No Plan to Change Playoff Format - Bettman

[voyageur]

They already do this by making the Central teams play at patently absurd times (8:45pm local), this shouldn't be an issue.

What is an issue, in the West, is travel, which was awful in the Conference format, and is not much better in this one, but it is better...

This is my pitch

If I remember correctly Dallas and Nashville didn't get caught in that time slot situation for the playoffs last year in their home starts. Jets did though.

Only fair way in terms of travel is 1-16 but that's so random it will never happen again.

 

[kvladimir]

Only fair way in terms of travel is 1-16 but that's so random it will never happen again.

Do you mean "fair" or do you mean "best" for travel? Because if it's the latter, the best format would be an 8 geographical division format with a heavily weighted schedule toward divisional games. Think:

D1: VAN, SEA, CGY, EDM
D2: SJS, LAK, ANA, VGK
D3: UTH, COL, MIN, WPG
D4: CHI, STL, NSH, DAL
D5: DET, TOR, BUF, OTT
D6: BOS, MTL, PIT, CBJ
D7: PHI, NJD, NYI, NYR
D8: TBL, FLA, CAR, WSH

6 games vs Division, 4 games vs. 1 other Division (D1+2, D3+4, D5+6, D7+8), 2 vs. every other team.

Again, only prioritizing travel here

 

[voyageur]

Do you mean "fair" or do you mean "best" for travel? Because if it's the latter, the best format would be an 8 geographical division format with a heavily weighted schedule toward divisional games. Think:

D1: VAN, SEA, CGY, EDM
D2: SJS, LAK, ANA, VGK
D3: UTH, COL, MIN, WPG
D4: CHI, STL, NSH, DAL
D5: DET, TOR, BUF, OTT
D6: BOS, MTL, PIT, CBJ
D7: PHI, NJD, NYI, NYR
D8: TBL, FLA, CAR, WSH

6 games vs Division, 4 games vs. 1 other Division (D1+2, D3+4, D5+6, D7+8), 2 vs. every other team.

Again, only prioritizing travel here

I have proposed smaller divisions too to create real rivalries again. Don't think it's in the cards though. I don't think the NHL really gives 2 shits about rivalries anymore. It's more about marketing players.

I look back at the 1981 season which was the last year of 1-16 playoffs.

It had some great 1st round matchups. Upstart Oilers knock off the Canadiens. North Stars beat the Bruins in the Garden for the first time in their history in one of the most intense fight filled playoff battles in hockey history. Upstart Nordiques take defending finalists Flyers to 5. You have Buffalo against Vancouver. Dynasty beginning Isles against the Leafs. Rangers upset the Kings. Newly arrived Calgary Flames beat the declining Blackhawks. Blues and Penguins go to 2OT in deciding game 5.

It was as random as possible but it made for some good hockey series, without any geographical advantage.

But that was a different era. Most U.S teams struggled for survival without the means of economic success that hockey has generated since Gretzky went to L.A, and Mario brought the Stanley Cup back to the U.S after 7 consecutive years of Canadian domination. Followed by expansion. And a significant American TV contract. We're on year 32 now in our drought up here since Uncle Gary runs the show, did away with the divisional format for 20 years before bringing it back, in a different sense. Hockey now ends a month later than it in the 80s.

Now I think that Vegas, L.A, Dallas, Tampa, Florida and Carolina are among the top 10 favorites to win the Cup this year. That could see 6 Canadian teams in the battle for the first time in Jesus, I don't know. Although maybe it's only 4 when the war of attrition begins.

I think you just have to accept what you're given at this point, as a hockey fan. Love or leave it, like Born on the 4th of July.

 

[coolboarder]

If they do change the playoff format, I'd change to 8 divisions, 4 teams each, for one round only, Divisional series and round 2 to 4, 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5 and reseed to the final giving more of a match-up variety for round 2 and onward.

 

[Divine]

Divisional format is absolutely trash. Hurts strong divisions and benefits weak ones.

1-8 is definitely better.
1-16 is the best (top 8 from each) - this would lead to way more exciting matchups.

Bettman hates the idea of growing the game.

 

[New Jersey Devil]

To be fair they are also blacking out the entire playoffs in every market.... so it probably doesn't matter too much.

What?

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Maybe the Bolts take the Atlantic, their goal differential deserves it, and we have the Leafs-Cats first round matchup we deserve.

Cats would win in 7, y'know. I seen that movie before. Yawn.

 

[Summer Rose]

What?

I'm a cord cutter. I do pay for ESPN Plus, because my team is out of my TV market, so I can get the games that way. A couple games I think have been on Max (which I also pay for, but for reasons unrelated to hockey). Been able to watch every Utah game with those two subscriptions that I can recall, up until Tuesday's game in Edmonton, which was on ESPN, and only ESPN. Considering we got blown out 7-1, maybe that was for the better, but it was annoying that I couldn't watch it with any subscription that you can pay for, being a cord cutter.

Once the playoffs start, unless there's some kind of package out there that I'm unaware of, I'll be completely out of luck. I'd legitimately be willing to pay up to like $200 for some kind of streaming package to watch the playoffs, but is something like that available? Nope, not that I'm aware of. Stupid NHL.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I'm a cord cutter. I do pay for ESPN Plus, because my team is out of my TV market, so I can get the games that way. A couple games I think have been on Max (which I also pay for, but for reasons unrelated to hockey). Been able to watch every Utah game with those two subscriptions that I can recall, up until Tuesday's game in Edmonton, which was on ESPN, and only ESPN. Considering we got blown out 7-1, maybe that was for the better, but it was annoying that I couldn't watch it with any subscription that you can pay for, being a cord cutter.

Once the playoffs start, unless there's some kind of package out there that I'm unaware of, I'll be completely out of luck. I'd legitimately be willing to pay up to like $200 for some kind of streaming package to watch the playoffs, but is something like that available? Nope, not that I'm aware of. Stupid NHL.

Shit, I ain't much for tech but if you ever find yourself in Vancouver, you got a place to watch hockey if you're out my way. I don't know much about Florida but that situation seems....dire.

 

[albator71]

If they would go with 1v8 then they need to scrap the divisions have just two conferences. I would be okay with that

 

[ItWasJustified]

To be fair they are also blacking out the entire playoffs in every market.... so it probably doesn't matter too much.

As long as you have an internet connection there's a remedy to that.

 

[ItWasJustified]

If they would go with 1v8 then they need to scrap the divisions have just two conferences. I would be okay with that

Why would they need to that? Just expand the league with 4 teams and have 18 per conference, 3 divisions and 6 teams in each divisions. Since everything that matters to Gary Bettman, the owners and the players is money, this makes most sense.

 

[Summer Rose]

Shit, I ain't much for tech but if you ever find yourself in Vancouver, you got a place to watch hockey if you're out my way. I don't know much about Florida but that situation seems....dire.

I'd offer you the same if you're ever out my way in Florida, but to your point, you absolutely do not want to be here right now, for reasons better left unsaid (but we both already know anyway, so no need to beat a dead horse anyway).

As for the streaming package situation, I could pay $20 a month for a package that gets me most Tampa Bay Rays games and some (but not all) Tampa Bay Lightning games. The Bolts are a popular enough team to get punted around the national TV circuit several times a year though, and I'd be SOL for all of those ones. It does not, however, include a single playoff game for either, as far as I know. Maybe it does for the first round for the Bolts, but I'm not really sure.

I think last season I added it up and the price for all the packages on offer combined in order to watch the Bolts was comparable to just having cable/satellite, but it still fell a little short of offering all 82 their games. I think it would have been good for something like 75 of them. I didn't go for it though, and I kind of refuse to give cable/satellite companies my money on principle. Cable/satellite is just not good value for the money for a viewer like me who watches pretty much only hockey and football. The football side of it is a little weird too. The Gators rule Gainesville with an iron fist obviously, but as far as the NFL goes, they're a little inconsistent about deciding what to give us over the air. Most people here who are NFL fans are either out of towners who brought their former local team with them, or Buccaneers fans. However, the NFL has decided that Gainesville is part of the Jacksonville Jaguars market more often than not, but they're an AFC team so we get most Buccaneers games over the air anyway. A few weeks out of the year they only give us the Jaguars game, despite the fact that very, very few people in Gainesville give a shit about the Jaguars. It's funny too, because at the few stores/sections around here that sell sports merchandise, once you wade through all the Florida Gators stuff, you find Jaguars gear that barely sells, and nothing for the Buccaneers. To which I say, sorry NFL, you can't force us to like a team just because it's a slightly closer drive to Jacksonville than it is to Tampa (about an hour and a half to Jacksonville and two and a half hours to Tampa, but the drive to Tampa is much nicer since it's a straight shot down I-75, whereas the drive to Jacksonville is mostly on crappy backroad state highways until you eventually wind up on I-10 about 20-30 miles west of Jacksonville).

But anyway, I digress a bit.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I'd offer you the same if you're ever out my way in Florida, but to your point, you absolutely do not want to be here right now, for reasons better left unsaid (but we both already know anyway, so no need to beat a dead horse anyway).

As for the streaming package situation, I could pay $20 a month for a package that gets me most Tampa Bay Rays games and some (but not all) Tampa Bay Lightning games. The Bolts are a popular enough team to get punted around the national TV circuit several times a year though, and I'd be SOL for all of those ones. It does not, however, include a single playoff game for either, as far as I know. Maybe it does for the first round for the Bolts, but I'm not really sure.

But anyway, I digress a bit.

Me and my family were at a similar point in 2009, in Canada AFAIK your default winter sport is hockey, but my default summer sport was always baseball and not lacrosse. That sport is for the truly insane. Baseball is more a thinking man's sport, and my granny loved it. So, naturally I played ball when I came of age. Guess that's the most American part of me. Wasn't good, but I learned a lot about the nature of sport that way. Shit, I'd practice throwing a ball against the wall and catching it bare-handed.

I'm still not much a sports fan, but I'm licking my chops at the opportunity to watch Shohei this summer. And I only played the "brigand" positions, like 2B, 3B, or RF.

 

[Summer Rose]

Me and my family were at a similar point in 2009, in Canada AFAIK your default winter sport is hockey, but my default summer sport was always baseball and not lacrosse. That sport is for the truly insane. Baseball is more a thinking man's sport, and my granny loved it. So, naturally I played ball when I came of age. Guess that's the most American part of me. Wasn't good, but I learned a lot about the nature of sport that way. Shit, I'd practice throwing a ball against the wall and catching it bare-handed.

I'm still not much a sports fan, but I'm licking my chops at the opportunity to watch Shohei this summer. And I only played the "brigand" positions, like 2B, 3B, or RF.

Lacrosse is insane indeed. I dated a guy once who not only played lacrosse, he was the goalie. He was more than just a little bit "out there" in terms of his craziness. Who am I to talk though, I wound up playing goal for a while in hockey, so I'm clearly at least a bit of an oddball too. My nickname with some of my friends is "Loopy" for a reason. As for baseball, well, I played softball for quite a while growing up, and used "the tools of ignorance" (they're called that for a damn good reason) to play catcher. While I don't regret all the good times I had playing, my knees are not exactly in a great state from all the years of playing catcher.

Boy are we off topic now.

I'll attempt to drag it back on topic by commenting on what I think of the current playoff format: that is, I'm actually kind of just neutral on it at the end of the day. The playoffs inevitably bring you some great series every year with either format. With the current format, it has seemed like they're distributed more towards being in the early rounds, whereas with the 1-8 format we used to have, they were distributed a little more evenly and perhaps a bit more towards the later rounds. I suppose that could be argued to be a positive of the current format, in that they currently are more likely to give you great series in the first two rounds, and that raises interest in them. Then, the conference finals and Stanley Cup finals are interesting in their own right by default, because the stakes are much higher.

From the business side of things, I also imagine what that ultimately means is that TV ratings will be higher, on average, with the current format for all four rounds, which is a very good thing from the perspective of the owners. Matchups between teams featuring less popular teams playing each other drop the ratings and matchups featuring more popular teams drive ratings, regardless of which round they play in, so you might as well try to get "better" early round matchups.

As for the competition side of things, while I agree that it kind of sucks that the current format sometimes makes teams that finish top 5 in the standings face each other early, I don't actually feel very strongly about it.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

I'm a cord cutter. I do pay for ESPN Plus, because my team is out of my TV market, so I can get the games that way. A couple games I think have been on Max (which I also pay for, but for reasons unrelated to hockey). Been able to watch every Utah game with those two subscriptions that I can recall, up until Tuesday's game in Edmonton, which was on ESPN, and only ESPN. Considering we got blown out 7-1, maybe that was for the better, but it was annoying that I couldn't watch it with any subscription that you can pay for, being a cord cutter.

Once the playoffs start, unless there's some kind of package out there that I'm unaware of, I'll be completely out of luck. I'd legitimately be willing to pay up to like $200 for some kind of streaming package to watch the playoffs, but is something like that available? Nope, not that I'm aware of. Stupid NHL.

If you're in the US, subscribe to YoutubeTV from April - June. Then cancel. No contract. $83 x 3 = ~$250 and all playoff games are nationally televised on channels in the subscription.

You could technically do this with SlingTV's Orange package for $46/mo, but you don't get TruTV, which will probably carry a few first round games. And you'd have to rely on an antenna for ABC games.

After this year, I'll honestly probably just do YouTubeTV during the playoffs and ESPN+ year round. Comes out to about $30/mo, and I'll just have to miss TNT/ESPN regular season games.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I feel like Kings and Oilers fans are ready to see different people.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I don't really care as long as they keep it to 16 teams with No play in.

Gonna be a sad day when the play in tournament makes its way to the NHL

 

[Summer Rose]

I don't really care as long as they keep it to 16 teams with No play in.

Gonna be a sad day when the play in tournament makes its way to the NHL

And as much as I hate it, you're absolutely right to say "when" the NHL ends up adding a play-in tournament instead of "if" they do it.

 

[shello]

I miss the randomness of 1 v 8. Felt much more natural and upsets felt so as well. Hell, MTL’s 2010 was so great because they were slaying giants in the Caps and Pens. Wouldn’t really see something like that today

 

[Machinehead]

Yeah but look at all the rivalries they're creating!

Oilers fans sure do hate the Kings now, and not, you know, the Flames.

 

[Machinehead]

I don't really care as long as they keep it to 16 teams with No play in.

Gonna be a sad day when the play in tournament makes its way to the NHL

Yeah, that's gonna suck.

I don't mind it in the NBA so much, because these teams are just playing to see who gets run over. Let them have a few extra games.

In the NHL, you're absolutely gonna have the f***ing 10 seed knocking off the 1 seed before too long because hockey is a roulette wheel.

 

[Schennanigans]

The best would be a 1 vs 16 setup. Would promote new matchups and not so much of the same match ups every year. But it would still feature some of the same matchups that we have in the current format.

If season ended today.

Washington vs ST.Louis
Winnipeg vs Vancouver
Dallas vs Ottawa
Carolina vs NJ
Vegas vs LA
Florida vs Minnesota
Toronto vs Tampa.
Colorado vs Edmonton.

 

[PaulD]

"WAHHHHHHH I need to see Crosby/Ovechkin at least once a year or else!"
- Every hockey fan ever

There's too much intraconference play to have more divisional games. We could go to 90 NHL games a year, but does ANYONE really want that? We should go back to 80.

72

 

[Summer Rose]

The best would be a 1 vs 16 setup. Would promote new matchups and not so much of the same match ups every year. But it would still feature some of the same matchups that we have in the current format.

If season ended today.

Washington vs ST.Louis
Winnipeg vs Vancouver
Dallas vs Ottawa
Carolina vs NJ
Vegas vs LA
Florida vs Minnesota
Toronto vs Tampa.
Colorado vs Edmonton.

Oh boy, Colorado vs. Edmonton would be amazing to watch I bet. Amazing superstars on both sides and they both play a very fast game. Kind of hoping it happens now, even though it couldn't happen until the conference finals when I would normally root for Edmonton to get eliminated as early as possible in most cases.