NHL Standings in Alternate Universes

So the regular season is over, and this is what it looks like in the Western Conference:

This resulted in these playoff matches:

Anaheim vs. Dallas

San Jose vs. Los Angeles

Colorado vs. Minnesota

St. Louis vs. Chicago

So, let's see what might have been if the rules had been different. Let's play around with some fun scenarios.

Playoff Matches with No Wild Cards

Losing the Wild Card returns the NHL to a purely divisional playoff. There would be only one minor change to the playoff matchups in the West:

Anaheim vs. Phoenix

San Jose vs. Los Angeles

Colorado vs. Minnesota

St. Louis vs. Chicago

This shows you why the league really wanted to get the Wild Card system in, even if it meant sacrificing division rivals exclusively playing each other in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Dallas absolutely gets jobbed without the Wild Card, leaving a better-than-you-think team to be cast out of the playoffs in favor of a middling Phoenix team.

Playoff Matchups Without Divisional Format

This returns the playoff format to last season's method of playoff seeding, going 1-8 in terms of points, and then matching up accordingly. Under this scenario, the playoff match-ups would be:

Anaheim vs. Dallas

Colorado vs. Minnesota

St. Louis vs. Los Angeles

San Jose vs. Chicago

Two of the playoff matches are flipped here, and I don't know if the playoffs is necessarily better or worse for it. Los Angeles and San Jose seem to have slightly easier match-ups, as St. Louis and Chicago have been beat up down the stretch.

Playoff Match-Ups With No Loser Point

I used goal differential as a tie-breaker, which is why St. Louis is above Colorado.

Playoff Match-Ups in Current Divisional Format:

Anaheim vs. Dallas

San Jose vs. Los Angeles

St. Louis vs. Minnesota

Colorado vs. St. Louis

Playoff Match-Ups in Conference Format:

Anaheim vs. Dallas

St. Louis vs. Minnesota

Colorado vs. Los Angeles

San Jose vs. Chicago

Some interesting things here- When you take out the loser point, Chicago has been the same team, record-wise as Los Angeles, who gets the lower seed only due to goal differential.

Playoff Match-Ups With Only Wins, Losses, and Ties

Before the lockout, we had ties when the games couldn't be resolved through regulation and overtime. But to make sure fans went home with a feeling of resolution, they tacked on a shootout to resolve regular season contests in a timely manner. So, basically, that's what a shootout is- a tie. It's just that one of the teams gets an extra point when the tie happens.

So, returning to a more pure era, where there were only wins, losses, and ties, we would have seen these standings:

*Fun fact, as bad as this is, it doesn't come close to matching Buffalo's 40 points (14-56-12)

Playoff Match-Ups:

Anaheim vs. Nashville

Colorado vs. Minnesota

San Jose vs. Los Angeles

St. Louis vs. Chicago

What's REALLY interesting here is that all the playoff matches are identical to the ones we are about to see in the Western Conference- regardless of whether you use the current Divisional/Wild Card format or the standard Conference 1-8 method. With, of course, one glaring exception. The Dallas Stars' Top-10 possession numbers have many people pegging them as a dark horse pick in the playoffs. But if we judged this season by Ws, Ls, and Ts, they'd be sitting at home for the playoffs in favor of the Nashville Predators. Wow.

Playoff Matchups With No Divisions or Conferences

Just for funzies, let's take a look at what the playoffs could have been like if we removed all seeding by Division and Conference, and just seeded every team 1-16 (based on the current points system):

(1) Boston vs. (16) Dallas- The Revenge of Seguin!

(2) Anaheim vs. (15) Detroit- 2 of Anaheims last 3 Playoff Eliminations were at Detroit's hand.

(3) Colorado vs. (14) Columbus- Colorado- this year's major surprise- and Columbus- last season's feel-good story- duke it out.

(4) St. Louis vs. (13) Philadelphia- Two teams renown for their toughness get to beat on each other.

(5)San Jose vs. (12) NY Rangers- Can Lundqvist and the aging Rangers core shut down Joe Thornton and the aging Sharks core?

(6) Pittsburgh vs. (11) Minnesota- A pseudo re-match of the 1991 Stanley Cup Final sees Sidney Crosby make his playoff debut in Minnesota.

(7) Chicago vs. (10) Los Angeles- Two gifted possession teams from two of the biggest media markets face off.

(8) Tampa Bay vs. (9) Montreal- Even in an alternate universe, this match-up is inevitable.

Come on! Who wouldn't want to see that?!

Conculsion

There will be a lot of detractors pointing out that the loser point makes the Wild barely a .500 team, and to a certain extent, they are right, as the Wild only have 43 Wins in 82 games. But do not mistake that in saying the Wild do not belong in the playoffs. You can run any scenario- take out loser points, bring back ties, re-align the Conferences and Divisions, and change the seeding format- and there is none that excludes the Wild from being one of the sixteen playoff teams. In fact, they've attained the 11th most points in hockey- clearly in the top-half, and one win away from being in the top third of the league.

Whatever may happen in this series, no one can tell you that the Wild did not belong in the playoffs.