1-16 Playoff Format

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Two games against the other conference, four games against your own conference.

No divisions.

Top six in each conference get to the playoffs, plus the four highest remaining in points.

"Wild Card" teams are divided up so that they will receive the highest possible seed for their points; if teams must cross conferences to fill spots the teams with the most points cross first.

This could theoretically lead to the two top seeds in the West being Eastern Conference teams, or vice versa, if intra-conference play were very lopsided and one conference were very even 1-15 while the other had 10 strong teams and 5 very weak ones.

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I'ma go out on a limb here and say I'd like to see a little bit of NFL thrown in here. Even though I hate it. I'd love to see like a wildcard kind of thing, where there the 4 teams from 14-18 play a mini 3 game series or something weird like that.

I don't know. I'm just real real tired of this west-east thing. I'd love to see Calgary-Rangers in the first round. Or San Jose-Philly. Montreal-Detroit. Man that would be something else. Maybe alternate years or something.

BUT BUT, the problem then becomes, if their was no West team in the finals, ratings would plummet on the other coast, and vis-versa. Would you watch a Washington-New Jersy final? I don't know if I would. In fact I wouldn't even watch a Pittsburgh-Washington final. I don't give a crap about the east. And I'm sure many people agree. The West is where it's at, and I'd rather see ANY west team win the cup (EXCEPT CHICAGO!!!!!) then any eastern team.

But I do think that it would be fair for the 6 division winners to get the top 6 seeds.

It would definitely solve the issue of unbalance conferences in terms of competitiveness (how the west is such a stronger conference than the east). It would also even out travel issues for teams like Detroit and Columbus who are forced to deal with much heavier travel during the playoffs than any other teams in the league. Since the draws would be completely random team fatigue come the Stanley Cup finals would also be lopsided and the Western team wouldn't also be at a disadvantage.

Another great plus is being able to have any combination of playoff matchup between any two teams in the league. The crappy part is that it basically destroys the ability to form playoff rivalries since the chances of the same two teams meeting in the playoffs on any kind of frequent basis is next to impossible.

In terms of not having West Cost representation in the finals if this sytem was adopted it's really no different than when the Wings make the finals. Last year we saw Detroit vs. Pittsburgh in the finals and those are essentially two East Coast (geographically speaking) teams. I don't know off the top of my head how the ratings did but other than the fact the Wings are in the WEstern Conference (which is ridiculous in itself) they aren't actually a West Cost team. But I do know what you mean...

Given that the schedule is weighted in favor of division/conference, having 16 top point getters make the playoffs is unfair. The teams in more even/stronger divisions will be penalized, while a second team in a weak division will make the playoffs.

If the top teams in points make the playoffs, the schedule must be even, and division/conference format would need to be completely done away with.

The way the schedule is made right now the same inbalance already exists. Maybe not quite to the same extent but it's already there. Teams is stronger/even divisions are already at a disadvantage in the current playoff format. If anything, when you really think about it considering how much weaker the Eastern Conference any team in the East that gets to play all the weak teams in the East that many more times is at an advantage. Looks at Pittsburgh, who had a crappy record against all the top teams in the league but crushed all the weak teams. They played all the East teams more times than say the Sharks. I understand what you're saying in the fact that their division is the same as the Southwest so it's not the same as the Caps but when you take into consideration the fact that the Pens get to play the Leafs, and all the teams in the Southeast it's that much more to their advantage - when compared to the Sharks.

I'd like to see them divide up conferences like Baseball and Football, so there would be an East, a Central, and a West division in each conference. I don't really know how it would all work out, but I would be in favor of that.

This is a good idea...if there are the right number of teams geographically to do it.

[stevkrause 1,247]

I would rather they completely re-align, so all the travel is equal year-round, but I would prefer this over the current setup if they won't completely re-align