Quote:
Originally Posted by Berklon
The NHL can't be too pleased that all these big market and/or hockey market teams are most likely not making the playoffs:
Philly
Buffalo
New York Rangers
Detroit
Chicago
Los Angeles
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PIT, BOS, WSH are basically the highest drawing TV teams in the US. I think the NHL is fine with who is making the playoffs. Buffalo is also the smallest US-based market in the NHL and they watch playoffs with or without the Sabres in them. People also undervalue just how hot the Nashville and Vegas markets are right now.
On the other hand, Sportsnet badly needs a deep Toronto, Winnipeg, or Calgary run in the playoffs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbanite
It would hypothetically be possible for an already weak tv market like Tampa or Carolina to play 3 series against a West coast team and have half their games finish at 1 am EST. It would also be possible for Toronto to face multiple Western Canadian teams and then people would complain when their local games started at 4 pm PST.
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There was a time when Toronto played San Jose in the playoffs. I'm sure fans would love having to wait until 10:30EST on weeknights to catch the Leafs playing in San Jose and certainly nobody would complain about how hard done by the team would be having to travel all that distance in the first round...
As I pointed out previously in this thread the current format is to maximize divisional rivals playing against each other and to minimize travel for Western conference teams in the first two rounds. I'm sure we all remember the years where Detroit would play Anaheim in the first round.
If we want CGY/EDM or TOR/MTL series they're far more likely to happen in the first round under the current format than the third round. The current format isn't great, obviously, but there are reasons for it.