On Monday Alexander Ovechkin stated in an interview that he found the the current NHL playoff structure to be ‘weird’ because it meant having to play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round instead of the third round. There are a number of factors that influence how the playoffs are formatted and it can get quite complicated. Since the NHL realigned after the move to Winnipeg, the playoffs have been structured to encourage divisional matchups in the first and second round. And I think the NHL is doing the right thing.
Let’s say that the Penguins and Capitals did in fact meet in the third round. What would have changed? You could try to debate about each teams playoff matchups and whether Pittsburgh would have been more worn out in their first two matchups than Washington in theirs, but there is no concrete way to argue that. Sure maybe in some extreme cases. But we’re dealing with professional hockey clubs that played 82 games to determine their standing. Possibly a team that waited a full week to play the next series is well rested and is able to use that to their advantage. But sweeps in hockey are not an easy thing to do.
The Capitals lost to the Penguins because the Penguins had three scoring lines while Washington only had two competent defensive pairings to defend against them. That and Washington could not figure out a way to beat Pittsburgh’s system of moving the puck out of their own end. Playing the Penguins in the third round would have changed neither of those things.
The next argument is that the Caps and Pens meeting in the third round of the playoffs would have featured the two best teams in the conference playing at a chance to play for the Cup. But that isn’t guaranteed every year. Pittsburgh struggled mightily in the first half of the season, but played the best out of any club down the stretch. Pittsburgh ended up in the second spot. Had they struggled for one more week, and lost more games, and then went on that run, they would have still made the playoffs as the hottest team going in, but they would have placed lower on in the standings. And let’s say under the old format they actually finished 5th in the East, they still could have played Washington in the second round of the playoffs. With either format, there is no guarantee that the two best teams will end up playing each other in the third round.
Not even a 1 vs.16, 2 vs.15 playoff format would guarantee that the two best teams would play each other in the Stanley Cup Finals. The NHL season is long and there are a lot of different factors affecting where teams end up. Teams run through injuries, tough road trips, just general slumps, and there is no way to ensure that the best team ends up 1st, and the 2nd best team ends up 2nd.
So there is no way to control where the actual best teams end up in the standings. But there is something the league can control. And is what happens in the first and second rounds.
The league knows that the best way to sell the playoffs is through the narrative of rivalries. And you guessed it, the Penguins and Capitals rivalry is the most recent example of selling a series through a rivalry. The league has set it up so that the two best teams in a division are forced to play each other in the first two rounds. You don’t think Caps fans are waiting for the 2017 NHL playoffs hoping to play the Penguins and beat them to get to the final? If I was a fan of the caps, of course I want to see the Capitals win the Cup, but I would also have a desire for the Capitals to beat the Penguins.
Picture Connor McDavid and the Oilers as the President’s Trophy winners, dominating most teams and being favourites to win the Cup. But in the second round, Johnny Gaudreau and the Flames just flat out beat the Oilers and go on to win the cup. How sour would the taste in your mouth be? How badly would you want to beat Calgary every single time you played them after that, especially if you play them again in the playoffs the year after?!?
The NHL has already pictured that, and that is why they set up the playoffs in this way. There is a very good chance that the Capitals and Penguins play in the first two rounds. There is a very good chance that the Sharks and Kings play against each other again. There is a very good chance that the Blues and Blackhawks play against each other for the 3rd time in 4 playoff seasons.
But there is also room for improvement. Here is what the NHL should change. They should actually make the playoffs so that a team can’t crossover into another division. I think that would give more importance to winning a division. Winning a division can’t be accomplished when a team from the other division actually ends up winning. That hasn’t happened since the Wildcard was introduced, but it could have. In 2016, both the Islanders and the Predators advanced to the other division’s “final” (both of course losing). In the west, a team from the central division has crossed over to the pacific division all three years of this format, but only in 2016 was the gap between the crossover team and the 4th place pacific team large (9 points). In 2014 it was only 2 points, and in 2015 it was just 4 points. In the east, 2016 was the first year that a team crossed over, and it was only by 3 points. Getting rid of the crossover would introduce a new narrative to the playoffs as teams would be playing for the division crown in the first month of the playoffs.
The system may seem ‘weird’ to Ovechkin, but I think the NHL is doing the right thing by controlling the one thing they can actually have an influence over. There is no guarantee where the hottest team at the end of the regular season will place, and so there is no playoff seeding format that can ensure that the best teams meet in round 3 or 4. By forcing divisional playoffs, the league is increasing the chances of rivalry matchups, and in the playoffs those matchups create some of the best series. The playoffs are an entire two-month event, and balancing out the excitement is not a bad thing. I didn’t mind one bit that the St. Louis Chicago series was in the first two weeks and that the next two weeks featured the Pittsburgh Washington series. In fact, it made the playoffs much better.
Leave a comment, I want to hear YOUR preference for the playoff format!
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