Unprecedented Lopsided Standings

[Sod16]

Half way through the season, and the playoff race is essentially over in the East!  Boston, with the last wild card is up by 8 points with 4 at hand.  Conservatively, that means a 12 point gap.  In addition, there is little motivation for getting a good seeding, because there is little distinction between the teams in playoff spots.  This is a weird situation with 8 very good teams, 10 bad teams, and a big gap between them.

 

Snooze the second half?

[Albatrosss]

dont jinx it, yo!!

[Karan]

17 minutes ago, Sod16 said:

Half way through the season, and the playoff race is essentially over in the East!  Boston, with the last wild card is up by 8 points with 4 at hand.  Conservatively, that means a 12 point gap.  In addition, there is little motivation for getting a good seeding, because there is little distinction between the teams in playoff spots.  This is a weird situation with 8 very good teams, 10 bad teams, and a big gap between them.

 

Snooze the second half?

 

Great, now the Islanders with their whopping 8 games in hand are going to go on a run and chase down the Rangers for the last WC spot. 

[Patrick Bateman]

I can't picture the Islanders going down without a fight. They've been on a tear recently and I can see them going on a crazy streak to make a push

 

Just looked at their upcoming schedule and it's super soft too, I can easily see them going 14-3 over the next 17

Edited January 24, 2022 by Patrick Bateman

[SaveByRichter35]

I hate that they're still doing this stupid wild card bullshit.  The conferences are even and the divisions are even now.  Just do it straight up 1-4 in each division.

[LindG1000]

11 hours ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

I hate that they're still doing this stupid wild card bullshit.  The conferences are even and the divisions are even now.  Just do it straight up 1-4 in each division.

 

I'd rather the wildcard than that. 1-4 in each division has been done before, and it never gets the best teams in the dance.

[Pete]

20 minutes ago, G1000 said:

 

I'd rather the wildcard than that. 1-4 in each division has been done before, and it never gets the best teams in the dance.

This isn't a tournament round robin. It's league playoffs. 

 

The regular season is played to determine the playoff teams. If you were one of the top 4 teams in your division, you deserve to be there. The rivalries just get better in the playoffs. 

 

Otherwise why have divisions? Just have conferences. 

[LindG1000]

Just now, Pete said:

This isn't a tournament round robin. It's league playoffs. 

 

The regular season is played to determine the playoff teams. If you were one of the top 4 teams in your division, you deserve to be there. The rivalries just get better in the playoffs. 

 

Otherwise why have divisions? Just have conferences. 

 

I think back to situations like the 15-16 West; why should the 78 point Yotes have made the playoffs over the 87 point Wild just because they were in the Pacific? Or even something like this year, where the Central is clearly leaps and bounds better than the Pacific and should probably place five, maybe even six teams in the playoffs (if they could). 

 

I want the best teams in the playoffs, so I like the wildcards because they provide the league a hedge to make sure that happens. And, I like that divisions play an important role in the playoffs, but I'm also of a mind that it's probably not the best for the sport to have situations like 2017 (where 4 of the top 5 teams in the league were in the Metro and thus a first round out of one of the best in the league was guaranteed) or this year with the Atlantic. 

[Pete]

23 minutes ago, G1000 said:

 

I think back to situations like the 15-16 West; why should the 78 point Yotes have made the playoffs over the 87 point Wild just because they were in the Pacific? Or even something like this year, where the Central is clearly leaps and bounds better than the Pacific and should probably place five, maybe even six teams in the playoffs (if they could). 

 

I want the best teams in the playoffs, so I like the wildcards because they provide the league a hedge to make sure that happens. And, I like that divisions play an important role in the playoffs, but I'm also of a mind that it's probably not the best for the sport to have situations like 2017 (where 4 of the top 5 teams in the league were in the Metro and thus a first round out of one of the best in the league was guaranteed) or this year with the Atlantic. 

The entertainment value of rivalries can't be overlooked.

 

The scenarios you're talking about happen every 6-7 years. You can't reformat to address edge cases. 

[LindG1000]

2 minutes ago, Pete said:

The entertainment value of rivalries can't be overlooked.

 

The scenarios you're talking about happen every 6-7 years. You can't reformat to address edge cases. 

In the east, anyway, there are plenty of interdivisional rivalries.  Also, I'm not arguing for re-formatting; I'm arguing against going back to 1-4 automatically make it. 

[Albatrosss]

i'd like them to go back to conferences, where winners of each division make up the top spots and and the rest of the best teams take the other 5-6 spots.  Like they had it back in the day before all this re-shuffling.  

[SaveByRichter35]

4 hours ago, G1000 said:

In the east, anyway, there are plenty of interdivisional rivalries.  Also, I'm not arguing for re-formatting; I'm arguing against going back to 1-4 automatically make it. 

Then just go back to 1-8 like it used to be.  They started the wildcard because the West had two less teams at the time.  Everything is balanced now.  

[Albatrosss]

Hate stupid wildcards.  Life should be simpler