Gary Bettman faces pressure to change NHL's worst format: it's about time

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Axel Williams
September 16, 2024 (9:11 PM)

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Gary Bettman has been a polarizing commissioner and one of his more polarizing changes has been the playoff format that we currently have.

As you all know by now, the format is based on divisions. The top three teams in each division get an automatic playoff birth. From there, two wild card teams are crowned and placed in the appropriate divisional brackets. It is a far cry from the 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, and 4v5 format that the fans grew up on.

In a recent article from Chris Gerics of Hockey Patrol, it was argued that it is about time the NHL makes a real change to its playoff format. In fact, they should just go back to the old way. The reasons for this are simple.

As Gerics argues in his piece, the best of the NHL Playoffs is happening too early. Huge matchups are taking place in the first or second rounds, when realistically, the teams playing are so dominant that they could have played in their respect conference finals. It's ultimately making the product worse.

"In this format, we see consistently top teams fighting each other in the first round of the playoffs, and while it surely does make for entertaining hockey, it doesn't really showcase the dominance of these teams. For example, Tampa Bay, Boston, and Toronto have always found themselves fighting with each other in the first round, or even to secure a playoff berth; but all of these matchups warrant being called a Conference Finals battle. It's reminiscent of when St. Louis and Chicago faced off in 2016, a battle of two heavyweights which could easily have been that year's Western Conference Final if another model was implemented."

In the tweets throughout this article, you will see multiple fans and analysts saying something similar. At the end of the day, the league has bastardized what the playoffs used to be. Now, good teams are being eliminated far too early. It is making the postseason less fun for the fans, and for the teams themselves, it has become all too frustrating.

Do you believe the NHL playoff format needs to be changed? Let us know in the poll down below and stay tuned to Hockey Unplugged for the latest news and updates from around the hockey world.

Source: Hockey Patrol
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