Comments on: Report: Proposed playoff system has four wildcard teams

By: kingsforever

kingsforever — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:44:38 +0000

If the divisions or conferences aren’t evenly divided, the players and fans don’t want it. Simple
The league has to stop suggesting these uneven realignment plans

By: kingsforever

kingsforever — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:42:13 +0000

If the divisions/groups aren’t even, the
players and fans don’t want it. Simple.

By: canuck54143

canuck54143 — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:15:24 +0000

Or Dallas to Vegas

By: canuck54143

canuck54143 — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:14:15 +0000

Makes sense with NHL soon moving out of dead beat markets. Florida to Quebec, and Tampa Bay to Hartford. Move Phoenix to Seattle, and Dallas to Hamilton or Toronto.

By: blomfeld

blomfeld — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:09:20 +0000

I love these proposed changes almost as much as I love the beautiful picture above !

GO CHANGES !

GO COMRADE BETTMAN !!!

GO STANLEY CUP CHAMPION LA KINGS !!!!!!

By: jrod691

jrod691 — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 02:54:44 +0000

Oops, I did misread that.

By: phillyphanatic77

phillyphanatic77 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:25:56 +0000

Well this allayed my fears about some quality teams being left out. I thought it would be top 4 from each conference, but top 3 with wildcards makes more sense. I’m warming up to this new system.

By: dongaddy

dongaddy — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:25:16 +0000

Why not put all Canada teams in one division

By: gbar22

gbar22 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:32:12 +0000

Also can’t anyone see a scenario where the top six teams in the east are all playing in the Atlantic?

By: letsgopens8771

letsgopens8771 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:24:32 +0000

This is the only way that Winnipeg and Buffalo would make the playoffs.

By: kaptaanamerica

kaptaanamerica — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:12:00 +0000

I think the NHL got it right with the wild cards.this allows for expansion. You could still add Quebec and Seattle.I’m Glad that Vancouver Will play mostly in the Pacific time zone instead of having teams two time zones away.

By: ironman721

ironman721 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:09:07 +0000

Chicago might not lose a conference game for a long time. Weak! And conference 1 is a war zone. Very stupid NHL!

By: clefty1

clefty1 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:55:38 +0000

Of the Wings games I have seen on tv in Tampa, the place is probably almost half Wings fans when they come to town and there are plenty that show up in Miami as well.

By: therealjr

therealjr — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:41:36 +0000

But I can’t understand that, it’s just too difficult.

By: tmoore4075

tmoore4075 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:41:03 +0000

Doesn’t get packed? Really?

By: ahmadadel83

ahmadadel83 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:57:17 +0000

I’m a west coast guy but I think it’s unfair to the eastern side to have to compete with 2 extra teams to qualify for the playoffs, really doubt the PA will sign off on it unless they a) add 2 teams or b) contract two teams…I’m in for contracting

By: jakreidler

jakreidler — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:51:04 +0000

I can see them fixing the math issue by expanding to Quebec City (2) and Seattle (4) and then moving the Wings to 3.

By: bensawesomeness

bensawesomeness — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:36:46 +0000

I know people are super against this, anything’s better than keeping Winnipeg in the east, let’s just try something new and see how it goes, like seriously.

When the 6 teams after the original 6 were added, if memory serves, they were all in a conference. unfair, unbalanced, but it gets fan bases pumped to be in the finals, gets more profit. grows the sport
I have faith that the playoffs will still be a grind and whoever is still skating on June well have deserved and earned it

By: myspaceyourface

myspaceyourface — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:29:23 +0000

The LAST thing they need to do is EXPAND the league.

If anything, they should DO AWAY WITH 2 teams.

It would get rid of debt, improve attendance numbers, and increase quality of teams.

By: drocity

drocity — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:27:08 +0000

I’ve got an idea, we could call these four conferences, “Divisions”. We could give each “Division” a name steeped in Hockey History. I propose “Adams”, “Patrick”, “Norris”, and “Smyth.” We could then call the East Side, the Campbell Conference and the West Side, the Wales Conference.

That would be awesome!

By: nothanksimdriving123

nothanksimdriving123 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:21:05 +0000

fah: Parody is comedic imitation. Parity is the state of equality.

By: tmoore4075

tmoore4075 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:14:11 +0000

Go read LeBrun’s article it makes a lot more sense now.

“The playoff format as detailed in the league memo Tuesday calls for the top three teams in each division to earn postseason berths. The remaining four spots would go to wild cards, the top two records in each conference. That means there’s a possibility five teams make it from one division and only three from another.”

So if the 4th and 5th seeds in conference 2 are better than the 4th team in conference 1, than the 4th and 5th seeds from conference 2 get in.

By: sunking1

sunking1 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:05:27 +0000

tmoore… Tampa does not “get packed” with Detroit fans when the Wings are in town. While there will always be some opposing fans in the building (because virtually everyone who lives here is from someplace up north) Tampa fills the building regardless of who the opponent is.

By: therealjr

therealjr — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:02:59 +0000

This is just completely counter-intuitive to addressing fairness.

Right now you have a conference seeding, where you play your division 6x and everyone else in conference 4x. Not ideal but fair enough.

Instead you are going to have a heavily unbalanced schedule; look at the west. You play your own division (which is really what it is) 6x and other division 2x. Then you are going to compare the remaining teams that didn’t finish top 3 for wild card slots?

This seems less appealing than having conf/divisions with 7 and 8 teams. I mean, crying over having to finish 4th of 8 vs. 4th of 7? I’d rather just see two conferences play balanced schedules and take the top 8.

By: broadstbully33

broadstbully33 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:59:54 +0000

I see a lot of be conf leaders banners for Boston. What a terrible conference.

By: billymccloskey

billymccloskey — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:59:35 +0000

As of now conf 3 is stacked holy eff

By: thomaspratt

thomaspratt — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:59:33 +0000

They are missing out. Their wild card system should consist of play in games. So in the example above, instead of naming TB and NYR wild cards at the end of the season, NYR should play PHI , with the winner playing NJ in round 1 and TB should play OTT to see who takes on BOS in round one.

By: killerpgh

killerpgh — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:48:49 +0000

After reading it again I can say I did misunderstand it….I like it simple the way it is now.

By: quizguy66

quizguy66 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:45:55 +0000

the math stays the same. Teams in the eastern conference (8-team divisions) still only have a 50% chance of making the playoffs while the western conference teams (7-team divisions) will have a 57.1% chance.

The different is that teams in a stacked division, like the Atlantic, which could have, say the top 5 teams in the conference, don’t automatically have one of those 5 teams get screwed.

-QG

By: quizguy66

quizguy66 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:44:09 +0000

Last scenario (top division winner and bottom wild card in save division with 4 teams from each division qualifying)

Scenario 3:
Div 1: NJ 111 PITT 106 WSH 103 NYR 91 PHIL 87 CAR 83 NYI 77 CBJ 70
Div 2: BOS 108 DET 101 MTL 97 TB 96 OTT 85 BUF 77 TOR 70 FLA 67

Div 1 top 3: NJ, PITT, WASH
Div 2 top 3: BOS, DET, MTL
Wildcard 1: TB
Wildcard 2: NYR

Wildcard 2 (NYR) would have to play the best division winner (NJ) and would stay in that division’s playoffs.
Wildcard 1 (TB) would have to play the 2nd best division winner (BOS) and would stay in that division’s playoffs.

Playoffs:
NJ vs NYR, PIT vs WASH with winners playing each other in Atlantic Division finals
BOS vs TB, DET vs MTL with winners playing each other in Central Division finals

-QG