First, let me state that I'm no longer a hockey fan. I was a pretty big Rangers fan in the late 60's, early 70's, when Bobby Orr beat my team in every important game. The main reason I stopped being a fan is that , to me at least, the regular season lost all meaning. They play a whole year and the only advantage to finishing high up is that you get home ice advantage, and then in the playoffs the visiting team wins a significant number of game---so all that matters is finishing in the top 8. So why spend time and money on any regular season game? To someone like me, I just lost interest.
I have a proposal to fix that.
In the playoffs in the 1-8, 2-7, 3-6 but not in the 4-5 series, the lower seeded team would have to win 5 of the 7 games to advance. After round one, all games of Course go back to best 4 of 7.
Advantages:
1. Teams would fight like hell to finish 1,2,3, and to avoid finishing 6,7,8
2. The fight to finish 3 rather than 4, or 5 rather than 6 would be very meaningful
3. If a lower team ever came close to achieving 5 wins it would be very exciting.
4. The regular season games and the standings would become very meaningful for all those reasons
Disadvantages
1. Some playoff games would end very quickly in the first round
2. Major change: some long time hockey fans would hate it
So this year, for example,, the Bruins would have really earned something for their terrific season, not just home ice advantage, which is pretty meaningless. The whole purpose of my proposal is to make the regular season count for something, like it clearly does in both baseball and football.
I have a proposal to fix that.
In the playoffs in the 1-8, 2-7, 3-6 but not in the 4-5 series, the lower seeded team would have to win 5 of the 7 games to advance. After round one, all games of Course go back to best 4 of 7.
Advantages:
1. Teams would fight like hell to finish 1,2,3, and to avoid finishing 6,7,8
2. The fight to finish 3 rather than 4, or 5 rather than 6 would be very meaningful
3. If a lower team ever came close to achieving 5 wins it would be very exciting.
4. The regular season games and the standings would become very meaningful for all those reasons
Disadvantages
1. Some playoff games would end very quickly in the first round
2. Major change: some long time hockey fans would hate it
So this year, for example,, the Bruins would have really earned something for their terrific season, not just home ice advantage, which is pretty meaningless. The whole purpose of my proposal is to make the regular season count for something, like it clearly does in both baseball and football.