team with a better regular season would be rewarded as the playoffs progressed. That is no longer the case.

It is utterly bizarre that the New York Rangers, who I mentioned had the fourth best record in the Eastern Conference, are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. The Penguins ended up with the second best record in the conference. And the winner of this series will in all likelihood end up playing the Presidents Trophy winning Washington Capitals in the second round (unless the Flyers can pull the upset), because that is how the bracket falls. Imagine that. The two best records in the conference automatically playing in the second round. There is something intrinsically wrong with that.

Losing Is Key for a Shot at the Title

Now, back to the Islanders. The NHL has set up a system where a team actually tanked a regular season game to finish with a worse record than another team in order to play a weaker opponent in the playoffs. Therefore, losing on purpose is not only encouraged, but rewarded?

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Is that what you’re saying NHL? The Islanders finished behind the Blueshirts, yet they will play the Panthers, who had less points than the Penguins. Also, instead of a second round meeting between the Capitals, the winner of Islanders/Panthers will play either the Tampa Bay Lightning, or the Detroit Red Wings, two teams who finished sixth and eighth respectively in the conference. All this just makes my head spin.

And that brings me to the most egregious example of this bizarre playoff structure. The Lightning, who finished sixth in the conference (sixth!) have home ice in the first round and get to play the Red Wings, the team with the worst record in the conference.

Sorry Capitals, your regular season was great, but you do not even get the luxury of playing the eight seed. Oh, and you don’t get the luxury of capitalizing on a potential upset. Your prize is either the hottest team in the NHL in the Penguins or the New York Rangers, the team with the most playoff wins over the last four seasons.

I think it is troublesome that an NHL team would mess with the intergrity of the sport to lose for a seeming advantage. Now, don’t get me wrong, how can I blame the Islanders for doing what they did? Why win and play the hottest team in the league in the first round, when a loss puts you in a division with the third, sixth, and eighth best teams in the conference?

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The route to a Stanley Cup appearance is always tough and every team is capable of beating anyone, but it would be nice if the eighty-two regular season games coming before the playoffs actually counted for something again.