In the Eastern Conference, the New York Rangers are eight points away from a playoff spot. If they were in the west, they’d be two points out. This makes absolutely no sense.
As the NHL’s league office will proudly announce, the sport has never had a greater level of parity. However, the closeness of teams in the playoff standings is not an accurate depiction of parity or reasonably balanced talent. The league is very much top heavy with just a handful of legitimate contenders. The New York Rangers could be in the thick of it if they played in the West.
It is outright lunacy that a team that concedes more than 55 percent of the scoring chances in a game at even strength could even sniff the postseason. Granted, scoring chances are not the sole indicator of success, but, they are typically a good measuring stick. Yet, the league is about to enter its fifth postseason with this absurd format.
The closeness of the teams in the Western Conference, five teams within three points of the second wild card, indicates two separate issues. First of all, no team should be incentivized to play worse and get a lower seed to have an easier path to the conference finals.
Going through the softer Metropolitan Division and avoiding Boston, Tampa Bay or Toronto until the conference final isn’t reflective of true skill. It also forces better teams into playing earlier on in the best tournament in sports. Under no circumstance should the Maple Leafs and Lightning be facing off in the second round of the playoffs because of this dumb formatting rule.
Instead of fostering the division rivalries like the league hoped it would when the format was conceived, it’s led to teams securely in the postseason dressing a depleted lineup in hopes of getting a wild-card berth and an easier path.
The Rangers side of things
The Rangers directly benefited from this format change in 2017 when the team secured the second wild card and ended up matched up with the Montreal Canadiens from the Atlantic instead of the President’s trophy winning Washington Capitals.
If it weren’t for a bad stroke of luck and Alain Vigneault forgetting Brady Skjei on his bench, New York likely could’ve snuck into the Eastern Conference finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins with this easy path.
While it’s convenient for those bubble teams who are wild-card contention, it undermines the entire tournament and calls into question the current structure as well as the divisional alignment. With several teams firmly entrenched in contender status due to superior roster construction, there is a dearth of talent dispersion.
To better balance the competitiveness of the league, there needs to be both a division re-alignment and a change of playoff format.
Whether the league would actually consider a 1-16 seeded tournament regardless of the conference is unknown but even a return to the old 1-8 format would be welcome. Instead of teams in bad divisions being rewarded, it would let the best teams make the postseason and have equally difficult paths.
In a 1-8 seeded tournament if the playoffs started today, the matchups would be as follows:
Eastern Conference
Tampa Bay Lightning (1) VS Columbus Blue Jackets (8)
Boston Bruins (2) VS Pittsburgh Penguins (7)
Toronto Maple Leafs (3) VS Washington Capitals (6)
New York Islanders (4) VSCanadiensCandadiens (5)
Western Conference
Calgary Flames (1) VS Colorado Avalanche (8)
San Jose Sharks (2) VS Dallas Stars (7)
Winnipeg Jets (3) VS Vegas Golden Knights (6)
Nashville Predators (4) VS St Louis Blues (5)
Final thoughts
Under the old format listed above, the matchups would be more competitive and ensure that the good teams are rewarded for winning and that the fringe teams cannot manipulate their path forward. For the integrity of the league, this needs to be a major point of contention when the league re-negotiates the collective bargaining agreement.
For the benefit of the good teams and the fans of the sport, the league needs to admit the mistake it made. The current format fell flat and instead of highlighting the league’s best matchups it put them under a smaller lens.
Instead of Predators and Jets being the conference finals matchup the two Western Conference juggernauts was in the semi-finals.
To fix the league and start the next decade, there needs to be a transition and change in the playoff format to make the regular season mean more as well as improve the quality of the tournament.