VegasCanuck Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 Just for thought. I see a lot of problems in the current format for post season. I think current system creates a lack of motivation to keep pushing deeper into the season and allows teams to just abandon and wait for draft lottery and wait for the start of the next season. Here's some adjustments I'd make; Move to 80 game schedule to allow for a mini tournament to decide team placement within the actual playoffs. 24 total teams advance from the regular season to a tournament round. Top team for each division gets a pass through the tournament placement round and advance automatically to the playoffs, thus earning more rest time before playing the first round. 10 from each conference play 1 game against each other (5 games total) to determine which 6 teams from each conference will join the 4 top teams in the playoffs. Home ice for this tournament will be determined based on points from the regular season. The tournament will determine their final placement in the conference and who they will play against within the conference. I would have a financial prize allocated to the top 4 teams who are being automatically advanced to the playoff round and a separate prize for the other 20 teams, which will be distributed proportionately, based on their final standing from the tournament. This money would be bonus money for the players and would be outside of the current Cap program and should build more competition to reach that tournament and less tanking. Would consider allocating separate bonus to team management for getting their team into the tournament. The top 6 teams from each conference would advance from the tournament be seeded for playoffs based on how they finished from the tournament, regardless of how they finished the regular season. That of course means, a team that finishes 2nd in a division in the regular season but is fading near the end of the season, could wind up missing the playoffs and that a team down around the bottom of the league, but coming on strong near the end of the season, could make the playoffs and get a favorable match up. End result: Reduction to 80 game schedule means that those 8 teams that miss out completely, are losing 1 home game of revenue while the 24 teams that advance to the tournament receive more revenue. The additional tournament games would further reward the teams who make it with additional gate revenue. While this might not be perfect, I think the current system is lacking in a lot of ways. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 I thought the playoffs were already fixed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 I would prefer going the other way ala baseball before the wild card and make the playoffs mean something. If only 8 out of 31/32 teams are "out of it" at the end of the year, what is the incentive to play with passion and drive during the season. The season may become quite meaningless ala what the NBA is slowly becoming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCanuck Posted March 15, 2018 Author Share Posted March 15, 2018 6 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said: I would prefer going the other way ala baseball before the wild card and make the playoffs mean something. If only 8 out of 31/32 teams are "out of it" at the end of the year, what is the incentive to play with passion and drive during the season. The season may become quite meaningless ala what the NBA is slowly becoming. I think that's already largely happening. Detroit essentially went into sell mode, start of January. As much as I hate Detroit, what does that accomplish for the fans of that city if by Dec 31st, the team really has nothing left to play for? Again, my suggestion is far from perfect, but the idea is to create more energy throughout the league and more urgency within management to try and fix their teams during the season and not just wait till the deadline or summer to make moves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shazzam Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 We already have a major tournament to determine placement which is the regular season. Nothing wrong with this setup. Just go back to the previous playoff format. 8 teams from each conference makes the playoffs, 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 for each conference or 1v16 .... etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabcakes Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 The playoffs are too long. As it sits we have 4 rounds, best of 7 that can run more than 2 months. What happens is a war of attrition. We see teams beating up on each other and the teams who are lucky enough to have the fewest injuries tend to go the furthest. The survivors to the SCF are often affected the following system by their grueling effort. In fact, the first round is generally regarded as the best round because players are fresh and healthy. They cannot keep up such an effort for a potential 28 post season games. Let's try one less round and make the first round best of 5 or even 3. Reserve a 7 game series for the ultimate test. This makes the regular season play better because it would be a big deal to make the playoffs. Baseball used to have 2 teams from the National League and 2 from the American League make the playoffs and the pennant races were exciting even if they were regular season games. That is the ideal. Will this ever happen? Hell no. The playoffs make too much money as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6string Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 9 minutes ago, shazzam said: We already have a major tournament to determine placement which is the regular season. Nothing wrong with this setup. Just go back to the previous playoff format. 8 teams from each conference makes the playoffs, 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 for each conference or 1v16 .... etc. The schedule is balanced, all the more reason to return to this format. Divisonal rivalries have less value with a balanced schedule, it's time to switch back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberts Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 9 minutes ago, shazzam said: We already have a major tournament to determine placement which is the regular season. Nothing wrong with this setup. Just go back to the previous playoff format. 8 teams from each conference makes the playoffs, 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5 for each conference or 1v16 .... etc. 1v8 system was best. simple and worked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boest-er Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 How about a system of where there is 16 total playoff games and only 10 are needed to win. Round 1: 7 Matches Round 2: 5 Matches Round 3: 3 Matches Round 4: 1 Matches This system allows the final game to be huge ala football, also allows them to get more rest as the playoffs go on so they don't lose due to attrition. The reverse could also be another cool thing to try. Where Round 1 is 1 games and Round 4 is 7. Allows the beginning all the way to the end have huge entertainment with the basis of more games at the end for the Ownership to make more money as well as keep entertainment level high due to 12 less games (28 games in old model-16 games in new model). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 I predict that with expansion & in conjunction with the next CBA, we will see the playoffs expand. I believe they will go to a 20 team playoff. The same format as we have today, but with double the wildcard teams. The wildcard teams will either play a best of three or a one game winner-take-all play-in game. After that, the rest of the playoffs will continue on as today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCanuck Posted March 15, 2018 Author Share Posted March 15, 2018 3 hours ago, Roberts said: 1v8 system was best. simple and worked Liked this one as well. One thing that really bugs me about current system is the fact that its possible for the 2 best teams to not meet in the final. If the 2 best teams in the league are in the Western Conference, they will ultimately never meet for a Stanley Cup final. Would love to see that corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great Canucks Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 54 minutes ago, goalie13 said: I predict that with expansion & in conjunction with the next CBA, we will see the playoffs expand. I believe they will go to a 20 team playoff. The same format as we have today, but with double the wildcard teams. The wildcard teams will either play a best of three or a one game winner-take-all play-in game. After that, the rest of the playoffs will continue on as today. Hell no. 16 teams in the playoffs is enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 8 hours ago, The Great Canucks said: Hell no. 16 teams in the playoffs is enough. Agreed, but I still think it will happen. Expanding the playoffs was proposed by an NHL GM a few years ago (by Sather, I think). With the NHL's desire to constantly increase revenue, I just think this is something that they will look at again and that it will probably (eventually) happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get real canuck fans Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 I would like to see the NHL set itself apart from the other big 4 sports by changing the playoff format so that any 2 teams could meet in the final. My idea is to have once you get to final 4 that the top seed in each conference would play the lower seed in the other conference so any final is possible. My fiends idea is to go back to the old 1 vs 16 format. I think my friends idea would be difficult because of travel and a more balanced schedule would work better for his scenerio but it also has the benefit that every game would then be a 4 point game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squamfan Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 should be like the nba 1-8 is based on points. The match ups are 1vs8 , 2vs7, 3vs6, 4vs5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Jay 22 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 1 vs 16 is a terrible idea, and East vs West in the 1st round almost has a comedic feel to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunjabiCanucks Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Maybe a final 8 would be nice. But is too impractical to do it with 16 teams due to the travel that teams would need to do. The playoffs within one's division and conference creates rivalries. Imagine us facing someone in the East and not having Chicago for 4 years. I mean I love the idea then lol due to us losing the majority of those rounds, but it created a heated rivalry. Once we have a 32 team league (shouldn't get any bigger). We should have half the teams make the playoffs (8 from each conference (4 from each division)). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timberz21 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Yeah, travel makes it impossible and unfair to have a 1vs16 format. Imagine a SCF with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers....having the Habs play LA, Vancouver and Colorado, in the first three round while the Rangers plays New Jersey, Boston and Washington respectively. The Rangers would have a huge advantages going in the Finals. Either the 1vs8 or actual is fine. Many make a big deal about the current Division format and say it's unfair the Washington played Pittsburgh in the 2nd round last year. If it was 1vs8 currently the Caps and Pens would play in the first round. With the bonus shootout point and the parity standings means squat nowadays. teams from 1 to 8 are so close, that they aren't any "favorites". I would also argue that sometime starting on the road could also be beneficial at times and I think recent results support that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
867-five-309 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 I didn't vote because you haven't put any thought or effort into this post. The NHL never had a 1 vs 16 system. The system that works the best is the 1 vs 8 system from each conference. This division rivalry thing is stupid. No one cares if the Flames play the Ducks. It worked somewhat with four teams making it from each division, but the current system is boring and just plain dumb when lesser teams beat out better teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 44 minutes ago, 867-five-309 said: I didn't vote because you haven't put any thought or effort into this post. The NHL never had a 1 vs 16 system. Yes it did. Do your research. Specifically, look up the '79 - '80 and '80 - '81 seasons. In '79 - '80, Vancouver as the 15th seed played 2nd seed Buffalo. In '80 - '81, Vancouver was the 12th seed and again played Buffalo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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