NHL 24-team playoff format screws over more than a few teams

The NHL’s 24-team playoff will bring good hockey, but it screws over some good teams in the process.

Earlier this week, we had NHL commissioner Gary Bettman formally announce the NHL’s return to play plan and how there was going to be a 24-team playoff format if it happens. The regular season was deemed over, as there was no possible way to finish that and do the playoffs to finish off the season.

The NHL was never going to please everyone with whatever format they chose, but this format basically devalues most of the regular season as some teams in the play-in series’ and the round-robin for seeding each get boned. Let’s take a look at how exactly this is.

NHL 24-team playoff screws over some of the league’s best teams

Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning

One of the weirdest things about this format is how the NHL decided to make the round-robin games play into seeding for the top four teams, especially for the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bruins were eight points clear of the next closest team in the Eastern Conference and were about to walk to the President’s Trophy, but now they have to do a round-robin to determine their seeding?

There’s a legit chance that the Bruins could go 0-3 against the Lightning, Capitals, and Flyers, and then be the No. 4 seed after being in the top spot all season long. If the Bruins end up doing that and the NHL goes forward with their bracketing format, they would likely have a date with the No. 5 seed Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. It just doesn’t seem fair for a team like that, who was just absolutely outstanding during the season.

The same also goes for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They had a very slow start to the season but when they turned it on, they were one of the best teams in the league. They climbed their way back up to second place in the Atlantic and were on pace to have home-ice in the first round before the pause, likely against Toronto. Now, they’re basically in the same situation as Boston where if they go 0-3, they would slide down to the fourth seed and could play Pittsburgh.

Teams like Philadelphia and Washington would obviously benefit greatly from that even though they weren’t as good as both of these teams were during the season. There’s just a better way to go about this, (such as just seeding the top four teams 1-4 based on their record while still doing some sort of round-robin games to keep the teams fresh). Unfortunately, the NHL seems to have made up their mind on that matter, even when Tampa was one of the two teams to vote against this format.

Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers

Now for a couple teams in the play-in series, these are the two that really don’t benefit the most. I already wrote last week about how to fix this format with both of these two teams getting byes to the 16-team round, along with the two other third-place teams in each division. Now that the NHL decided not to do that, these two teams will have to play the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks respectively, just to get into the regular playoffs.

We already saw Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford talk to the media this week about the format and how he was hoping Pittsburgh could avoid the play-in series. With a series like this, it just opens it up for a lot more randomness for both teams (If the NHL wasn’t as random as it already is). For example, in Pittsburgh’s series, there’s always a chance that goaltender Carey Price, who only has a .909 save percentage this season, goes on a small heater and wins three games. All a team needs in the playoffs is a hot goaltender, and then boom, they’re off to the races.

In Edmonton’s case, despite the Blackhawks being atrocious defensively, there’s still the risk of Patrick Kane going off for three to five games, as well as Corey Crawford regaining his once very good form before his injuries arose. This format is basically telling these two teams, who beat the Canadiens and Blackhawks into near elimination during the regular season, to do it again, but in a series where anything is possible. We also can’t forget that everyone on all teams participating are going to be well-rested so that will play a big factor in this as well.

St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues could also face the same problem that the Bruins and Lightning would face if they were to lose their round-robin games. They were on pace to be the No. 1 seed in the West (though Colorado was giving them a good fight) and now they could potentially drop to the number four seed if they also go 0-3 in their round-robin.

If that were to happen, that would mean a potential date with Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers, which could not be fun for the Blues. St. Louis is the much deeper team, but anything can happen in a five-game series when McDavid is apart of it, as well as Leon Draisaitl.

Despite some of these top teams and play-in teams not benefitting from this format, these playoffs will still be watched by millions of people if they happen. The NHL will have center stage and it’s not often they do as usually baseball is going on during that time and that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen at this point. Whatever the case, the fallout from this format if some of these teams struggle will surely be interesting.

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