NHL's playoff system about to send a Stanley Cup contender home early | Evan's take (2025)

What's the point of grinding through an 82-game regular season if you're not rewarded properly for succeeding?

In 2013-14, the NHL changed up its playoff seeding. The league moved from three divisions in each conference down to two, which forced it to alter things a bit. The winner of each division is still rewarded with a top seed and home-ice advantage through two rounds, but the NHL wanted to put an extra emphasis on divisional matchups in hopes of building some rivalries moving forward.

In theory, not a bad idea. It hasn't always worked out for the best, though. And this year, it's guaranteed to send at least one Stanley Cup contender home before we even get to round two.

The Colorado Avalanche, as they're currently constructed, look like a wagon. Since Jan. 1, they have the fourth-best points percentage in the NHL. Since the end of the 4 Nations break, they're second best in that department. Under normal circumstances, they'd be rising up the standings with their sights set on home-ice advantage in round one.

That's not the case in the Central Division.

While the Avalanche might have the fourth-best points percentage in the NHL since the new year, two of the three teams ahead of them in that department happen to be the teams they've been chasing all year. The top team since Jan. 1 has been the Dallas Stars. If you look at the NHL standings now, Dallas sits third in the league while the Avalanche is fifth.

Their reward for having such strong regular seasons? They get to play each other in the first round.

Wait, that doesn't sound like much of a reward, does it?

In the old playoff system, they would not be playing each other and they'd both have home-ice in round one. Under the current one, they're stuck playing each other because they happen to be in the same division.

Sure, it'll be must-watch TV, especially given the Mikko Rantanen twist that was thrown into everything recently, but it sure doesn't seem right. The league gets what it wants, though.

"It is what it is," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said on Friday. "That's the new NHL, right? They want the tough matchups in the first round. They want to see the seven games instead of one team beating another team in four or five or even six. They want to see those tough matchups, and in our division, you're going to go through a gauntlet."

There's no doubt a Colorado/Dallas matchup will likely produce a great series, one that could go seven games. If either of these teams want to win the Stanley Cup, they'd probably have to go through the other. But with the seasons each of them is having, why does it have to be in the first round? There must be a better way.

Forcing teams in the same division to play each other in the playoffs could create rivalries, but it could also create apathy. The other first round matchup we're almost guaranteed to get out West is Los Angeles against Edmonton. Sound familiar? That's because this will be the fourth straight season those two teams will meet in the first round.

That's not fun. That's just boring.

NHL commissionerGary Bettman recently shut down any possibility of the NHL switching up the current playoff system, which is a shame. The previous system wasn't perfect, but it worked, and it would have worked even better now that each conference is down to two divisions. Under that system, Dallas and Colorado wouldn't be playing in round one and neither would Los Angeles and Edmonton.

Instead, you'd have teams actually rewarded for having good regular seasons by playing opponents that make a little more sense. That's not going to be the case under the current system and it sure feels like it devalues the regular season a little bit.

Congratulations on your fantastic regular seasons, Colorado and Dallas. Prepare to go to war in round one.