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Expanded NHL playoff format expected to be approved
Michael Traikos
One report out of Pittsburgh suggested that the Penguins didn't want to play Carey Price and the Canadiens in the opening round of the expanded playoff format but still voted in favour of it. Photo by Richard Wolowicz /Getty Images
It was two months ago when the NHLPA released a player poll ranking everything from the best forward and best defenceman to the league's best trash-talker.
Carey Price was voted the best goalie. It wasn't even close.
Expanded NHL playoff format expected to be approved Back to video
So when a Pittsburgh blog reported on Friday that the Penguins had voted "a hard no" for an expanded playoff format because it would mean having to face the Montreal Canadiens goalie in a best-of-five "play-in" series, it was believable.
It was even justified.
After all, it wasn't just Price's ability to steal a series that should have Penguins' players worried. It was that the Canadiens, a team that had a less-than 1% chance of making the playoffs when the season was paused, were suddenly being gifted a free pass into the post-season.
Fair or not, it was believed that the NHLPA still received the required 18 votes for a 24-team post-season on Friday. And while Sportnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that Penguins player rep Kris Letang had voted "yes" ("It's a great challenge for our team right off the bat," he said) the decision to return with a 24-team playoff was not without its detractors. TSN's Bob McKenzie reported that discussions on Thursday were "spirited, if not raucous."
Expect more of the same when — or if — the Stanley Cup is awarded sometime in August or September.
This format is not perfect. It's not even close to being perfect. But you're not going to get perfection after sitting out for more than two months — and with possibly another month two months before meaningful hockey might be played. For the most part, the players accept that. And so, the NHL is one step closer to returning this summer.
"I think whatever route we go on, whichever format we agree on, is not going to be perfect," St. Louis Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo told the FAN590 on Friday. "A perfect scenario, which will never happen, is we continue to play like we normally do. So there's going to be some concessions from everybody."
Indeed, in an ideal world the NHL would have completed the remaining games in the regular season and held a traditional 16-team playoff. But these are not normal times.
And so, a league that has been on hold since March 12 was forced to get creative.
Rather than exclude, the NHL expanded. The playoffs are not going to be like any post-season you've seen before.
Twenty-four teams will now have a chance at winning the Cup, with the top-four seeds in each conference receiving a bye to what is essentially the first round. The new wrinkle is that those teams will face the winners of a best-of-five play-in series that will include the teams that finished fifth through 12th in the respective conferences.
There had been talk of having 20 teams or even 22. Instead, the league went to 24, which coincidentally means Montreal and Chicago — two Original Six teams and two of the bigger markets in the league — are now included, regardless of whether they deserve it or not.
Maybe this will be exciting. Maybe it's a first of many 24-team post-seasons. But you can probably guess what the reaction will be from traditionalists if a Canadiens team that trailed the Penguins by 15 points the last time hockey was played manages to sneak into the dance.
Imagine what they'll say if the Habs go all the way and win the Cup?
Then again, if they were to pull off such a feat, you can't really argue that they didn't deserve it more than any team in the past. After all, winning a championship might now require winning 19 — rather than 16 — games. That doesn't diminish the trophy. If anything, it enhances it.
"It's difficult to win the Stanley Cup and you want to win it the right way," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby told TSN's Darren Dreger earlier this month. "That's four best four-out-of-seven series'. That's how we know it."
Of course, life as we know it is different because of the coronavirus. Hockey is different too.
It's not just the post-season format. It's everything.
We still don't know the logistics for hosting the playoffs, but we do know that there won't be any fans in the building. The talk right now is of having two hub cities — Las Vegas is reportedly in the front-running, along with Edmonton, Columbus, Nashville, Raleigh and St. Paul, Minnesota — host the games, with players being quarantined in their hotels for up to three months.
A three-week training camp will be held before then. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, borders will have be re-opened, players will have to be flown back to North America and health authorities will have to deem it safe for 23-man teams to be on the ice against each other.
In other words, we're a long way from having a Stanley Cup awarded this year. So many more obstacles are lying in the path between now and then. But at least the NHL and the NHLPA has a plan for when they get the green light.
"I just want to play, and I can do whatever format they decide," Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine said during a Zoom call on Friday. "It's still hockey. But I don't mind the format. It's not an issue for me."
Hockey fans, who have spent the past two months watching re-runs of past Stanley Cup finals, probably feel the same way.
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