Article: The Wild Can't Scapegoat the NHL's Playoff Format This Season

[Chris Schad]

View full article

[MNCountryLife]

Personally I don't like the format.  I prefer the seeded option. Get the best teams to the 2nd round.  Current format penalizes certain teams for being in the same division.

[0 Stanley Cups]

I wish the NHL would go back to the old 1-8 format, it gets boring watching the same teams battle, if they play teams they don't see as often maybe there might be a few more upsets.

Also, the worst part is that for some reason the Wild's playoff games get pushed back to an 8:30PM start time anyway even though it's in the central time zone, which absolutely sucks and makes no sense!

[IllicitFive]

I egt wanting to promote more rivalries, but I don't think my hatred for the avs is anymore or less than it was in 2013. Who in MN doesn't hate everything Stars? Rivals will happen anyway in division, quit punishing teams for getting a 3 seed vs a wild card and playing in an easier division come playoffs. 

[Burnt Toast]

I’d like to see the 1 vs 8 format reinstated. I think that’s the fairest/funnest postseason setup. I want to see new and different matchups all across the league. I am looking forward to having the LTIR playoff loophole closed. It should change the dynamics in this year’s postseason. 

[raithis]

1 hour ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

I wish the NHL would go back to the old 1-8 format, it gets boring watching the same teams battle, if they play teams they don't see as often maybe there might be a few more upsets.

Also, the worst part is that for some reason the Wild's playoff games get pushed back to an 8:30PM start time anyway even though it's in the central time zone, which absolutely sucks and makes no sense!

8:30pm start if you are lucky.  Sometimes it's been later than that.

I get that the Eastern teams are going to get the earlier slot and the networks figure that the West Coast will be fine because it's not late for them, but most of the teams in the Western Conference tend to come from the Central.

Hell, most of the entire league is in the Eastern and Central time zones, so it makes more sense to start the games earlier, so the second game isn't as late.

And while that would make sense, the underlying reason is that there are simply more people on the East and West Coast and fans in Minnesota get shafted on playoff start times because there's more money to be made on scheduling the Western Conference team to start at 8:30pm instead of starting the Eastern Conference game even earlier.

I feel like it has a lot to do with catering to sports betting, but if I'm honest with myself, it's been going on since before sports betting was so intertwined with the league, though that's not to say that it wasn't intertwined with the networks and still partly the reason.

[Scalptrash]

Everyone wants the traditional format reinstated, except Bettman. Another egomaniac too proud to swallow his pride.

5 hours ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

Also, the worst part is that for some reason the Wild's playoff games get pushed back to an 8:30PM start time anyway even though it's in the central time zone, which absolutely sucks and makes no sense!

We all know that 8:30 means 9. Kind of hard to grow the sport when kids can't watch the playoffs. My son, who loves and plays hockey, could care less about the Wild making the playoffs, he can never stay up to watch any games.

Gary and the NHL could care less about flyover country and will ensure the cup never gets here.

[Beast]

It matters not.  We just watched them go a little hot streak propped up by unsustainable, statistical outlier, goalie play from a goalie prospect who hasn’t been good for years.  Followed by losing to 3 of the worst teams in the NHL, and getting absolutely dismantled by a real Cup contender (Dallas).

IF they even hold on to make the playoffs, which is certainly no guarantee, they’ll be easily dismissed.

Why would that change?  It’s a worse roster right now than it has been the last 5 years.  The old guys are older.  Ek looks worn down after years of physical beatings.  There’s two legitimate top 6 forwards on the roster.  Nobody can put the puck in the net.

It’s more of the same, but worse.  It doesn’t matter who they play.

[AKwildkraken]

3 minutes ago, Beast said:

and getting absolutely dismantled by a real Cup contender (Dallas).

Dismantled?  Wild are outshooting Dallas 26 to 9.  Pretty even game if you ask me both teams getting chances, Dallas just seems to bury their chances more often.  

As far as the team is concerned, there are some ebbs and flows with the aging of players, but Buium and Wally are clear upgrades since last year.  Nojo is playing better, which is odd, Sturm is a net positive, and Ohgren seems to be maturing.  Tarasenko isn't an upgrade, but I don't think he's as bad as we give him credit for.  Bad contract overall, but I don't think he's useless.  Trenin is also playing more inspired.  I just don't buy this team is worse than last year.  Still not contenders, but think they have made improvements.

[Sam]

[Enforceror]

1 hour ago, Beast said:

getting absolutely dismantled by a real Cup contender (Dallas).

Welp, that didn't age well 😂

[OldDutchChip]

Tarasenko was sort of ok too ...... hmmm

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Boldy, Boldy, Boldy!!!

Great win for the Wild against Dallas. Boldy started to believe after 4 Nations last season, and he's now better than ever. Love to see it!

[Enforceror]

6 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

Tarasenko was sort of ok too ...... hmmm

Apart from a couple fumbles I thought he played decently. Also Ohgren looked hungry and stacked up some SOGs. Really liking Hunts play, he looks to be angling for a spot.

[Enforceror]

1 minute ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Boldy, Boldy, Boldy!!!

Great win for the Wild against Dallas. Boldy started to believe after 4 Nations last season, and he's now better than ever. Love to see it!

He's looked so good and rivaling Kaprizov, probably ahead in points now.

[Pewterschmidt]

10 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

Really liking Hunts play

Good to see Z, Yurzy, Huntzy and Ogz getting reps.  These guys are the next wave.  Bring up Haight and give him some games too

[Enforceror]

11 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Good to see Z, Yurzy, Huntzy and Ogz getting reps.  These guys are the next wave.  Bring up Haight and give him some games too

Agreed. H8 looked like the best prospect in preseason although he hasn't been stellar with Iowa but who has?

[bisopher]

Credit where credit is due, that's GWGs in two straight games for MoJo.

[Pewterschmidt]

10 hours ago, Enforceror said:

H8

🤌

[mnfaninnc]

I happen to like the current playoff structure. Get out of the division, get out of the conference, play the best team in the other conference. To me, playoffs should always be that way, and it used to be that way for all the leagues until they started monkeying around with extra playoff participants. 

I like fierce divisional rivalries, and I don't think we're there yet. 0SC has a point about the tv schedule, though. It is very hard on the kids in central time being able to watch. This could be done in the 1st round by simply going with the same time zone games and not worry so much about carrying all the games nationally. Or, you could have a compromise where East Coast games start an hour earlier! (I think I just heard an earthquake for suggesting such a thing)

There's a reason why they have divisions. If you want to do a 1-8, then eliminate the divisions, go to 2 conferences and figure out a schedule that is fair to gain playoff entrance. We may need to go in this direction if there is any more expansion anyway. 

To be fair, and it has benefitted the Central division the most, I am more in favor of going full divisions and eliminating the WC format. But, with the amount of divisional games played, that kind of isn't enough to weed out the other teams. We can't have a baseball schedule, so there's got to be compromise. One thing that might help is if they went back to the Covid era for some help and played 2 games b2b against the same teams? That would stretch out some time and the travel wouldn't be as brutal, specifically in the West.