Current division playoff format vs 1-8 seeds

[Baksfamous112]

There was never such things as a 1-8 seed matchup. For those that remember, there were 3 divisions per conference and 1-3 were locks for each divisions winners.

More often than not, 4 & 5 had more points than a division winner and were usually better series that 3-6 or 2-7.

 

[Summer Rose]

There was never such things as a 1-8 seed matchup. For those that remember, there were 3 divisions per conference and 1-3 were locks for each divisions winners.

More often than not, 4 & 5 had more points than a division winner and were usually better series that 3-6 or 2-7.

While I don't like admitting that I like something the NBA does (well, did), before they instituted the play-in round, I actually kind of liked how they did seeding. Division winners were guaranteed at minimum the #4 seed, but the team with the best record without winning their division could be seeded as high as #2 if their record was good enough.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

The current format is not a fair system and that by itself should be enough to make changes.

Play in a stacked division, too bad your run will be more challenging.

Have the luxury of being in a soft division, congratulations now you have an advantage.

 

[Golden_Jet]

The current format is not a fair system and that by itself should be enough to make changes.

Play in a stacked division, too bad your run will be more challenging.

Have the luxury of being in a soft division, congratulations now you have an advantage.

Only affects the 2-3 matchup as its
1 vs 8
2 vs 7
And good and weaker divisions always change.

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

In that scenario the regular season would be almost entirely pointless.

Low stakes hockey sucks pretty bad dude. Exhibition games and the all star games are lame. High stakes hockey (like playoff hockey) is universally regarded as far superior to watch. Not sure why anyone would want to turn meaningful hockey into a ‘who cares’ event.

I disagree.

Right now most teams have played roughly 90% of the season and roughly 11 teams have basically zero chance of making the playoffs. For those 11 teams, the rest of the season consists of pointless games. Some of those teams have been playing pointless games for months now. That number of teams will grow to the end of the season until upwards of 16 teams will be playing pointless games at the season's end. That's hundreds of pointless games played each season under the current setup.

32 teams out of 36 is roughly 89%. If we currently ran with that rough percentage today we'd send 29 teams to the playoffs. The top 29 teams today are all roughly ballpark playoff contenders now.

We'd likely create a regular season where nearly 100% of all 82 games would be most relevant to all but the worst of the worst teams in the league.

 

[PuckG]

Anything that prevents another Oilers-Kings first round..

 

[Puckstuff]

90 % for 1-8