Wildcard Playoffs?
With Anaheim's victory over Dallas today, a 2-1 win (Turco let 2 goals in with less than 20 shots...you'd think he was an Oilers keeper) it makes the playoff picture in the west very murky. There are like 5 teams that are very tight in the standings.
That got me thinking...Compared to the Eastern Conference, the Western Teams are much more competitive. It would be a shame for any of the teams in the Western Conference to have to have to miss the playoffs and have a team like the Thrashers get one in the East.
I propose that the NHL have wildcard playoff spots so that the perhaps the 9th place team in the West could make the playoffs if it had more points than playoff bound teams in the East...then the top 16 teams would truly make the playoffs.
posted by David @ 8:56 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Probably a harsh thing to say, considering the NHL schedule. If the NHL played a truly balanced schedule, where every team played each other an equal number of times, then adding a wildcard team would be plausible. However, since teams in the NHL play the majority of their games against their conference foes, you have to reward teams in both conferences, and can't simply award playoff spots based on points attained (a proponent of the Eastern conference could rightfully argue that Western teams have to play teams like Columbus, Chicago and St. Louis a minimum of 4 times, thus have an opportunity to accumulate more points, whereas in the East, there are only 2 "truly" weak teams).
I personally think the top 4 teams in the East (Ottawa, Carolina, Buffalo and Philadelphia) are superior to the top 4 in the West (Dallas, Detroit, Calgary, Nashville). The last two Stanley Cup Champions emerged from the East, and it would be to no one's surprise if a Eastern team claimed the Cup again.
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