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Originally Posted by Ahbroody
That doesnt work because of the unbalanced schedule. For example the Canucks played some of the worst teams in the west more. It effects their standing.
You can't have an unlevel field all year and then level it for the playoff. Conference and division play a large factor already. I just see no logic in throwing that out at the end. Sure everyone has a different view.
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You'd have to eliminate the conferences all together. The only reason that that that Canucks played some of the worst teams in the west more often is because their division just happened to be stacked with teams in rebuilding stages. That's definitely something that contributed to the Canucks winning the Presidents Trophy and it'll be interesting to see how they handle the playoffs.
I get the concept that the NHL is trying to go with where you play "local" teams more often creating a rivalry, etc. which in theory makes the regular season more exciting but I think it's failing when you have the 18th ranked team in the league in the playoffs and the 16th and 17th out and on the golf course. Just doesn't make sense. Plus it also means that local fans rarely get to see teams outside their own division or conference.
There are 30 teams in the NHL, I rather see it so each team plays the entire league 3 times as the regular season (or even just 2 times so that the regular season is shortened and hockey doesn't run so deep into summer anymore). That way there's no weak vs strong division/conference skewing results and the best 16 teams are in the playoffs regardless of whether the quota for eastern or western teams is filled. I'd also be quite happy to see a return to best of 5 playoff series for at least the first round and possibly the second as well.