Playoff Format Needs to be Changed

[Buppy 1,720]

1 hour ago, GMRwings1983 said:

Except, in the previous system, if the top two teams played in the second round, you wouldn't have a 5 and 6 seed playing in the other series.  

No, but the 3 seed could have a worse record than the 8, and the 2 could be as low as 6.

You could also have the top 4 teams playing in one conference, and the bottom 4 playing in the other.

And a finals matchup of the PT winner against the worst team in the playoffs (who could possibly be lower than 16th overall).

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

37 minutes ago, Buppy said:

No, but the 3 seed could have a worse record than the 8, and the 2 could be as low as 6.

You could also have the top 4 teams playing in one conference, and the bottom 4 playing in the other.

And a finals matchup of the PT winner against the worst team in the playoffs (who could possibly be lower than 16th overall).

Those things happened rarely from what I remember.  The old system wasn't perfect, but made more sense and had fewer faults.  

The problem with the Division format is that the Wild Card team is frequently from a different division than the top seed they're playing against. So the current system doesn't really stay true to its purpose.  Otherwise, Washington would have played the Rangers in the first round, with Montreal playing against Toronto. There's a chance now that the two teams advancing to the Conference final will actually be from the same division.  

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by GMRwings1983

[Buppy 1,720]

2 hours ago, GMRwings1983 said:

Those things happened rarely from what I remember.  The old system wasn't perfect, but made more sense and had fewer faults.  

The problem with the Division format is that the Wild Card team is frequently from a different division than the top seed they're playing against. So the current system doesn't really stay true to its purpose.  Otherwise, Washington would have played the Rangers in the first round, with Montreal playing against Toronto. There's a chance now that the two teams advancing to the Conference final will actually be from the same division.  

You're assuming that the format's "purpose" is only to create divisional matchups. I'd say it's to increase the likelihood of them, while also conceding to the fact that one division may be stronger than another.