Stanley Cup Playoffs: Winning team isn't best team

[J-23]

Leafs fans are really down this bad.

[qwijibo]

The Stanley  cup is the hardest trophy in sports to win. But sad salty leafs fan is upset his pathetic team hasn’t made it out of the first round in 17 years so he feels it’s not a valid benchmark for team greatness. 
 

 

[Alflives]

2 hours ago, bigbadcanucks said:

Words of a loser.  A Leafs fan...what did I expect?  Right into the Ignore file.

Listening to our Canadian sport’s media for the last few years, and it’s constant Leaf Love.  Shanaplan, and ?Dubas can do no wrong.  And they’ve fixed the issues Lou Lam made to create a dynasty team with the best players ever to wear Leaf uniforms. The reality is the Shanaplan is a disaster, and ?Dubas is definitely not Lou Lam.  As for their core players.  It’s obvious they are overpaid and soft mentally.  And that is all perfect, and makes Alf Laugh his Ass Off! 

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by Alflives

[bigbadcanucks]

2 hours ago, Alflives said:

Listening to our Canadian sport’s media for the last few years, and it’s constant Leaf Love.  Shanaplan, and ?Dubas can do no wrong.  And they’ve fixed the issues Lou Lam made to create a dynasty team with the best players ever to wear Leaf uniforms. The reality is the Shanaplan is a disaster, and ?Dubas is definitely not Lou Lam.  As for their core players.  It’s obvious they are overpaid and soft mentally.  And that is all perfect, and makes Alf Laugh his Ass Off! 

 

These memes when combined like you have done looks like the little square open window to the private owners box in the old Maple Leaf Gardens that King Clancy and Harold Ballard used to peer from. 

 

 

 

[coolboarder]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:38 PM, LeafsFanDan said:

This is an opinion thread, please don't break forum rules or bash OP if you happen to disagree**

 

2021 SCP has shown on full display that teams who may do well under the playoff type games may not be great regular season teams, and that needs to be addressed.

 

Organizations, fans and players make the most of their hockey time during the 82 games and 6 months of hockey during the regular season. All the true battles, the point records, the endless games and drama happens during this time. The teams are ranked during the season based on their composition, roaster, type of game style and performance.

 

Winning unlike most people want you to believe isn't everything. Many people would agree that win or lose as long as their team plays an entertaining style of hockey thats what matters. Losing 6 to 7 but watching your team score 6 goals is incredible. Getting your money worth at a game isn't about winning its about the game style, the players and the attitude.

 

Playoffs is a mind set that tricks people into thinking winning is all that matters, and many teams play a horrible boring defensive, unsatisfying brand of hockey (New Jersey 90s, Dallas etc) overacheiving  medicore teams doing well in a limited 20 game playoff spam.

 

Enter Montreal 2021, a scub team no one selected who is a true expert or analyst in NHL. You know why? Because it's not a good team, at one point even Canucks were thinking of catching them.

 

Just because Montreal has managed to pull wins in a playoff bubble, playing endless defence and grinding teams down doesn't make them a good team. I am sorry, Playoffs need to have its own bracket because regular season is where teams truly shine  where players get paid and where most of the money is made.

 

Its crazy to see how many people are buying into the SCP as a decisive factor for determining what team is good and what isn't.

I agree with you.  Make the playoffs more exclusive, top teams in each division makes it to final 4 will fix that.    That's how you represent a best team from a division.  It is of my opinion that the playoffs is very profitable business that the NHL would rather keep because it does not pay players any cent except for the playoff prize money pool.   It's all about the series between two teams and the winner is the best team of that said series does not mean that they are the best team in the whole league.  From that I've seen, the regular season refereeing is different from the playoff referee and it makes no sense if a team that won the season series by a long shot lost in a playoff series with different rules.   That's how obvious that is because there were no inter-conference or inter-league games this year.  It is completely exposed for a fraud that they are.  I think that the playoffs in the past were different than regular season hockey from 1960's as they were enforced the same way for long time until 2 ref system exposed them so badly that they started to miss calls in the playoffs by letting them go more usual than the regular season.  It's time to rethink the determination of who is the best team in the league.  Playoffs structure is not the answer.  The original 6 playoff system worked because the way they called is the same from regular season and playoffs.  And often, it just take 2 round to determine with fresh energy.  The longer playoffs goes, the energy drains so fast and it often produced upsets without any enough rest for a short series or series that went 7 games.

[Silent Man]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:38 PM, LeafsFanDan said:

This is an opinion thread, please don't break forum rules or bash OP if you happen to disagree**

 

2021 SCP has shown on full display that teams who may do well under the playoff type games may not be great regular season teams, and that needs to be addressed.

 

Organizations, fans and players make the most of their hockey time during the 82 games and 6 months of hockey during the regular season. All the true battles, the point records, the endless games and drama happens during this time. The teams are ranked during the season based on their composition, roaster, type of game style and performance.

 

Winning unlike most people want you to believe isn't everything. Many people would agree that win or lose as long as their team plays an entertaining style of hockey thats what matters. Losing 6 to 7 but watching your team score 6 goals is incredible. Getting your money worth at a game isn't about winning its about the game style, the players and the attitude.

 

Playoffs is a mind set that tricks people into thinking winning is all that matters, and many teams play a horrible boring defensive, unsatisfying brand of hockey (New Jersey 90s, Dallas etc) overacheiving  medicore teams doing well in a limited 20 game playoff spam.

 

Enter Montreal 2021, a scub team no one selected who is a true expert or analyst in NHL. You know why? Because it's not a good team, at one point even Canucks were thinking of catching them.

 

Just because Montreal has managed to pull wins in a playoff bubble, playing endless defence and grinding teams down doesn't make them a good team. I am sorry, Playoffs need to have its own bracket because regular season is where teams truly shine  where players get paid and where most of the money is made.

 

Its crazy to see how many people are buying into the SCP as a decisive factor for determining what team is good and what isn't.

Thank you for your post, I was laughing so loud that my wife thought that I went crazy.

You are truly made my day, God knows I was needed it

[PistolPete13]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:52 PM, LeafsFanDan said:

The thing is a team can pull together over 20 games and just play all in defence and win the cup, that doesn't  make them "the best".

 

Its much harder to do it consistently and over a 82 game schedule. MONTREAL is easily the weakest team of the final 8 yet somehow they managed to win, does that make them lucky? Yes, good? No, it shows that scrub teams can work really hard over a course of a few weeks to grind the truly elite teams down. No respect from me to Montreal, and in case you wondering neither do 90% of the true hockey analyst, experts and commentators give Montreal any respect. Go figure why that is, think about it don't take it from  me take it from the experts making 200k a year, I'd listen  to them over a casual fan, you should too.

What’s the weather like on planet delusional?

It’s really hot here. Maybe you should stay put for a while. Have fun celebrating the Leaf’s remarkable season. 
 

[PistolPete13]

21 hours ago, coolboarder said:

I agree with you.  Make the playoffs more exclusive, top teams in each division makes it to final 4 will fix that.    That's how you represent a best team from a division.  It is of my opinion that the playoffs is very profitable business that the NHL would rather keep because it does not pay players any cent except for the playoff prize money pool.   It's all about the series between two teams and the winner is the best team of that said series does not mean that they are the best team in the whole league.  From that I've seen, the regular season refereeing is different from the playoff referee and it makes no sense if a team that won the season series by a long shot lost in a playoff series with different rules.   That's how obvious that is because there were no inter-conference or inter-league games this year.  It is completely exposed for a fraud that they are.  I think that the playoffs in the past were different than regular season hockey from 1960's as they were enforced the same way for long time until 2 ref system exposed them so badly that they started to miss calls in the playoffs by letting them go more usual than the regular season.  It's time to rethink the determination of who is the best team in the league.  Playoffs structure is not the answer.  The original 6 playoff system worked because the way they called is the same from regular season and playoffs.  And often, it just take 2 round to determine with fresh energy.  The longer playoffs goes, the energy drains so fast and it often produced upsets without any enough rest for a short series or series that went 7 games.

During the original six era 2/3 of the teams made the playoffs. Now it’s just over 1/2 of the teams making the playoffs. Thanks to expansion, the playoffs got longer. More teams, more games.

 

In case you need some insight as to how they used to referee games during the regular season, the visiting teams wore darker colour uniforms and the home team wore white, because the visitors didn’t have time to launder their uniforms on a road trip and the dark uniform hid the blood stains better.

 

Even the big boy hockey played in the playoffs these days is like ballet, compared to how the game was played in the original six days.

[knucklehead91]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:52 PM, LeafsFanDan said:

The thing is a team can pull together over 20 games and just play all in defence and win the cup, that doesn't  make them "the best".

 

Its much harder to do it consistently and over a 82 game schedule. MONTREAL is easily the weakest team of the final 8 yet somehow they managed to win, does that make them lucky? Yes, good? No, it shows that scrub teams can work really hard over a course of a few weeks to grind the truly elite teams down. No respect from me to Montreal, and in case you wondering neither do 90% of the true hockey analyst, experts and commentators give Montreal any respect. Go figure why that is, think about it don't take it from  me take it from the experts making 200k a year, I'd listen  to them over a casual fan, you should too.

The playoffs say otherwise. 
 

The standings are misleading due to the divisional restrictions. 
 

Vegas had the most wins in the NHL with 40…. 27 of those wins were against non-playoff teams… LAK, SJS and ANA are 3 rebuilding teams. ARZ is a team that is struggling as well. Its not hard in that division to make yourself look good if you’re a decent team. 
Doesnt make Vegas a good team if they only prey on the weak. If Vegas and Colorado were truly the best in the league, they would have disposed of each other and made minced meat of Montreal. Colorado had 39 wins, 25 of those against bottom teams.
 

Hard to tell where you are weak when 57% of your games are against the bottom of the league. 

 

Montreal played in a division that was pretty close to equal from top to bottom. Montreal was the only playoff team in the NHL to have more wins in the regular season versus playoff teams. I repeat… the ONLY team in the NHL to win more games against playoff bound teams than non-playoff teams throughout the regular season. They were able to identify issues and correct/work on them throughout the regular season. Vegas wasnt able to make the adjustments quick enough in a best of 7 after having a laughable 32 games against garbage teams where wins were easy
 

If anything, Vegas fooled everyone, not Montreal.

 

Tampa Bay beat Florida and Carolina, both of which are cup contenders.

 

Mind you I feel like Tampa got outplayed in both series and Vasilevskiy is the reason they won. That and Sam Bennett channelling his inner Nazem Kadri and taking a stupid boarding penalty (TBL tied the game on the PP and then won in OT) and getting a 1 game suspension, then he took another dumb penalty later in the series that was costly.

 

Carolina played great but just couldnt beat Vasilevskiy and Nedeljkovich let in a couple weak goals that cost them a couple games.

[BarnBurner]

On 6/26/2021 at 2:04 PM, J-23 said:

Leafs fans are really down this bad.

Yeah, and their trolling Canucks board. Go cry somewhere else. Not you.  

[Kragar]

On 6/26/2021 at 8:08 PM, coolboarder said:

I agree with you.  Make the playoffs more exclusive, top teams in each division makes it to final 4 will fix that.    That's how you represent a best team from a division.  It is of my opinion that the playoffs is very profitable business that the NHL would rather keep because it does not pay players any cent except for the playoff prize money pool.   It's all about the series between two teams and the winner is the best team of that said series does not mean that they are the best team in the whole league.  From that I've seen, the regular season refereeing is different from the playoff referee and it makes no sense if a team that won the season series by a long shot lost in a playoff series with different rules.   That's how obvious that is because there were no inter-conference or inter-league games this year.  It is completely exposed for a fraud that they are.  I think that the playoffs in the past were different than regular season hockey from 1960's as they were enforced the same way for long time until 2 ref system exposed them so badly that they started to miss calls in the playoffs by letting them go more usual than the regular season.  It's time to rethink the determination of who is the best team in the league.  Playoffs structure is not the answer.  The original 6 playoff system worked because the way they called is the same from regular season and playoffs.  And often, it just take 2 round to determine with fresh energy.  The longer playoffs goes, the energy drains so fast and it often produced upsets without any enough rest for a short series or series that went 7 games.

Making the playoffs more exclusive is bad for the game. 4 teams making the playoffs alienates 12 other markets, based on current format.  It will also lead to more tanking, and tanking sooner, as the only playoff spot available gets more and more out of reach.  Ratings will go down as markets lose their playoff hopes.

 

Also, picture this scenario, using your idea: what team do you want in the playoffs...

A: team gets an easy schedule to start, makes hay while the sun shines, and loses their star player for the season at/near the TDL, but they limp into that top spot, or

B: team has injury struggles to start the season, goes on a big losing streak, but pulls it all together with the top performing team after the TDL, but ends up one point behind Team A come end of season.

 

In your system, Team B is golfing, when they would likely beat Team A 9 games outta 10.  A 16-team format leads to more playoff hockey, and that's a good thing.

 

If OP finds solace in complaining about the system because his GM doesn't know how to build a balanced team, that's fine for him.  Doesn't mean he is right saying there is a problem with the format.

 

The only thing I think I can agree with you is ref consistency.  

[coolboarder]

2 hours ago, Kragar said:

Making the playoffs more exclusive is bad for the game. 4 teams making the playoffs alienates 12 other markets, based on current format.  It will also lead to more tanking, and tanking sooner, as the only playoff spot available gets more and more out of reach.  Ratings will go down as markets lose their playoff hopes.

 

Also, picture this scenario, using your idea: what team do you want in the playoffs...

A: team gets an easy schedule to start, makes hay while the sun shines, and loses their star player for the season at/near the TDL, but they limp into that top spot, or

B: team has injury struggles to start the season, goes on a big losing streak, but pulls it all together with the top performing team after the TDL, but ends up one point behind Team A come end of season.

 

In your system, Team B is golfing, when they would likely beat Team A 9 games outta 10.  A 16-team format leads to more playoff hockey, and that's a good thing.

 

If OP finds solace in complaining about the system because his GM doesn't know how to build a balanced team, that's fine for him.  Doesn't mean he is right saying there is a problem with the format.

 

The only thing I think I can agree with you is ref consistency.  

That what it makes the early season even more important than just warm-up and getting hot at a right time and steamroll every teams and win the cup.  If it's were up to me, I'd prefer top 2 in each division rather than top 4 or top 4 in conference than top 8.  It's just preference if the money is not the main motivation and is purely from competitive standpoint. 

[D.B Cooper]

That’s like Donald Trump losing the election, but still running around saying he actually won, and is the best ever.   
 

No dude.  You lost.  

[D.B Cooper]

Funny thing here, even if the best team was judged from regular season stats, the leafs still wouldn’t win.  
They weren’t even top 5!

hahahaha

[Kragar]

2 hours ago, coolboarder said:

That what it makes the early season even more important than just warm-up and getting hot at a right time and steamroll every teams and win the cup.  If it's were up to me, I'd prefer top 2 in each division rather than top 4 or top 4 in conference than top 8.  It's just preference if the money is not the main motivation and is purely from competitive standpoint. 

Top 2 per division is better than just the division winner. But, the more teams that make it, the more exciting it is for more fans.  That, and the money generated with all those games and added interest, there is no way we will get less than 4 rounds anymore.  I think I actually prefer the earlier rounds now, as there is just so much going on.

 

Of course, you have to balance that with quality,  and I see that quality is your focus.  Can't blame you there. I am not pushing for what was going on in the late 70s or early 80s, where 80% of the teams made the playoffs, that's for sure.

 

 

[4petesake]

On 6/25/2021 at 5:16 PM, Rick Blight said:

I am sure you have not been around long enough to see the Leafs win their last Cup but did you know....

 

• Leafs finished 3rd in a 6 team league
• Leafs had 19 less points than Chicago during the regular season
• Leafs allowed 7 more goals than they scored during the regular season. Chicago scored 94 more than they allowed.

So I am assuming you don't think the Leafs were a good team in 1967 and were very undeserving of winning a cup that season. Perhaps their win should be stricken from the records?

Oops, looks like another Cup winner needs to be stricken. We better stop looking or Leaf fans won’t have much to hold on to.

 

 

 

 

[coolboarder]

41 minutes ago, Kragar said:

Top 2 per division is better than just the division winner. But, the more teams that make it, the more exciting it is for more fans.  That, and the money generated with all those games and added interest, there is no way we will get less than 4 rounds anymore.  I think I actually prefer the earlier rounds now, as there is just so much going on.

 

Of course, you have to balance that with quality,  and I see that quality is your focus.  Can't blame you there. I am not pushing for what was going on in the late 70s or early 80s, where 80% of the teams made the playoffs, that's for sure.

 

 

The reason is that quality matters as there are too many games in the regular season for them to justify 1st round upsets by lower seeded teams in a 16 teams playoffs system.   Let's say, we worked hard for 82 games to maintain consistency only for the 8th seeded team to get hot at a right time late and top seeded teams get nervous when they have to meet them and it feels like Stanley Cup Final in the first round where they are undeserving because they lacked consistency by lower teams throughout the season.   Baseball suffered this same fate when they expanded the playoffs teams. They had 162 games and they lacked quality and is the reason why most people do not watch baseball playoffs in baseball as rating has shown over the last decade.  I would not mind cutting it down to just 8 teams for hockey rather than half of the league to determine the champions that is deserving.  First round of 8 teams playoffs would still be exciting and momentum would be carried over for semi-finals and finals.  With 4 rounds, you lose some fizzle over a couple of months and the quality suffer by the time you reach the final.  With much shorter off-season, the quality of champions probably would not be carried over to the start of the next season.  How often do  you see the finalists miss the playoffs the next season?  That's pretty often lately.  

 

Now, in order to justify the 16-teams playoffs, you'd have to cut the number of games to 60 games and it would feel just right.  This will allow for the teams to maintain their quality with proper off-season training.   Football does not seem to have this quality issue with just one month of playoffs when compared to hockey with 2 months of playoffs.   Now they just expand the regular season games and playoffs format and we'll see how much it affect teams next season going forward.   Keeping this in your mind. 

[Kragar]

8 hours ago, coolboarder said:

The reason is that quality matters as there are too many games in the regular season for them to justify 1st round upsets by lower seeded teams in a 16 teams playoffs system.   Let's say, we worked hard for 82 games to maintain consistency only for the 8th seeded team to get hot at a right time late and top seeded teams get nervous when they have to meet them and it feels like Stanley Cup Final in the first round where they are undeserving because they lacked consistency by lower teams throughout the season.   Baseball suffered this same fate when they expanded the playoffs teams. They had 162 games and they lacked quality and is the reason why most people do not watch baseball playoffs in baseball as rating has shown over the last decade.  I would not mind cutting it down to just 8 teams for hockey rather than half of the league to determine the champions that is deserving.  First round of 8 teams playoffs would still be exciting and momentum would be carried over for semi-finals and finals.  With 4 rounds, you lose some fizzle over a couple of months and the quality suffer by the time you reach the final.  With much shorter off-season, the quality of champions probably would not be carried over to the start of the next season.  How often do  you see the finalists miss the playoffs the next season?  That's pretty often lately.  

 

Now, in order to justify the 16-teams playoffs, you'd have to cut the number of games to 60 games and it would feel just right.  This will allow for the teams to maintain their quality with proper off-season training.   Football does not seem to have this quality issue with just one month of playoffs when compared to hockey with 2 months of playoffs.   Now they just expand the regular season games and playoffs format and we'll see how much it affect teams next season going forward.   Keeping this in your mind. 

Baseball ratings have been dropping long before they brought in wildcards.  It's boring, and younger audiences have chased more interesting things. Basketball interest rose as baseball was dropping.  Could be coincidence, but who knows.  Nice chart here if you are interested: https://www.forbes.com/sites/briangoff/2019/12/16/long-term-viewership-trends-show-warnings-for-nfl-nba-and-other-major-sports/?sh=313340ca584f

 

Both NFL and NHL have 4 rounds of playoffs.  But since NFL is single-elimination (which is more prone to upsets), they wrap up in a month.

 

But, your premise is still valid.  So it seems you are not so much against the 16-team playoff format as you are against the whole length of the season.  Nothing wrong with that position at all. NFL obviously gets most of the year off, and that helps keep them fresh.  There's a lot more money in football, so the league can afford to have shorter seasons and smaller representation in the playoffs, and their fans are more dedicated.  It would be tougher for the NHL to move to a shorter season, despite the improvements it would make to playoff quality.  But I agree that it would help.

 

FWIW, this year was the first time in 6 years that both SCF finalists didn't make the playoffs the following season.

 

I still contend your position would not help OP though (not that you are necessarily arguing that... I'm just tying this all back to the thread).  Players try harder in the playoffs.  The hitting gets more intense, and the games are tougher.  Defensive play will always be a factor when there are long series, and I definitely support 7-game series.  Strong defense and leadership are critical, and not too many people think the Leafs have much of either.

[PistolPete13]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:52 PM, coolboarder said:

The reason is that quality matters as there are too many games in the regular season for them to justify 1st round upsets by lower seeded teams in a 16 teams playoffs system.   Let's say, we worked hard for 82 games to maintain consistency only for the 8th seeded team to get hot at a right time late and top seeded teams get nervous when they have to meet them and it feels like Stanley Cup Final in the first round where they are undeserving because they lacked consistency by lower teams throughout the season.   Baseball suffered this same fate when they expanded the playoffs teams. They had 162 games and they lacked quality and is the reason why most people do not watch baseball playoffs in baseball as rating has shown over the last decade.  I would not mind cutting it down to just 8 teams for hockey rather than half of the league to determine the champions that is deserving.  First round of 8 teams playoffs would still be exciting and momentum would be carried over for semi-finals and finals.  With 4 rounds, you lose some fizzle over a couple of months and the quality suffer by the time you reach the final.  With much shorter off-season, the quality of champions probably would not be carried over to the start of the next season.  How often do  you see the finalists miss the playoffs the next season?  That's pretty often lately.  

 

Now, in order to justify the 16-teams playoffs, you'd have to cut the number of games to 60 games and it would feel just right.  This will allow for the teams to maintain their quality with proper off-season training.   Football does not seem to have this quality issue with just one month of playoffs when compared to hockey with 2 months of playoffs.   Now they just expand the regular season games and playoffs format and we'll see how much it affect teams next season going forward.   Keeping this in your mind. 

The first round games in the NHL are imho the the most entertaining. Football playoffs take less time because each round is a best of one. If you really wanted to shorten the NHL playoffs, then don’t reduce the number of teams. Reduce the number of games in each series from best of 7 to the best of 5. 

[alt kilgore]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:38 PM, LeafsFanDan said:

This is an opinion thread, please don't break forum rules or bash OP if you happen to disagree**

 

2021 SCP has shown on full display that teams who may do well under the playoff type games may not be great regular season teams, and that needs to be addressed.

 

Organizations, fans and players make the most of their hockey time during the 82 games and 6 months of hockey during the regular season. All the true battles, the point records, the endless games and drama happens during this time. The teams are ranked during the season based on their composition, roaster, type of game style and performance.

 

Winning unlike most people want you to believe isn't everything. Many people would agree that win or lose as long as their team plays an entertaining style of hockey thats what matters. Losing 6 to 7 but watching your team score 6 goals is incredible. Getting your money worth at a game isn't about winning its about the game style, the players and the attitude.

 

Playoffs is a mind set that tricks people into thinking winning is all that matters, and many teams play a horrible boring defensive, unsatisfying brand of hockey (New Jersey 90s, Dallas etc) overacheiving  medicore teams doing well in a limited 20 game playoff spam.

 

Enter Montreal 2021, a scub team no one selected who is a true expert or analyst in NHL. You know why? Because it's not a good team, at one point even Canucks were thinking of catching them.

 

Just because Montreal has managed to pull wins in a playoff bubble, playing endless defence and grinding teams down doesn't make them a good team. I am sorry, Playoffs need to have its own bracket because regular season is where teams truly shine  where players get paid and where most of the money is made.

 

Its crazy to see how many people are buying into the SCP as a decisive factor for determining what team is good and what isn't.

 

I think after wading through all the BS in this OP you do raise a good point about the fact that a teams regular season's performance should factor more into playoff positioning or advantage. 

 

First the BS. 

No, "many people" would not agree "that win or lose as long as their team plays an entertaining style of hockey thats what matters".   True, it is an important factor for most fans. In order to sell tickets. Pavel Bure helped to fill the new GM garage almost immediately. But that entertaining style fan support only goes so far. It still will always come second to going far in the playoffs. No matter what system the coach employs. NJ fans were not complaining about their style of play the day after their team won the Cup.  Nor were the Mighty Ducks fans dwelling on how much fun it was to watch offensive players like Kariya and Sykora during the regular season.

 

Every successful SC playoff team is good defensively if they want to get to the next round. They have to be good in most every area.  Tampa Bay vastly improved their defensive game after getting humiliated by Columbus a few seasons back. Didn't hurt that Hedman matured more during that time, but it was more than that. There was a new focus on defensive play, with new players like Sergachev learning in that kind of structure.  Toronto just was not good enough in that area.

 

The SCF DOES determine what team "is good".   Not just good at playing only 3/4 of the full season (if you include the playoffs), but good right to the end. Its true in one sense, as Gretzky once said, there are really 3 seasons.  The regular season, the playoffs, and then the SCF round.  But its also like one big long season that a team has to plan for and build the team for. Like instead of 3 seasons, its more like 3 periods. And good managing + coaching knows how to build and then prepare a team to play well in the first period, as per the rules, to be set up well for the third period.

 

 

Now, getting past all that, you may have a point about the need to re-structure the process.  Maybe a hybrid system where the 4 top teams, one from each division get an automatic by to the second round. Or get some other incentive.  A spot in the lottery. Or an extra pick in a later round. I don't know. I'm sure they could agree on something.