Rangers South clinched the President's Trophy like a month ago, and if they win their final regular season game, it'll be their 62nd of the season, tying the NHL record. They haven't just been the best team in hockey all year, they're having an all-time season just like the 2018 Red Sox.
And what's their reward for putting together the best regular season by any NHL team since the 1995-96 Red Wings? A second-round matchup with the Bruins, aka the second-best team in the league! Which means that the NHL's ridiculously flawed playoff system strikes again! How many times does this have to happen before they realize they need to change it (and changing it would be incredibly simple)?
This is the sixth season of this dumb division-based format. And it'll be the fourth straight time that it's not possible for the two best teams in the Eastern Conference to both make the Conference Final.
Washington and Pittsburgh finished first and second in points in both 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. But since they're in the same division, they had to play in the second round of the playoffs each time (with the Penguins winning both en route to back-to-back Cups). And this year will be the second straight season in which Tampa Bay and Boston finish 1-2 in the East. But, again, since they're in the same division, the latest they can play is in the second round.
To make matters worse, the top two teams in the Western Conference have also come from the same division, and thus played in the second round of the playoffs, three years in a row. In 2016, it was Dallas and St. Louis. In 2017, it would've been Chicago and Minnesota (who actually both ended up losing in the first round). Last season, it was Nashville and Winnipeg.
So, it's been six years, and seven of the 12 No. 1 seeds have had to play the second-best team in the conference in the second round. (It could become eight of 12 if San Jose ends up with more points than Nashville.) If it happened once in a while, there would be no cause for alarm. But when it happens regularly, it's a problem. And the fact that this is now four years in a row should definitely be setting off alarm bells that the system is broken.
Everyone agrees that this is stupid. The players know it (and hate the format). The fans know it (and hate the format). The coaches know it (and hate the format). The league has to know it, too. But the problem is, they're the only ones who can change it. And they either don't care enough or are simply too stubborn to do that.
That's only part of the problem. In 2017, Washington, Pittsburgh and Columbus had the three best records in the Eastern Conference. But since they all play in the Metropolitan Division, second-place Pittsburgh and third-place Columbus played in the first round...and the Blue Jackets were eliminated. Meanwhile, Ottawa had the sixth-most points in the East and had home ice in its first-round series against Boston. The Rangers had more points that season than every team in the Atlantic except for Montreal...their first-round opponent.
Under this idiotic format, the fourth-place team in the strong division can actually get a better playoff draw than the second-place team. And it also guarantees that strong teams go home early while at least one weaker team will advance. Lower seeds winning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is nothing new. But the 6-seed pulling an upset and the 6-seed having home ice in the first round are entirely different things.
Everyone agrees that this is stupid. The players know it (and hate the format). The fans know it (and hate the format). The coaches know it (and hate the format). The league has to know it, too. But the problem is, they're the only ones who can change it. And they either don't care enough or are simply too stubborn to do that.
Instead, leave it to the NHL to take something that wasn't broken and "fix" it anyway. I have no idea why they felt the need to tinker with the playoff format when they realigned the league into four divisions, but they did. And all the people who assumed that doing it this way would lead to plenty of problems have been proven correct.
All of these problems are easy to fix, too. All they need to do is go back to the old way. You give the division winners the 1- and 2-seeds, then seed everybody else 3-8, and you reseed after the first round. That way, the second-best team in the conference (assuming they're in the same division as the best team) will be seeded no lower than third. Which would also guarantee that the teams with the two highest point totals, regardless of division, can't meet until the Conference Final.
Using the old method and the current standings, here's what the first-round matchups should be:
EAST: 1-Lightning vs. 8-Blue Jackets, 2-Capitals vs. 7-Hurricanes, 3-Bruins vs. 6-Penguins, 4-Islanders vs. 5. Maple Leafs
WEST: 1-Flames vs. 8-Avalanche, 2-Predators vs. 7-Stars, 3-Sharks vs. 6-Golden Knights, 4-Jets vs. 5-Blues (these actually will be the Western Conference matchups, making this the rare occurrence where they wouldn't be any different)
There should be more of a reward for being the best team over the course of an 82-game regular season. Just like a team shouldn't be penalized for finishing second in a strong division (especially when the first-place team has more points than anyone in the league has had in more than 20 years!). That wasn't an intended consequence of the current playoff system, but it's a very real one.
The NHL's goal was to put more of an emphasis on divisional rivalries. This is the format they used in the 80s, when there were some intense playoff battles between teams that did not like each other. Except the NHL of the 1980s was vastly different than the NHL of today. For starters, there were only a handful of teams that didn't make the playoffs back then. There are nearly twice as many teams now, and half of them don't make the playoffs. So the ones that do really earn it, and they deserve to be rewarded for it...which is something this playoff format doesn't do. Not by a long shot.
Unfortunately, we're stuck with this playoff method for at least the next two seasons, and probably 2020-21 as well. But when Seattle joins the league in 2021-22, that's the perfect time to make the change. Except instead of "fixing" something that wasn't broken, they'll be going the other way. They'll take the best postseason in sports--the Stanley Cup Playoffs--and make it that much better.
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