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NHL players showing disdain for playoff format

Sidney Crosby. Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

NHL players are starting to hate league's playoff format

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 2/9/23

NHL players do not speak out against much, but some of the league's more prominent players are starting to voice some displeasure with the league's current playoff format and how its matchups are determined.

Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the league has used a divisional bracket style format that takes the top-three teams from each of its four divisions, and then two wild-card teams in each conference for a total of 16 playoff teams (eight in the Eastern Conference and eight in the Western Conference).

The division winners play the wild-card teams in the first round, while the second-and third-place teams in each division play each other regardless of record.

Until 2013 the NHL simply seeded the eight playoff teams 1-8 and then reseeded at the start of each new round, so the top remaining seed was always playing the lowest remaining seed.

The change has led to some matchups in recent years where teams in better divisions are getting punished with significantly harder first-round matchups.

And the players are starting to voice some displeasure with it.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said at the All-Star game this past weekend that he prefers the old format because teams should be rewarded for stronger regular season performances.

Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon also recently said he does not understand the format as it currently is.

"The Toronto-Tampa thing is silly. You come in 2nd in the conference, and you play the 3rd-place team in your conference the 1st round? I don't understand that."

Nathan MacKinnon and other NHL players would be fine ditching the wild card. My column:https://t.co/jpVU9CaOCD
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) February 9, 2023

In the case of Toronto and Tampa Bay, they are consistently two of the best teams in the league, but because they play in a division with another top team (Boston) they get stuck playing each other in the first round in the Atlantic Division's 2-3 matchup. There have been several examples over the years where first-and second-round matchups pit two of the league's best teams against each other when a different playoff format (like 1 vs. 8) might have saved those matchups for the conference final.

The other element at play is that the current format can take some of the drama out of the regular season.

Even though there are still 30 games remaining in the season the Lightning and Maple Leafs are almost certainly locked into their first-round matchup. Neither team is likely to catch Boston for first place in their division, while the fourth-place team (Buffalo) is 10 points back of both. Those gaps are difficult to make up this late in the season.

The NHL's goal with the divisional bracket format was the hope that it would help develop more rivalries and lead to more intriguing playoff matchups based on that. All it has done is remove some incentive from the regular season and make some of the league's top players mad.

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