May NHL News

Merkle's Boner

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I'm not a big hockey guy, but this sounds like it could be huge for the NHL. If they can get this out before any of the other leagues, the ratings are gonna be bigger than anything the NHL has ever seen. Also, with NBC being the NHL broadcast network, and NBC needing to fill a shitload of hours they had slotted for the Olympics this summer, I would expect round the clock games throughout each day.
 

DeadlySplitter

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if they're not having #1 facing the lowest remaining seed, maybe we get lucky and get a good draw? best I can think of.
 

cshea

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The round robin for the 1-4 seeds will have regular season OT rules. So the top seed could be won or lost on a freakin shootout. Just stupid.
It has to be weighted. They can’t possibly go through with it as an even slate. What happens if everyone goes 1-1-1?

Edit: The Bruins are up 8 points on Tampa and even in games played. They could go 0-3 in this thing and still have more points and a better points percentage than Tampa and anyone in the conference. Losing home ice based on a 3 game series after a 4 month layoff is lunacy. It’s not like we’re losing typical home ice advantages such as home crowd, facilities, living at home, but there’s still things like last change.
 
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RedOctober3829

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Assuming that a team in the playoffs won't get to play at home, what are the likely cities out of those 10 to host? Eastern Conference in Chicago and Western Conference in Toronto? I would think they'd want to have the games out of the Pacific Time Zone.
 

RedOctober3829

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Bettman confirms the round robin will determine the top 4 seeds. Any tiebreakers would be broken by whoever had the best regular season points percentage. He said the reasoning behind this was that there was concern about the top 4 seeded teams being at a disadvantage playing someone coming off a competitive qualifying round.
 

scottyno

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A more fair way would be for 4 to play 3 for the 3 seed, then the winner of that plays 2 for the 2 seed, then the winner of that play 1 for the 1 seed, so teams could still move up but the higher seed would have a distinct advantage and could only drop 1 spot. Being able to drop from 1 to 4 is awful.
 

scottyno

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Did he say if they are reseeding after every round or is it a fixed bracket? I assume fixed because reseeding would make too much sense for this league considering they reseeded for years before changing the format.
 

cshea

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Did he say if they are reseeding after every round or is it a fixed bracket? I assume fixed because reseeding would make too much sense for this league considering they reseeded for years before changing the format.
They haven’t decided that yet. League wants a bracket, players are pushing for reseeding. Not sure what the leagues logic is.
 

Catcher Block

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If the issue with giving the Top 4 teams a bye is the "meaningful game" problem, they should have just used the regular format and told Chicago and Montreal to kick rocks. The Blues having to beat out Dallas (who were .500 in their own division) for seeding at this point is several bridges too far. Less of a complaint if that's the 1 v 8 matchup, for example.
 
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scottyno

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They haven’t decided that yet. League wants a bracket, players are pushing for reseeding. Not sure what the leagues logic is.
Give Montreal the worst team left if they get out of the 5-12 round (though it also screws potentially toronto)
 

cshea

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If the issue with giving the Top 4 teams a bye is the "meaningful game" problem, they should have just used the regular format and told Chicago and Montreal to kick rocks. The Blues having to beat out Dallas (who were .500 in their own division) for seeding at this point is several bridges too far.
There needs to be some kind of weighted component to this. The Bruins can’t be caught in points or points percentage in 3 games, but apparently can go from 1 to 4 based on 3 games coming out of a 4 month hiatus in this scenario.

Maybe I’m overreacting, I guess “home ice” is not as important as in years past because they’ll be in a hub city with no fans, but they’d still be losing their last change advantage. Or if they make it deep, the NHL hasn’t ruled out playing in the teams cities for the Finals.
 

Greg29fan

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I'm going to have to see the NHL pull this off to believe it. The league has had two minor outbreaks of the mumps in the last six years, and just the normal seasonal flu always spreads easily through locker rooms and from team to team.
 

cshea

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New Jersey lost the last game they played, on 3/10, in a shootout. If they had won that shootout they’d be in as the 12 seed over Montreal.

I have gripes over the format, but if they can pull this off I think it’ll be awesome. Especially if some of the other leagues can’t get their return’s straightened out.
 

cshea

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With the season over, Bruins take home the dreaded Presidents Trophy. Pastrnak shares the Rocket Richard with Ovechkin, Rask and Halak win the Jennings (fewest goals against).
 

NYCSox

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New Jersey lost the last game they played, on 3/10, in a shootout. If they had won that shootout they’d be in as the 12 seed over Montreal.

I have gripes over the format, but if they can pull this off I think it’ll be awesome. Especially if some of the other leagues can’t get their return’s straightened out.
Eh they would have found some way to have 25 teams instead. :)
 

TheRealness

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Does it really matter if the Bruins finish in the top 3 of the 4? There is no home ice. And their worst case scenario is losing every play in game and playing Pittsburgh or Montreal. That would suck, but would still require them to finish last in the round robin.

They had to do something, and I am ok with this.
 

Merkle's Boner

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I would guess one of the sites would be in Canada. I heard somewhere that Edmonton was a leader in the clubhouse. Which makes not a lot of sense but who knows.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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The 4 team round robin to determine the #1 seed when there’s a clear cut #1 is awful. I get they need to play, but why not just have them play, and either have it be meaningless OR take in to account the points lead the teams had in regular season?
 

cshea

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Does it really matter if the Bruins finish in the top 3 of the 4? There is no home ice. And their worst case scenario is losing every play in game and playing Pittsburgh or Montreal. That would suck, but would still require them to finish last in the round robin.

They had to do something, and I am ok with this.
They haven’t decided on bracket vs reseeding yet. Home ice isn’t as important as a normal year but it still means last change. And I just think it sucks that they played 70 games, dusted the league, but they get zero reward for it. All it did was get them a bye and even footing with 3 other teams in their conference that they were 8,10,11 points in front of. They aren’t getting any benefit of being the best team in the league. I get this was never going to be 100% perfect, but I was hoping for a bit more. Even with them retaining the top seed, they’re losing the vast majority of the typical reward of having home ice throughout. If it goes to a bracket I think it would suck to go 0-3 in the round robin (one game against Washington so we know how that’ll end), drop to the 4 seed and then get Pittsburgh in the first round.

In my ideal Covid-playoff world, they weight the round robin so the Bruins have the appropriate odds of obtaining the 1-seed, and then they reseed after the play in round.
 

cshea

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Salem's Lot

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I think we’re making a little too much out of the round robin seeding, the games are neutral site, so the only advantage is having last change in a deciding game. Also, I wouldn’t want the Bruins to play 3 glorified exhibition games while their first playoff opponent just won a playoff series.

And as far as neutral ice playoff games, I love it. No shitty garden ice.
 

TheRealness

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They haven’t decided on bracket vs reseeding yet. Home ice isn’t as important as a normal year but it still means last change. And I just think it sucks that they played 70 games, dusted the league, but they get zero reward for it. All it did was get them a bye and even footing with 3 other teams in their conference that they were 8,10,11 points in front of. They aren’t getting any benefit of being the best team in the league. I get this was never going to be 100% perfect, but I was hoping for a bit more. Even with them retaining the top seed, they’re losing the vast majority of the typical reward of having home ice throughout. If it goes to a bracket I think it would suck to go 0-3 in the round robin (one game against Washington so we know how that’ll end), drop to the 4 seed and then get Pittsburgh in the first round.

In my ideal Covid-playoff world, they weight the round robin so the Bruins have the appropriate odds of obtaining the 1-seed, and then they reseed after the play in round.
I think that would be fair, but could potentially make one or two of those games as really exhibition like. I get the fairness aspect of their regular season performance, but I am fine with it overall for the Bruins. I’m just happy they are going to finish this season.

The 5-12 thing is a bit weird to me, but it kind of has the feel of an old youth tournament where you play all your games in the same barn and stay at local hotels with your teammates.
 

The Napkin

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It's absolute bullshit. What the hell did the regular season even mean if they're going to determine the top 4 seeds in a 3-game sequence? All of the Bruins' good play goes down the drain.
The very least they should do is start 1 through 4 with 3, 2, 1, 0 points respectively. That makes the round robin matter but also gives decent weight to the 85% of the season that was played.
 

TheRealness

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The biggest asset the Bruins have at a restart (like most teams) is health. Their top line is healthy. Their defense is healthy. Their goalie is rested. They also have a special team bond that I think gives them a chance in this setting, especially being stuck in a hotel with them for potentially 2 months or so. Sure Kase and Rithcie didn’t get a chance to mesh, but I like tie chances overall to contribute.

They have as good a chance as any (as Vegas odds reflect).

Anyone know if the same divisional rules will exist (i.e. will they get Tampa in the 2nd round if they both advance)? Because if they can avoid Tampa until the ECF, that would be a good thing to come out of this.
 

cshea

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They haven’t really said but given how they structured the play-in round, I assume the divisional playoff system is out the window.
 

RedOctober3829

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The biggest asset the Bruins have at a restart (like most teams) is health. Their top line is healthy. Their defense is healthy. Their goalie is rested. They also have a special team bond that I think gives them a chance in this setting, especially being stuck in a hotel with them for potentially 2 months or so. Sure Kase and Rithcie didn’t get a chance to mesh, but I like tie chances overall to contribute.

They have as good a chance as any (as Vegas odds reflect).

Anyone know if the same divisional rules will exist (i.e. will they get Tampa in the 2nd round if they both advance)? Because if they can avoid Tampa until the ECF, that would be a good thing to come out of this.
The playoffs will be seeded by conference not division. They could see Tampa in the 2nd rd if they are 1-4 or 2-3 seeds.
 

Red Averages

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Seems like the NBA and NHL have really left an entire month open (July) when they could have had massive TV viewership ramp up to attract new fans. Maybe the logistics are far harder than I give it credit for, but why each sport needs over a month to start preparations when they’ve thought they’d be in this situation for months is surprising. If it’s to align next years start later they could have still achieved it by extending the break period.
 

Salem's Lot

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Seems like the NBA and NHL have really left an entire month open (July) when they could have had massive TV viewership ramp up to attract new fans. Maybe the logistics are far harder than I give it credit for, but why each sport needs over a month to start preparations when they’ve thought they’d be in this situation for months is surprising. If it’s to align next years start later they could have still achieved it by extending the break period.
Most of these guys haven’t skated in 3 months. They can’t just jump into training camp and be ready to go in three weeks either. They need to be able to skate in small groups and use the training facilities for at least 2-3 weeks first.