NHL Rules that Should be Changed: Division Winners are Top Three Seeds

Hello, Wilderness!

Today, I am going to be talking about a rule that is long overdue for a change, the winners in each division getting the first three playoff seeds in their conference, regardless of the total points the particular team has.

Take the 2011-12 season for example.

With doing some research, I figured out that in the eastern conference, the first three seeds were the Rangers with 109 points, the Bruins with 102 points, and the Panthers with 94 points. However, some of the other teams in the conference, the Penguins and Flyers, had more points than the Bruins and Panthers, and the Devils had the same amount of points as the Bruins, but more than the Panthers.

Something doesn't seem right here...

If the NHL were to do seeding by just point totals, the order should have been as follows: Rangers, Penguins, Flyers, Bruins, Devils, Panthers, Capitals, Senators.

Since this past season was my first year following the NHL, I wasn't too picky about this particular detail. With being able to realize it now, this idea seems like a no-brainer.

What I want to know is why the NHL didn't decide to do this a long time ago.

Come next season though, this problem should hopefully be resolved with the new playoff format that comes along with the realignment.

Just because a team won their division with a certain amount of points, that doesn't mean that should take priority over raw point totals.

What do you think, Wilderness?

Are my opinions about this crazy, or do you agree with them?

Let me know in the poll and comments below.