Fifth Avenue Forum

Easily predictable...

He didn't regress though...he's playing just as well...he's just not good enough to score at that clip reliably...

23.4% shooting is going to be hard to match. He's not playing too poorly all things considered. Needs one more for 20 on the year, which is still well above his previous bests.

The team giving him a 1 year deal was smart.

How do we go about disbanding the Wild in mid-season. Everyone below them is a much more interesting playoff team. What a waste.

Unrelated. It’s not a question of if, but when - as far as the seeding system being changed. It’s clearly something people are going to be bored with. And it’s not going to take that much longer until it reaches critical mass.

Sooooo maybe change it instead of intentionally pissing off fans.

I'm not a fan of the current playoff format, personally. Never have been.

Straight divisional or back to 1-8. Anything else is donkey time.

but rivalries

but rivalries

I know you're being sarcastic, but artificial rivalries aren't rivalries.

Playoff battles do create and/or enhance rivalries though...there isn't a lot of meaningful ways to do it other than that these days...

Considering there's not nearly enough hate in the league, I'd be for straight divisional...

I hate the regular season and playoff format.

During the season, you only play teams in your division one time more than the teams in the other division, and only 2 more times than teams from the other conference, which is asinine.

Additionally, the uneven format means that you could have one team that gets a much harder schedule due to how the home games shake out, which is stupid.

Then in the playoffs, you are forcing basically the same matchups every year, and in many cases, the 2nd round will pit the 2 best teams in the conference against each other while the team on the other side may get a cakewalk (see Tampa in '16).

So they lessened the divisional impact during the season and then artificially enforced it in the playoffs.

Tbe old format would be perfectly fine now that there are only 4 divisions... You wouldn't have teams that should be 6 seeds getting home ice.

No sir, I don't like it.

I hate the regular season and playoff format.

During the season, you only play teams in your division one time more than the teams in the other division, and only 2 more times than teams from the other conference, which is asinine.

Additionally, the uneven format means that you could have one team that gets a much harder schedule due to how the home games shake out, which is stupid.

Then in the playoffs, you are forcing basically the same matchups every year, and in many cases, the 2nd round will pit the 2 best teams in the conference against each other while the team on the other side may get a cakewalk (see Tampa in '16).

So they lessened the divisional impact during the season and then artificially enforced it in the playoffs.

Tbe old format would be perfectly fine now that there are only 4 divisions... You wouldn't have teams that should be 6 seeds getting home ice.

No sir, I don't like it.

I dislike the increased number of games against teams in your division. A few years back... do we really need to play the Flyers 7 times in the regular season? The Islanders 7 times? Just because we are geographically close? Who cares?

Well, I don't know how "artificial" - that word keeps getting used - it is to have a playoff format like this. If anything, it makes more sense. In the regular season, you're just looking for foreplay...and you want to make sure that fans in every arena have a chance to see every team...

What was stupid was when we had 8 games against your divisional opponents, and yet someone in Vancouver could go like 2 and a half years without seeing Crosby...that's "artificial"...

In the NHL, unlike say, MLB, the playoffs matter...the regular season is allowed to be more random, in exchange, the playoffs are more meaningful...so that's where you put the rivalries. In MLB or NFL even, the regular season is more valuable...the playoffs are over before they begin and hold little value (champagne goggles for regular season shenanigans...two wins to end up in the Super Bowl...etc.).

The only thing I'd say ought to go from the NHL is the wild card stuff...just go straight divisional instead of pretending to be divisional...everyone starts at 0 points and therefore everyone controls their own destiny...

My post was specifically targeting the postseason. I like the current regular season format better than when we played divisional opponents 26 times.

Anything that gets us more Devils games is good! -no one

hate/rivalry reduction is going to continue. you aren't going to be able to force the new breed of players to hate each other just with increased familiarity. we're getting into the post head-injury, post fighting days. the stakes are going to continue to get less violent. and these guys are going to be less tribal. because they aren't dummies.

fairness should be the first priority in any competitive event. i realize that's offset by the $$$ generated with injecting artifice, but is it really worth it? i'd rather see toronto advance after a gimme series against a scrub team like carolina then have to grind it out against boston and wear down before they play an inferior caps team in the ECF.

in short. this is dumb. make it fair. make your fans happy. the playoffs are intense enough as is.

I love going through the division to make the conference finals.

When Seattle comes and you have 8 teams in every division:

Regular Season
2 Home and 2 Away vs all divisional teams: 28 games
1 Home and 1 Away vs all non-divisional: 48 games
Total Games: 76
Since owners will never go for reducing 6 games off the schedule, I propose playing an extra game vs 6 of your own division (3 home / 3 away) so that only one time every 7 years you only play a team 4 times instead of 5 and during those 6 years you play that extra game, 3 times it's home and 3 times it's away to even that aspect out.

Playoffs
Top 4 in each division make it: 1 v 4 and 2 v 3
Winner of the division moves on to the conference finals and then the Stanley Cup.
I think it would be cool if the 4 winners were reseeded and they did away with conferences, but that won't happen.

I believe that's exactly my format as well...except I keep it at 76 games...create more demand and more interest. Roll back salaries 4% to split the difference (after the terrorist in charge of the union dies). You'd also have less travel costs.

I was talking to a former GM about this a little ways back about going back to 76 games and I said, what if you off-set it with a regular World Cup event that tours a couple of arenas and everyone gets a piece of the HRR from it? And he said, "you know, that's a really good idea...it's never come up...but it should..."

The other thing that owners seem to like is the thought of a play-in game or series...maybe you factor that into the 76...but you're really de-valuing the regular season with that...if you're gonna have a play-in game, you can go down to 68 or 70 easily, condense the schedule expanse to October-April.

Scrap divisions. Wales and Campbell conferences and call it a day

yarp

Completely agree with hating the current system. I loved the previous system because I liked the random nature of the postseason. You could face any one of the teams in the East, and it made for a lot of interesting matchups. I liked that we would face random teams, and the fun of watching the standings to see how it would shake out. It also made it that much more special in years like 2009 where you just so happened to have to face the Flyers and Caps in your path to the Cup.

I hate that they force the same matchups in the first two rounds every year now. It takes away from the "special" element of those rivalry matchups. I would love if they would go back to Top 8 in the conference but it will never happen.

nice

This is great. You can just hear Jon Hamm's love for hockey and the Blues in this clip.

https://twitter.com/CMS_74_/status/1103894685527883777

Neither Crosby or Malkin has ever scored on a penalty shot.