From travisyost: An annual reminder of the current NHL playoff format’s flaws. VIDEO:
Right around this time every year I write about the National Hockey League’s division-based playoff format. It’s my annual tradition to complain about something the league clearly isn’t interested in changing anytime soon, despite compelling evidence that it’sI won’t comprehensively restate arguments here, but the current playoff format fails on a few fronts. Due to it being division-based, the spirit of fairness requires talent balance across all four divisions.
Consider two teams currently in third place in their respective divisions. Assuming series favourites win out, the St. Louis Blues are looking at facing the league’s 10th-, fifth-, and second-best teams. The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking at facing the league’s third-, first-, and seventh-best teams.
So let’s assess that argument. First let’s look at the point distribution for all 31 teams and see which divisions are more top- heavy than others. If we look at our playoff contenders – imagine the “power four” of each division based on Sunday’s end-of-day standings – you can see that these teams didn’t just feast on the weaker intradivisional teams:
That, of course, tells the same story within our playoff clubs. Again, the Atlantic and Pacific – in that order, too – look like the better of the two divisions this year.
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