Wow. I am hearing all these Minnesota Wild fans screaming that even though their team was knocked out of the playoffs in 5 games, that it was unfair. Why? Because of the way that the NHL seeds their teams and the playoff structure. Since Minnesota is my local team for the NHL, it does get amplified a bit when their fans get up in arms. The pundits, commentators, reporters, and even some of the players, let alone the fans are saying that this playoff format is wrong. Here is my overall feeling towards that way of thinking. Stop your whining and pull on the adult pants.
According to the arguments that are out there, it was unfair that the Wild had to play the Stars in the First Round and the Avalanche in the second round. The argument also goes that the Wild should have been the #3 seed in the Western Conference and played the Utah Mammoth in the first round and whoever won the Dallas/Anaheim series would be the second-round opponent in a seeding 1 through 8 playoff format. Sounds reasonable when you glance at the argument. And it does make some sense but why have divisions if it doesn’t matter in winning the division you are in. Personally, I like having the reward for winning your division be a higher seed than those in a different division that have a higher point total.
In order to have a true 1-8 seeded bracket, you need to have each team play the same schedule. Not that they play each team on the same day, but you play the same number of times, same number of times at home and same amount in the opponent’s building. That could have happened with the number of games that the NHL plays and the number of teams. 32 teams and 82 games mean 4 games in conference versus every other team. This was feasible for the past seasons including this one, however, everyone knew what the rules were coming into the season. Starting next season, you cannot do that anymore. They are adding 2 more games for each team, which makes each and every schedule unbalanced. Now you will have fans arguing that their additional games were tougher than those of whoever they are trying to argue against. You know it will be there.
Another point against the 1-8 playoff crowd is how people are treating Carolina this post-season. It’s boring that they swept their opening series. It’s boring that they swept in round 2. Well, if they had their playoff format, the Flyers would have been the 1st round opponent and the Hurricanes would have had either Montreal or Boston in the second. And while I like revisionist history and being told that the Hurricanes wouldn’t have swept either of those teams, go back to the predictions of Round 1. Ottawa being so hot coming into the playoffs were thought to be a great matchup for the #1 seeded Hurricanes. People were predicting 3 Atlantic teams in the second round with the Senators being one of them. My point? Stay consistent in your criticism. Why weren’t you yelling about that matchup in the 1st round?
If I had my druthers, I would go way back and perform the playoffs that way. Let’s go back to I don’t care about your record except compared to your own division. Top 4 of each division are in the playoffs and you battle until one team is left standing. That way you can get another North Stars run like 1981 or the Kings when they won the Stanley Cup. A David slaying the Goliaths in their own division and seeing if they can go all the way. Think of the Kings/Oilers playoff series over the past couple of years. There was distain for each other. Mostly from the Kings because they got beat each and every time. For me, I love that the bully in the division needs to be knocked of by someone in that division, otherwise the bully continues to reign.
If you are a pure 1-8 advocate, why not advocate for the true 1through 16 playoff seedings? This year, you would have had the Washington Capitals earning the 13th seed and the Los Angeles Kings eliminated after the regular season. Is it not fair that 9 out of the Top 13 teams that had the most points came out of the Eastern Conference? Are we not trying to reward the 16 most deserving teams? If we are, tell that to the 3 other teams that missed the playoffs but finished with more points than those Kings. All from the Eastern Conference. So we actually had 4 teams better than the Los Angeles Kings miss the playoffs, but I really didn’t hear the crying about that.
While I agree that the hybrid 1-8 system with the second and third place teams from each division playing with each other is a bit chaotic, it shouldn’t be as difficult as people make it out to be. And if you yell about the seeding of a team that had the 7th most points in the league as something that is unfair, I will tell you again. Shut up and pull your adult pants on. More than the Wild had to deal with it and those teams seemed to relish the challenge that those seeding quirks brought instead of crying.
Leave a Reply