AHL playoff format

[betterREDthandead 58]

OK, I got the gears in my head working a little bit (so watch out.) We know the NHL wants to try very hard to promote divisional rivalries and has come up with a fairly unpopular scheduling format to do so. The AHL has 7 teams per division (except for the North which has six) and the top four in each division make the playoffs and play each other 1 vs. 4 / 2 vs. 3. Then the division champions play each other for the conference championship and so on. I think the NHL used to do this too for a little while in the '80s.

So what's the pros and cons? As I see it....

PROS: Would definitely make for some good rivalry action. Rivalries are produced in the playoffs, everyone says? There ya go. Facing the same teams that often would do the trick for sure. Norfolk/Hershey games (the ones I went to) were NASTY....and also WICKED fun. Would also be able to balance the schedule quite a bit. (The AHL actually has a MORE unbalanced schedule than the NHL, but I don't think that's necessary.) Forcing the division members to meet in the playoffs would allow the league to balance out the schedule since they wouldn't need to use the regular season to promote the rivalries.

CONS: Unfair seeding, for sure. This year, for example, Albany (81 points) made the playoffs while two other teams with better records stay home. Plus, Norfolk and WBS are #3 and #4 in the conference, but playing each other. (Then again, with this format, you really could just pretend conferences didn't exist and seed the division champions 1 through 4 once they were done knocking each other off.) And the NHL would need to realign. That's not much of an issue though.

If this format were applied to the NHL this year (and we use the divisions that I just invented based on geography....basically, the eight northern and seven southern East teams, and the seven eastern and eight western West teams), the matchups would look like this:

Sabres vs. Rangers

Devils vs. Senators

Penguins vs. Hurricanes

Thrashers vs. Lightning

Red Wings vs. Wild

Predators vs. Stars

Ducks vs. Flames

Sharks vs. Canucks

Definitely a more regional feel to it, I think. Assuming all #1 seeds won, you'd then have Wings-Ducks and Sabres-Penguins, or you could re-seed and have, well, the same thing.

So what does everyone think? Myself, I'm kinda torn, which is why I post this in the first place. Kinda want to hear arguments one way or the other. I think over the course of four or five years, we could see some really good exploding rivalries. Right now, nobody is playing a division rival in the opening round, which just about defeats the purpose of trying to promote divisional rivalries in the first place. The biggest complaint I'd have with the idea is the notion that you're rewarded for being in a weak division.