Hello Readers,
The issue I'm going to address in this post is that of the NHL playoff structure and how absolutely messed up that I think it is. Before I begin, I will simply put it that yes, I am an extremely bitter Washington Capitals fan who has watched his team, for the second year in a row, lose to a team in seven games. Last year of course the Capitals lost to the eventual cup champions in the Pittsburgh Penguins. But this year the Caps were far and away, all year long, the very best team in the entire league, and yet were once again flaunted by Jarislav Halak and his Montreal Canadians.
All of this being said, however, the Capitals were certainly not the only team upset during this playoff season. The New Jersey Devils with arguably one of the top-3 goalies in the league, and certainly a top-ten goalie of all time, were taken down by the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers. The Buffalo Sabres, who boast arguably the current best goalie on the planet were confounded by the sixth-seeded Boston Bruins. In the Western Conference the only "upset" was the Phoenix Coyotes being defeated by the Detroit Red Wings. However, the Red Wings being the Yankees of hockey, this comes as no surprise.
In the Eastern Conference, the 6th, 7th, and 8th seeded teams were all fighting for their playoff lives until the final three or four games of the season. The Canadiens needed to simply force overtime to get in, while the Flyers needed to defeat the New York Rangers in overtime to qualify. The Bruins secured their playoff hopes a few games earlier when they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes.
On the Western Conference side of things, positions seemed relatively secure for most of the top 8 teams. The Calgary Flames were threatening early but could not keep pace with Detroit and Colorado as they raced ahead in the standings. The St. Louis Blues came on quite strong, but too little too late. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks were also too far behind to do significant damage. This left the 6th 7th and 8th seeds 4-3-3, 6-3-1, and 3-5-2 in the Wins-Losses-Overtimes category. Compare this to teams like the top-seeded Sharks (8-1-1) or even the Capitals in the East (6-1-3).
My argument, then, is why should the top seed that has proved itself all season have to play a team that is in a desperate situation for its playoff life? In the Eastern Conference we are talking about a four-way battle royale for three playoff spots in the last four or five games of the season. Given the circumstances, it seems more advantageous to enter the playoffs as a 3 or 4 seed and play someone that isn't necessarily a pushover game, but yet not a team that has had to play for desperation just to get in.
If I were on a playoff committee, I would push for the following solution. Only six teams qualify for the playoffs in each conference. There are already more teams making the playoffs than missing them (which kind of takes away from it being special... it's like getting a 45% on an exam and still passing). This then would allow for there to be a bye for the first and second seeds in the playoffs. The third seed would play the sixth, and the 4th play the 5th.
Now one may argue that a bye for an entire best of seven series is a bit too kind a reward for the winning team, but let's face it, the Capitals got a piece of worthless metal for being the top team in the league in points and goals-scored, along with arguably the best hockey player currently playing the game (Ovechkin). This seems as though it would be a perfect incentive simply because it creates battles on both ends of the nine or ten teams battling for playoff positions. This rewards teams that played the very best over a range of five or six months and acquired more points than all the others. It also would be a great marketing tool for the NHL, making games all the more exciting no matter who is playing.
In the NCAA College Basketball tournament, the first seeds play a number 16 seed. That seed has NEVER, in the history of the tournament, won a game against the first seed. There are few seeds from numbers 10-15 that progress and if they do, rarely will they go very far (with George Mason in 2006 being a rare exception). In fact, the lowest seed to win the Tournament was Villanova at number 8 in 1985. In hockey, there have been a few teams that have been 7 or 8 seeds in the history to win the cup. In direct comparison, this is as if to say that Arkansas Pine-Bluff could have won the tournament this year (no offense to APB fans, but the odds are rough).
The fact of the matter is that good teams play hard all season long and end up as 1, 2, or 3 seeds only to play the teams that have the most momentum coming in. This wasn't the case in the Western Conference at this time seeing as there was more distance spread out between teams competing for spots. Teams that have worked hard for those 82 games should get at least 5 or 6 off and a free pass to the quarterfinals for their efforts, and not have worry about solving flash-in-the-frying pan goalies like Halak and lose in 7 games to a team far inferior (yes, I'm still quite bitter about the Caps).
Thanks for reading through my rant, leave comments if you have an opinion, I'd like to hear what people think.
Matt
