Hockey returned last weekend, and it has been glorious! Playoff hockey all day long, starting at noon and ending after midnight. It has gone so well, in fact, that a number of participating players and coaches, as well as some media members, think the expanded Stanley Cup Playoffs should maybe become a permanent thing.
However, the NHL shouldn't get too carried away and wrapped up in all the success of the "bubbles." Because we need to remember what led to this unprecedented 24-team tournament. An extraordinary situation required an extraordinary solution. And that's what this is. An extraordinary solution. It has been exceptional no doubt, but it shouldn't become the norm. Instead it should be celebrated for what it is, a brilliant one-off event marking hockey's return after an unexpected four-month break.
Some of the reasons why this 24-team tournament is working are the exact reasons why the change should not be permanent. The argument that Islanders Coach Barry Trotz, among others, used in favor of playoff expansion is because this tournament has proven that "too many teams are too close." He's right. And that's why going to 24 teams this year was the right thing to do. There were teams just outside playoff spots that may or may not have made it had they been able to complete their regular season. This was the only fair way for their season to end.
There's no need to accommodate the "just-missed" teams in a complete, 82-game season, though. Everyone will have had the same amount of games played and the teams that just missed would've had their chance to qualify. You're three points out with eight games left, that's one thing. But if you play all 82 games and finish three points out, that's something else entirely.
Likewise, the "round robin" for the top four seeds in each conference was designed mainly to give those teams competitive games while the other eight played in the qualifiers. The two teams that had the most points in their conference at the end of the regular season (Boston and St. Louis) won't be the No. 1 seeds in the playoffs. That's fine in a situation like this where everybody's playing on neutral ice, so it really doesn't matter a whole lot.
Under normal circumstances, though, when teams are playing in their own arenas in front of their own fans, that seeding matters. And the best team should be rewarded with home ice advantage. They've earned by having the best record over 82 games.
I'm not exactly sure how a round robin would work under normal circumstances, either. Those four teams are in the "bubble" with everyone else, so it's easy for them to play each other. It doesn't make nearly as much sense when they'd be traveling to each other's arenas for games that amount to nothing other than seeding. In that situation, I'm sure they'd prefer the rest.
More importantly, once Seattle starts play in 2021-22, there will be 32 teams in the NHL. Having 24 teams qualify for the playoffs in a 32-team league is simply too many. That's 75 percent of the league!
It would be like in the 80s, when the NHL had that division-based playoff system and 16 of 21 teams made the playoffs. The regular season was virtually meaningless! Basically all you had to do to qualify for the postseason was not finish last in your division. As a result, there were some bad playoff teams during that era. The NHL is a better, deeper league now than it was then (as evidence by the results of the qualifying round series), but it would still water down the regular season significantly to have all but the bottom four teams in each conference make the playoffs.
Then there's the schedule. The Stanley Cup Playoffs take two months! Adding an extra round with best-of-five series would add 10 days. That would push the Stanley Cup Final into the end of June. That's a lot of arena dates that need to be held, as well as a lot of broadcast slots that NBC and Rogers would need to keep blocked off. And you know the TV partners will need to be consulted before any decision about an expanded postseason is made.
Beyond that, this season involves hockey in August for the first time ever and will end in October (when the season normally starts). Next season won't start until December and will probably run into July. Then the 2021-22 season will most likely have an Olympic break, which will push the playoffs later again. So, we're looking at 2023 before the Stanley Cup is awarded at its normal time in early-mid June again. And that would be using the traditional playoff format.
So, no, permanently expanding the Stanley Cup Playoffs to 24 teams is not a good idea. It works for this unusual season where people have been starved for months for any live sports to watch. And summer hockey certainly fits the bill! Once things are back to normal, though, will there be the same appetite for hockey that we're seeing right now? That's another thing that would need to be considered, because once they're expanded, they can't go back to 16.
Although, there is one element of the 24-team Stanley Cup tournament that should absolutely stay. And that's the conference-based seeding. For years, I've been wanting the NHL to dump the stupid division-based bracket and go back to the 1-8 seeding in each conference. As you know, I've never been a fan of the current playoff format, and this gives them the perfect opportunity to restore the conference seeding that (a) makes so much more sense and (b) is fairer.
Whether this year's unique postseason leads to permanent changes remains to be seen. What I do know, however, is that the first week of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been great! And they only promise to get better! So let's just enjoy them for what they are and worry about everything else later.
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