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No Plan to Change Playoff Format - Bettman

FriendlyGhost92

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Jun 22, 2023
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Personally I think they should alternate it every 10 years, both formats can get stale and boring.

On one hand you have high levels of repetitiveness, on the other it can be a bit too random making it hard to formulate rivalries.
 
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The playoff format honestly may be even worse than the league continuing to punt 3 on 3 rule changes to prevent keep-away.

Everybody knows it needs to change, and nobody will change it for 5-10 years.
 
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MikeyMike01 said:
Division-based playoffs

Barely any divisional games in the regular season

Makes zero sense
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"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.
 
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I think it has to do with controlling where the games are played. Pacific/Mountain time zones especially. That one is for the networks. Guaranteeing that there will be enough late starts to follow the guaranteed Eastern time zone starts. Especially in a year where Central teams in central time zones dominated the West. If you had say Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas all top 4 teams in the West, networks would have to make either unpopular decisions with start times, like pushing Chicago back to 8:30 CST starts, or have the games overlap, which decreases broadcast audiences.

It does seem odd though that there were more divisional matchups in a season during the 1-8 format than there are now in the divisional structure, with wild cards. To the point where you play as many games vs your division as conference for at least 2 teams in your division.
 
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voyageur said:
It does seem odd though that there were more divisional matchups in a season during the 1-8 format than there are now in the divisional structure, with wild cards. To the point where you play as many games vs your division as conference for at least 2 teams in your division.
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The 1-8 matchups produced better rivalries organically than this charade. And the playoffs got better as they wore down, too. Now it's like 1st round is FANTASTIC, 2nd round is OK, 3rd round is a crapshoot, SCF are the Finals so you kinda have to watch if you are a fan of the sport. Rather than the 1st round being GREAT, 2nd round about the same, 3rd round better, Finals downright unmissable.

I mean when I was a kid, the Pens would always meet the Sens, Rangers and Capitals, Canucks-Hawks, etc. probably missed some more. But they went and fixed something that wasn't broke.
 
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Reverend Mayhem said:
The 1-8 matchups produced better rivalries organically than this charade. And the playoffs got better as they wore down, too. Now it's like 1st round is FANTASTIC, 2nd round is OK, 3rd round is a crapshoot, SCF are the Finals so you kinda have to watch if you are a fan of the sport. Rather than the 1st round being GREAT, 2nd round about the same, 3rd round better, Finals downright unmissable.
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I'm not a huge fan of this format. The years when the Atlantic division matchups were decided were decided in January killed a lot of buzz. I'm not sure seeing Edmonton vs. L.A every year has created the rivalries that were as you say organically created during the 1-8 era. But it is what it is. As a Jets fan, I know that if 2/3 Eastern Canadian teams make the playoffs, Jets are going to be starting their home games at 8:30/9 PM on weekdays because no way Rogers allows them to overlap with a big market franchise like Toronto or Montreal. So we're at a disadvantage of playing the whole season at a set time, only to have it compromised come playoffs.

I'm old enough to remember the real rivalries, the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe division grinds that uncle Gary will never be able to replicate after growing the game.

The potential lack of Original Six teams is going to have a negative impact on U.S broadcast ratings I suspect this playoff.
 
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voyageur said:
I'm old enough to remember the real rivalries, the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe division grinds that uncle Gary will never be able to replicate after growing the game.

The potential lack of Original Six teams is going to have a negative impact on U.S broadcast ratings I suspect this playoff.
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All I know is the best single series I ever watched was Philly and Pittsburgh in 2012. That's hockey in a nutshell, for me. Just two pissed off teams that hated each other.
 
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The first round of the playoffs is always great, but I feel like the late-season positioning for playoff spots was always fun to watch before. Also, I just like the idea 1-8, 2-7, etc. playing versus Div 1 - WC2, format. Even though it's the same team, it just feels better when it's 1-8.
 
voyageur said:
I'm not a huge fan of this format. The years when the Atlantic division matchups were decided were decided in January killed a lot of buzz. I'm not sure seeing Edmonton vs. L.A every year has created the rivalries that were as you say organically created during the 1-8 era. But it is what it is. As a Jets fan, I know that if 2/3 Eastern Canadian teams make the playoffs, Jets are going to be starting their home games at 8:30/9 PM on weekdays because no way Rogers allows them to overlap with a big market franchise like Toronto or Montreal. So we're at a disadvantage of playing the whole season at a set time, only to have it compromised come playoffs.

I'm old enough to remember the real rivalries, the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe division grinds that uncle Gary will never be able to replicate after growing the game.

The potential lack of Original Six teams is going to have a negative impact on U.S broadcast ratings I suspect this playoff.
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How many of those matchups would be different with a change in format?
 
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Reverend Mayhem said:
All I know is the best single series I ever watched was Philly and Pittsburgh in 2012. That's hockey in a nutshell, for me. Just two pissed off teams that hated each other.
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It certainly helped that goaltending and defense were optional for both teams that series. As a neutral that made it pretty entertaining. More so on the “this is hilarious” side of things rather than it being entertaining hockey in its own right or because of the rivalry though. For me personally, anyway.
 
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voyageur said:
Guaranteeing that there will be enough late starts to follow the guaranteed Eastern time zone starts.
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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
 
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