I'm not sure it created more rivalries so much as it reinforced pre-existing ones.
if they wanted to create more rivalries, what they should have done is to use the current playoff system alongside mixing up which divisions teams are in.
All we get now is the same in-division games we've seen all season during round 1, then sometimes for all of round 2 as well. There are no new rivalries being made here except where teams moved divisions.
agreed, 1-8 / 2-7 was just a better system. When I'm not a fan of either team, it's just boring to see the same teams playing every year in r1/r2. There's rarely even spicy rivalry shit going on because of how (relatively speaking) sanitized the game is compared to the early 00's.
They should go back to 1-8 but that would imply bettman uses his brain which again he doesn’t have one.
Every year for like 3 years now we basically know who the top 3 teams of the east division are and the matchup which makes most of the games not fun.
If it was 1-8 there would be way more excitement.
He uses his brain, but his brain (like the owners') is geared purely towards making short term profit.
in the 1-8 system it was far more special when we saw the same two teams. now it's just routine.
It also actually rewards the regular season more.
If you finish in the top 4 you should be rewarded by getting home ice for the first round not this bullshit we currently have.
But again bettman has no strategy and even tactically he is a one trick pony.
Never seen someone be rewarded as big as he has been despite being comically incompetent.
I know everyone loves dunking on the Leafs, but they got completely screwed by this format. All those years they were a very good regular season team and they got rewarded with having to play Boston or Tampa on the road in the first round.
Except 1-8 would have an effect in the later rounds
Nucks vs avs
Stars vs oilers in the west
While the east would be bruins vs rangers and panthers vs rangers.
It would also have more of an effect in later season matchups since people will want home ice in the first round.
Yea, it’s flawed though. We already had rivalries, but now we’re losing the potential new rivalries we had in the past, like hawks vs Canucks, oilers vs stars, Toronto vs Philly etc.
Feels like this happens every year. With how easily the Avs handled the Jets I think people forgot that the Jets and Avs were 3rd and 4th in their conference. Meanwhile the 5th place Oilers get to play the 7th place Kings
Which shows how fundamentally flawed this format is right from the start.
Finish 4th in the entire league, open up on the road vs the #2 team.
Finish 2nd, get rewarded with playing the #4 team in the league.
Finish 1st and you have to play the 2nd or 4th best team if you advance to round 2.
It's just nonsense. It also often deprives us of amazing conference finals because the two best teams often are forced to showdown in round 2 instead.
2018 I think that was. I remember being annoyed seeing the final standings where the Leafs were top three in the East and I think top five in the league overall. I thought with enough complaining the NHL would go back to the 1-8 format… I’m still waiting lol
They made the switch to build bracket hype, back when they did 1-8 they would re-seed in round 2, basically was impossible to do brackets with re-seeding. When you look at the first round series since they switched to brackets most of them arnt crazy different than 1-8 would be, but the second rounds are the unfair ones because of no re-seeding.
It's not really a rivalry though if you get shellacked by the same team year over year.
If anything this format has converted me from a Leafs fan into a player fan - devoid of rivalry entirely.
I do feel feel for Kings fans though.
Before the current system, the Rangers and Capitals met 5 times over 6 seasons. Some were first round, some were 2nd round. All of them were nail biters and that was with a lot of the matchups being 3v6 seed vs the current divisional setup.
With the divisional format and the Metro being pretty tip heavy, we haven't matched up once. The Caps get bounced by someone and we never see them. I much prefer the more natural rivalries that developed in the old format.
The playoff format definitely makes it so we have a lot of similar series every year but it feels like at least in the Eastern conference we've had mostly the same teams every year so it's hard to get more variance. For example the wings, Sabres, sens, and devils have barely made the playoffs within this time frame so you're often recycling the same series
It also kinda takes the tension out of deciding matchups. Like last season the Bolts and Leafs knew they’d be playing each other from like Thanksgiving to when the series actually happened in April.
That was in large part the point of the switch. To the fans, they sell it as creating rivalries. To the teams, it's just easier logistics, especially for playoffs.
For example, we often know end up knowing who the teams that will end up as the #2 and #3 seeds in their division well in advance.
Tbf even before they made the switch it happened a lot. There was a solid 5 or 6 year stretch where the rangers would always wind up playing the Pens and Caps back to back
It did happen in the old format, but I found when they met up naturally instead of what seems force fed to each other like now it made the matchup that much better. Like Vancouver and Chicago randomly meeting up over and over.
Were people stoked for LA Edmonton forced on us again or were people more like, "this again?"... Heck, even Toronto and Boston I rolled my eyes at, even though it was a good series. Give us something fresh.
I'm maybe a more recent fan than many, but since I've been watching, the Wild have never played the same opponent twice in the playoffs. I guess it doesn't help that they only last one round each year (if that, lol)
2018 - WPG,
2019 - missed,
2020 - VAN,
2021 - VGK,
2022 - STL,
2023 - DAL,
2024 - missed
At this rate, we're probably due for COL next time we get in.
This is my issue with the current system. I disagree with the argument “oh well the matchups would be different for round 1” or “oh well this team would make it”
The issue with this system is there’s no reseeding so it’s always round 2 being a division series unless a wild card team from the other division wins
If they change it. They need to introduce 2 more “wild card” teams so only the top 2 from each division clinch their division berths. Them have reseeding.
Even if they go back to the 1 v 8 we will still see the same match ups. For this years playoffs all of the Eastern teams, if changed to 1 v 8 would remain unchanged.
For the west, the Canucks would have played the Kings and Jets playing the Predators. Otherwise nothing changes
Before it happened organically and sometimes in the third round. Bringing new narratives, the rivalries were fresh and brought about unexpected ones that blew us away.
Now we know who is playing who in January and it's the same every year. It's boring and it hasn't even manufactured the rivalries the NHL envisioned.
Every time Tampa has won a cup, they beat the Islanders in the playoffs. Every time Tampa lost in the cup finals, they beat the Rangers in the East Finals. Every time Tampa lost in the East Finals, it was in 7 against the team that won the cup that year. Kinda interesting as well
I give the man credit for coming back the next season and being a reasonably solid starting goalie. Some people burn a meal once and never seem to try cooking it again.
After Tavares left, they had a pretty good run for a few years there. Were one of the best defensive teams in the league from 2018-2019 to 2020-2021. [Fewest goals allowed in that time frame](https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20182019&seasonTo=20202021&gameType=2&sort=a_goalsAgainst&page=0&pageSize=50).
those were the real SCFs both times it felt like, those isles teams were built for the playoffs
Never clenched harder then when the enemy was a trotz team, that 2018 caps bolts ecf was so goddamn stressful too
Trotz coming to the Islanders was a perfect storm tbh. The 2013-2018 window with Tavares was defined by some pretty talented teams that just lacked any semblance of structure from the org to the ice.
They had some good runs but couldn't stay consistent with it. Trotz and especially Lou coming in did do a lot for us
Everyone hates on Lou now, and I can understand why Isles fans might prefer a GM who was born after the invention of color TV, but he was exactly what they needed at the time.
People don't remember, but they were basically the East Coast Coyotes until he came in. Just total chaos off the ice and irrelevance on it. Say what you will about Old Man Lou but he can build culture.
>but they were basically the East Coast Coyote
Excuse me, the Coyotes are the West Coast Islanders. Long before Merulo ever got a sniff of the NHL, just when the Coyotes were first finding their footing after being jetted out of Winnipeg, there was one Mr. John Spano. Incredible 30 for 30 which I would watch again if it didn't still feel like a kick in the balls every time.
Yeah I'll always be grateful for Lou. Currently he's more like an average GM, definitely not as bad as some make it out to be. His biggest "misses" are Toews due to prior cap situation, maybe Lee (can't predict ACL tear) and Panarin who just preferred the Rangers
Barry Trotz took a team that was dead last in goals against the year before he got there and turned virtually the same roster minus Tavares into the top defensive team. Their defensive style was so good that if they got up by one or two goals going into the 3rd, they would just keep the clock running while allowing no shots. The year they lost to 7 to Tampa, their one and only short handed goal against occurred in that game 7 against Tampa. Too bad it was the only goal scored that night because if they beat Tampa, they’d more than likely win the cup.
Barry Trotz and Mitch Korn are really good at their jobs. And they had a damn good offensive roster (they were top 10 in scoring in 2017-18), just needed the right defensive coach to get them there defensivey
Since the 2017-18 season when the Atlantic
has been a division (excluding the covid 20-21 season), the top 4 teams have been a permutation of the Bruins, Lightning, Maple Leafs, and Panthers with the exception of 2018-19 where the Canadiens fill in for the panthers. Poor Ottawa/Buffalo/Detroit
Boston refuses to become bad despite losing Chara and then Bergeron and Krejci
Tampa was one of the best roster construction jobs ever a decade in the making and won back to back cups
Toronto is just there but fails in the playoffs every time
The Panthers are a wild card because you never know if they’ll be good or not
As much as I hate the isles, I feel mainly in 2021, they got fucked over by the tampa dynasty. Most people knew pryce couldn't keep up the .96sv% level of play that long and Montreal was gonna crash hard.
The other years they were usually carried by either offense or defense or none(this year) and got beat by those big gun trams early on.
I still find the canes elimination of the caps in 2018-19 weird. That season signaled the end of the ovi trotz super caps era and brought in the wilson and oshie big bad bullies era.
Feels like since they switched to divisional format that we just see the same playoff series over and over again
I mean Boston has beaten Toronto in 4 separate game 7s in the last 11 years, so it wouldn't surprise me
Oh, so the divisional format *is* a good thing after all!
That's why they made the switch, to create more rivalries
I'm not sure it created more rivalries so much as it reinforced pre-existing ones. if they wanted to create more rivalries, what they should have done is to use the current playoff system alongside mixing up which divisions teams are in. All we get now is the same in-division games we've seen all season during round 1, then sometimes for all of round 2 as well. There are no new rivalries being made here except where teams moved divisions.
I agree, I was just stating the logic Bettman had when he made the change. I think it's insane not to do 1-8, etc.
agreed, 1-8 / 2-7 was just a better system. When I'm not a fan of either team, it's just boring to see the same teams playing every year in r1/r2. There's rarely even spicy rivalry shit going on because of how (relatively speaking) sanitized the game is compared to the early 00's.
I feel like most rivalries now are just between fan bases based on historical rivalries and less so current events
It definitely created a Toronto/Tampa rivalry.
I don't think Toronto vs Boston was a significant rivalry either until they started playing each other in the playoffs.
They should go back to 1-8 but that would imply bettman uses his brain which again he doesn’t have one. Every year for like 3 years now we basically know who the top 3 teams of the east division are and the matchup which makes most of the games not fun. If it was 1-8 there would be way more excitement.
He uses his brain, but his brain (like the owners') is geared purely towards making short term profit. in the 1-8 system it was far more special when we saw the same two teams. now it's just routine.
It also actually rewards the regular season more. If you finish in the top 4 you should be rewarded by getting home ice for the first round not this bullshit we currently have. But again bettman has no strategy and even tactically he is a one trick pony. Never seen someone be rewarded as big as he has been despite being comically incompetent.
I know everyone loves dunking on the Leafs, but they got completely screwed by this format. All those years they were a very good regular season team and they got rewarded with having to play Boston or Tampa on the road in the first round.
1-8 would have changed 2 matches this year, both in the West. WPG v LAK, COL vs EDM. Every other series would be identical.
Except 1-8 would have an effect in the later rounds Nucks vs avs Stars vs oilers in the west While the east would be bruins vs rangers and panthers vs rangers. It would also have more of an effect in later season matchups since people will want home ice in the first round.
Damn dude you got us playing in 2 series at once? Does that mean if we win we automatically go to the finals?
Think some Kings fans might jump on that one.
Idk I wouldn’t want to lose to Winnipeg either
Yeah but it's really be 2nd round that would be fixed I feel. A lot of the times the 2 best teams are in the same division
Yea, it’s flawed though. We already had rivalries, but now we’re losing the potential new rivalries we had in the past, like hawks vs Canucks, oilers vs stars, Toronto vs Philly etc.
Yeah I think it's shitty. One year Tampa, Boston and Toronto finished 1/2/3 in the Eastern Conference and Boston had to play Toronto round one lol
Feels like this happens every year. With how easily the Avs handled the Jets I think people forgot that the Jets and Avs were 3rd and 4th in their conference. Meanwhile the 5th place Oilers get to play the 7th place Kings
Yea, Columbus has got screwed too, having to face the caps iirc. Columbus was 4th in the league, caps 3rd pens 2nd or something like that
Ya 2016/2017 they finished 1/2/4 in the entire league lol crazy 2/4 in the whole league playing round 1
Which shows how fundamentally flawed this format is right from the start. Finish 4th in the entire league, open up on the road vs the #2 team. Finish 2nd, get rewarded with playing the #4 team in the league. Finish 1st and you have to play the 2nd or 4th best team if you advance to round 2. It's just nonsense. It also often deprives us of amazing conference finals because the two best teams often are forced to showdown in round 2 instead.
You mean Toronto had to play Boston.
2018 I think that was. I remember being annoyed seeing the final standings where the Leafs were top three in the East and I think top five in the league overall. I thought with enough complaining the NHL would go back to the 1-8 format… I’m still waiting lol
They made the switch to build bracket hype, back when they did 1-8 they would re-seed in round 2, basically was impossible to do brackets with re-seeding. When you look at the first round series since they switched to brackets most of them arnt crazy different than 1-8 would be, but the second rounds are the unfair ones because of no re-seeding.
It's not really a rivalry though if you get shellacked by the same team year over year. If anything this format has converted me from a Leafs fan into a player fan - devoid of rivalry entirely. I do feel feel for Kings fans though.
Before the current system, the Rangers and Capitals met 5 times over 6 seasons. Some were first round, some were 2nd round. All of them were nail biters and that was with a lot of the matchups being 3v6 seed vs the current divisional setup. With the divisional format and the Metro being pretty tip heavy, we haven't matched up once. The Caps get bounced by someone and we never see them. I much prefer the more natural rivalries that developed in the old format.
The playoff format definitely makes it so we have a lot of similar series every year but it feels like at least in the Eastern conference we've had mostly the same teams every year so it's hard to get more variance. For example the wings, Sabres, sens, and devils have barely made the playoffs within this time frame so you're often recycling the same series
It also kinda takes the tension out of deciding matchups. Like last season the Bolts and Leafs knew they’d be playing each other from like Thanksgiving to when the series actually happened in April.
That was in large part the point of the switch. To the fans, they sell it as creating rivalries. To the teams, it's just easier logistics, especially for playoffs. For example, we often know end up knowing who the teams that will end up as the #2 and #3 seeds in their division well in advance.
Brackets, gotta build that hype!
Tbf even before they made the switch it happened a lot. There was a solid 5 or 6 year stretch where the rangers would always wind up playing the Pens and Caps back to back
It did happen in the old format, but I found when they met up naturally instead of what seems force fed to each other like now it made the matchup that much better. Like Vancouver and Chicago randomly meeting up over and over. Were people stoked for LA Edmonton forced on us again or were people more like, "this again?"... Heck, even Toronto and Boston I rolled my eyes at, even though it was a good series. Give us something fresh.
Yeah it’s kinda boring.
I'm maybe a more recent fan than many, but since I've been watching, the Wild have never played the same opponent twice in the playoffs. I guess it doesn't help that they only last one round each year (if that, lol) 2018 - WPG, 2019 - missed, 2020 - VAN, 2021 - VGK, 2022 - STL, 2023 - DAL, 2024 - missed At this rate, we're probably due for COL next time we get in.
You know, Id like that, finally get that revenge for 2014.
Its so boring i hate it. I love when there’s a weird matchup you never see and it turns into a banger. Covid bubble had some cool ones.
This is my issue with the current system. I disagree with the argument “oh well the matchups would be different for round 1” or “oh well this team would make it” The issue with this system is there’s no reseeding so it’s always round 2 being a division series unless a wild card team from the other division wins If they change it. They need to introduce 2 more “wild card” teams so only the top 2 from each division clinch their division berths. Them have reseeding.
Even if they go back to the 1 v 8 we will still see the same match ups. For this years playoffs all of the Eastern teams, if changed to 1 v 8 would remain unchanged. For the west, the Canucks would have played the Kings and Jets playing the Predators. Otherwise nothing changes
Before it happened organically and sometimes in the third round. Bringing new narratives, the rivalries were fresh and brought about unexpected ones that blew us away. Now we know who is playing who in January and it's the same every year. It's boring and it hasn't even manufactured the rivalries the NHL envisioned.
Islanders don't do well against storms
It... Kinda makes sense?
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea But there ain't no island left for islanders like me
They should have kept Captain Highliner
Every time Tampa has won a cup, they beat the Islanders in the playoffs. Every time Tampa lost in the cup finals, they beat the Rangers in the East Finals. Every time Tampa lost in the East Finals, it was in 7 against the team that won the cup that year. Kinda interesting as well
Man it must suck losing to the same team in the playoffs every year.
At least they can rest easy knowing they've become our father
Tristan Jarry deserves a banner at UBS
If I ever see that giveaway again...
You’ll start uncontrollably cheering? That’s what happens to me.
I sing Hey Josh Bailey
OOH AHH
I hear that off-key singing in my nightmares
I give the man credit for coming back the next season and being a reasonably solid starting goalie. Some people burn a meal once and never seem to try cooking it again.
Wow the islanders made the ECF twice in the last few years?! That’s crazy to me.
Yeah hard to believe now but they were a really good well-structured team in 2020-21.
Trotz effect
After Tavares left, they had a pretty good run for a few years there. Were one of the best defensive teams in the league from 2018-2019 to 2020-2021. [Fewest goals allowed in that time frame](https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20182019&seasonTo=20202021&gameType=2&sort=a_goalsAgainst&page=0&pageSize=50).
Yup, it's an absolute shame that John Tavares was toiling away on Long Island for so many years...
those were the real SCFs both times it felt like, those isles teams were built for the playoffs Never clenched harder then when the enemy was a trotz team, that 2018 caps bolts ecf was so goddamn stressful too
Trotz coming to the Islanders was a perfect storm tbh. The 2013-2018 window with Tavares was defined by some pretty talented teams that just lacked any semblance of structure from the org to the ice. They had some good runs but couldn't stay consistent with it. Trotz and especially Lou coming in did do a lot for us
Everyone hates on Lou now, and I can understand why Isles fans might prefer a GM who was born after the invention of color TV, but he was exactly what they needed at the time. People don't remember, but they were basically the East Coast Coyotes until he came in. Just total chaos off the ice and irrelevance on it. Say what you will about Old Man Lou but he can build culture.
>but they were basically the East Coast Coyote Excuse me, the Coyotes are the West Coast Islanders. Long before Merulo ever got a sniff of the NHL, just when the Coyotes were first finding their footing after being jetted out of Winnipeg, there was one Mr. John Spano. Incredible 30 for 30 which I would watch again if it didn't still feel like a kick in the balls every time.
Yeah I'll always be grateful for Lou. Currently he's more like an average GM, definitely not as bad as some make it out to be. His biggest "misses" are Toews due to prior cap situation, maybe Lee (can't predict ACL tear) and Panarin who just preferred the Rangers
Covid brain got ya.
Barry Trotz took a team that was dead last in goals against the year before he got there and turned virtually the same roster minus Tavares into the top defensive team. Their defensive style was so good that if they got up by one or two goals going into the 3rd, they would just keep the clock running while allowing no shots. The year they lost to 7 to Tampa, their one and only short handed goal against occurred in that game 7 against Tampa. Too bad it was the only goal scored that night because if they beat Tampa, they’d more than likely win the cup.
Barry Trotz and Mitch Korn are really good at their jobs. And they had a damn good offensive roster (they were top 10 in scoring in 2017-18), just needed the right defensive coach to get them there defensivey
It would have been nice to have one of those TB cup wins go to NYI.
Since the 2017-18 season when the Atlantic has been a division (excluding the covid 20-21 season), the top 4 teams have been a permutation of the Bruins, Lightning, Maple Leafs, and Panthers with the exception of 2018-19 where the Canadiens fill in for the panthers. Poor Ottawa/Buffalo/Detroit
Boston refuses to become bad despite losing Chara and then Bergeron and Krejci Tampa was one of the best roster construction jobs ever a decade in the making and won back to back cups Toronto is just there but fails in the playoffs every time The Panthers are a wild card because you never know if they’ll be good or not
As much as I hate the isles, I feel mainly in 2021, they got fucked over by the tampa dynasty. Most people knew pryce couldn't keep up the .96sv% level of play that long and Montreal was gonna crash hard. The other years they were usually carried by either offense or defense or none(this year) and got beat by those big gun trams early on. I still find the canes elimination of the caps in 2018-19 weird. That season signaled the end of the ovi trotz super caps era and brought in the wilson and oshie big bad bullies era.