Regular Season And Playoff Format

[oldredbarnman]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to your site, and since I believe that Canadiens fans are some of the most knowledgeable in hockey, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the following idea.

Let me premise my post by saying I live in Michigan, and have been a lifelong Red Wings fan. But when I was growing up, in the 1970s, I was also a big Habs fan. Guy Lafleur and Ken Dryden are still 2 of my alltime favorite players.

With that said, I would like to put forth my idea for a modified regular season schedule, and a playoff format.

Being in the Western Conference, I've found the NHL schedule quite bland. I personally would like to see each team play one game in every other city. That way, everyone would be able to see the stars of the game at least once a year.

So, with an 82 game schedule, playing a home and home against each team outside your division would be 50 games. Then you would play your divisional rivals 8 times each, for 32 games.

With a little bit more balanced schedule, I would be in favor of a 16 team playoff tournament, like the NHL did in the late 70s, and early 80s. The 6 division winners would get the top 6 spots followed by the next 10 in points. I think it would bring more excitement back into the game, with possible matchups of Original 6 teams playing each other.

If my plan was used, and the playoffs started today, the 1st round of playoffs would be as follows.

#1 Washington vs. #16 Vancouver

#2 San Jose vs. #15 Ottawa

#3 New Jersey vs. #14 Detroit

#4 Calgary vs. #13 Dallas

#5 Chicago vs. #12 Boston

#6 Buffalo vs. #11 Nashville

#7 Pittsburgh vs. #10 Phoenix

#8 Los Angeles vs. #9 Colorado

Now I know that the schedule right now is not balanced, and the above matchups would probably be different, but this is just to show what it may look like. So instead of East playing East, and West playing West every year, until the finals, East could play West in the early rounds. This way, the 2 best teams would have a better chance of meeting in the finals. I'd be interested in any thoughts on this. Thank you.

[Dintrox12]

The problem I see with your playoff set up is travel. You have Vancouver vs Washington for example. that is 3 time zone change from Pacific to Eastern ( a big disadvantage to Eastern teams). This would actually lengthen the playoffs quite a bit to compensate for travel time and time changes.

I have been a proponent of realigning divisions. for example, since Vancouver plays in the Pacific time zone and are on the Pacific coast shouldn't the Canucks be in the Pacific Division? Dallas is on central time and Texas has a coast but it is on the Gulf of Mexico part of the Atlantic ocean. How the heck do you put them in the Pacific division?

[cbarker78]

I would like to see 3 points for a regulation win,2 points for an overtime or shootout win and no points rewarded for any kind of loss.

[cbarker78]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to your site, and since I believe that Canadiens fans are some of the most knowledgeable in hockey, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the following idea.

Let me premise my post by saying I live in Michigan, and have been a lifelong Red Wings fan. But when I was growing up, in the 1970s, I was also a big Habs fan. Guy Lafleur and Ken Dryden are still 2 of my alltime favorite players.

With that said, I would like to put forth my idea for a modified regular season schedule, and a playoff format.

Being in the Western Conference, I've found the NHL schedule quite bland. I personally would like to see each team play one game in every other city. That way, everyone would be able to see the stars of the game at least once a year.

So, with an 82 game schedule, playing a home and home against each team outside your division would be 50 games. Then you would play your divisional rivals 8 times each, for 32 games.

With a little bit more balanced schedule, I would be in favor of a 16 team playoff tournament, like the NHL did in the late 70s, and early 80s. The 6 division winners would get the top 6 spots followed by the next 10 in points. I think it would bring more excitement back into the game, with possible matchups of Original 6 teams playing each other.

If my plan was used, and the playoffs started today, the 1st round of playoffs would be as follows.

#1 Washington vs. #16 Vancouver

#2 San Jose vs. #15 Ottawa

#3 New Jersey vs. #14 Detroit

#4 Calgary vs. #13 Dallas

#5 Chicago vs. #12 Boston

#6 Buffalo vs. #11 Nashville

#7 Pittsburgh vs. #10 Phoenix

#8 Los Angeles vs. #9 Colorado

Now I know that the schedule right now is not balanced, and the above matchups would probably be different, but this is just to show what it may look like. So instead of East playing East, and West playing West every year, until the finals, East could play West in the early rounds. This way, the 2 best teams would have a better chance of meeting in the finals. I'd be interested in any thoughts on this. Thank you.

Love the playoff format.I understand there might be travel issues but this would bring way more excitment IMO.

[ElCapitan_mtl]

I would like to see 3 points for a regulation win,2 points for an overtime or shootout win and no points rewarded for any kind of loss.

Why not just 2 points for a regulation win and 1 for an OT win?

A better idea in my opinion would be to drop OT and the shootout altogether and award 2 points for a win and 1 for a tie, just like in the good old days. These 3 point games are stupid and I think even those people who liked the shootout at first have now grown bored with it, just like all of us who were always opposed to it had warned years ago.

As for the proposed playoff format, I have always been in favour of encompassing the entire league as opposed to breaking it into two conferences. The main reason in my opinion would be to allow the chance of two teams in the same conference to meet in the Cup final. As it is now for instance, Montreal and Toronto could never meet for the Cup, nor Montreal and Boston. A Detroit-Chicago final is an impossibilty. We could never see a NY-NY final or LA vs Anaheim. How about Edmonton and Calgary. Or Florida vs Tampa. These are dream series match-ups, especially for fans of those teams, but they could never occur.

[oldredbarnman]

The problem I see with your playoff set up is travel. You have Vancouver vs Washington for example. that is 3 time zone change from Pacific to Eastern ( a big disadvantage to Eastern teams). This would actually lengthen the playoffs quite a bit to compensate for travel time and time changes.

I have been a proponent of realigning divisions. for example, since Vancouver plays in the Pacific time zone and are on the Pacific coast shouldn't the Canucks be in the Pacific Division? Dallas is on central time and Texas has a coast but it is on the Gulf of Mexico part of the Atlantic ocean. How the heck do you put them in the Pacific division?

I understand your concern for playoff travel. The Red Wings have had to deal with it for many years, and have won 4 cups. In 1997, they played St. Louis, Anaheim and Colorado before beating the Flyers. In 1998 they beat Phoenix, St. Louis and Dallas before playing Washington. 2002 they played Vancouver, St. Louis and Colorado, then beat Carolina in the finals. And in 2008, they beat Nashville, Colorado and Dallas before playing Pittsburgh. I will admit part of me would like to see other Eastern time zone teams have the long playoff travel that Detroit, an Eastern time zone team, has had to endure. But I still think that a league wide tournament style playoff would be so much more exciting. Just think, Montreal could play Detroit in an opening round matchup. Or, a Boston/Montreal final like the old days. It opens up more playoff scenarios, which would be great for the fans. I wish Detroit played Montreal more often, regular season or playoffs, and this at least gives it a better chance of happening.

[Dane-McKenzie]

I like this format quite a bit, and I'm also a proponent of no points for a loss. I do think some realignment is in order also, such as the Pacific/Central comment mentioned.

[CaptWelly]

I like this format quite a bit, and I'm also a proponent of no points for a loss. I do think some realignment is in order also, such as the Pacific/Central comment mentioned.

I have no problem with no points for a loss if it isn't deceided by a shoot out, play until some one wins or have a tie. The only other way would be 3pt's win two overtime 1 shootout. I hate the shoot out I don;t want to watch a home run durby to win a game or a put off or field goal kicking no gimiks play the game!

[cbarker78]

Why not just 2 points for a regulation win and 1 for an OT win?

A better idea in my opinion would be to drop OT and the shootout altogether and award 2 points for a win and 1 for a tie, just like in the good old days. These 3 point games are stupid and I think even those people who liked the shootout at first have now grown bored with it, just like all of us who were always opposed to it had warned years ago.

As for the proposed playoff format, I have always been in favour of encompassing the entire league as opposed to breaking it into two conferences. The main reason in my opinion would be to allow the chance of two teams in the same conference to meet in the Cup final. As it is now for instance, Montreal and Toronto could never meet for the Cup, nor Montreal and Boston. A Detroit-Chicago final is an impossibilty. We could never see a NY-NY final or LA vs Anaheim. How about Edmonton and Calgary. Or Florida vs Tampa. These are dream series match-ups, especially for fans of those teams, but they could never occur.

Thats fine with the 2 and 1 point rewarded system as well.I just don't like seeing points rewarded for losses.The old system is fine to,I have no problem with it.The old points system is better then the current.I would just like more points rewarded for regulation wins to motivate teams to go for it all during regulation.No points for any kind of loss,sorry Leaf fans this will show you how bad they really are.lol.And if teams are constantly needing Ot to win then on one hand it's good that they can get it done when it counts but they are also showing they can't get the job done in regulation so get 1 less point,this is the reason for me chosing 3 points for regulation wins and 2 for OT wins because a win is still worth 2 points and the regulation win is just a bonus and will separate the contenders from pretenders. I like my system because the losing teams will never even be close and thats the way it should be.