Get rid of wildcard spot

[McShogun99]

They will add more teams into the playoff mix eventually with how much the league has expanded. I’m guessing we’ll eventually see 22 or 24 teams getting in, more rounds but probably a best of 5 for the first 3 rounds then a best of 7 for the last 2 rounds.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

but it’s not a divisional system.

K. A compromise of a divisional and conference system is not needed. Just stick with conference. Better?

 

[AvroArrow]

The Wildcard spots account for differences in strength of division.

1-8 seeding does a better job at accounting for differences in strength of division

 

[LTIR]

Keeps more teams in play.. you keep it

 

[pld459666]

So long as you have teams with a "chance" to make the playoffs, its a surefire way to maintain interest in the local teams market.

In the Eastern Conference, all but Buffalo is within 7 points of the last WC spot.

In the West, more teams are out, but even Seattle is within 10 points.

There is no way on God's green earth they do away with the wildcard

 

[Golden_Jet]

K. A compromise of a divisional and conference system is not needed. Just stick with conference. Better?

Sure, but if they don’t change the system, I’m also fine with the current system.

 

[x Tame Impala]

For 1) moving from three divisions to two places the perfect amount of emphasis on divisional games -- important because you get a real benefit from winning the division but the wild card existing means that you actually directly compete against all teams in your conference, not just your division, for a playoff spot. It also fixed 3) in a pretty elegant and straightforward way.

On 2) I think that there have been some really nice rivalries that have been born out of this new format. Boston vs. Florida and LAK vs. Edmonton are two right of the top of my head. It's also been able to consistently deliver us more traditional ones like Pittsburgh vs. Washington, Boston vs. Toronto, Montreal vs. Boston, the three California teams against one another, etc.

I don't understand how 4) is relevant to the playoff format at all and seems like more of a question to take up with ESPN and TNT

There are still division rivalries, as every post season it’s 2 vs 3, and a chance at 1 vs 4 (depends which WC they play)
Seems like a happy medium to me now.


Likely wouldn’t get that problem as only 2 divisions now not 3. So only first 2 spots would be guaranteed.


Maybe that’s an American thing, not sure, as in Canada you get every playoff game from the start, definitely don’t have to wait until the east coast games are done.

Those are just repeated matchups. There’s no CHI vs VAN, PHI vs PIT, BOS vs MTL intensity there. I think this set up makes the first two rounds more boring because you’re mostly guaranteed to play a divisional opponent. It also creates bad matchups where two very good teams play each other in the first or second round when they should be meeting in the 2nd or 3rd round. We see examples of this all the time, if not every year.

1-8 seeding does a better job at accounting for differences in strength of division

I think it would be silly to have 6 teams from one division and 2 from the other representing a conference in the playoffs. A max of 5 is a good cut off IMHO

 

[Voight]

Rather than get rid of the wildcard, they need to permanently adopt the play-in format.

Definitely not.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Those are just repeated matchups. There’s no CHI vs VAN, PHI vs PIT, BOS vs MTL intensity there. I think this set up makes the first two rounds more boring because you’re mostly guaranteed to play a divisional opponent. It also creates bad matchups where two very good teams play each other in the first or second round when they should be meeting in the 2nd or 3rd round. We see examples of this all the time, if not every year.

Disagree on the bad matchups, first round playoffs is usually the best.