Where’s the logic?

NHL playoff format will knock out top teams early

Charlottetown Islanders forward Brett Budgell watches as the puck flies past Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Alexis Gravel to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead early in the first period of play Saturday at Scotiabank Centre.

Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Raphael Lavoie.

Assists

Charlottetown – Nikita Alexandrov 2, Brendon Clavelle 2, Cam Askew 2, Taylor Egan, Brett Budgell, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Pascal Aquin, Derek Gentile and Saku Vesterinen.

Halifax – Jared McIsaac 2, Walter Flower, Jake Ryczek, BenoitOlivier Groulx, Xavier Parent, Connor Moynihan and Jocktan Chainey.

Goalies

Charlottetown – Matthew Welsh, 47 saves on 51 shots.

Halifax – Alexis Gravel, 12 saves on 17 shots in 40 minutes before Blade Mann-Dixon took over in the third and made 11 saves on 12 shots.

Power play

Charlottetown – 2-for-4. Halifax – 1-for-7.

Faceoff wins

Charlottetown – 37. Halifax – 38.

Attendance – 8,428.

Did you know? – Halifax centre Otto Somppi missed his sixth straight game with an upper body injury.

Two of the top four teams in the NHL are guaranteed to be out the playoffs after the second round.

Goodbye Nashville or Winnipeg. Goodbye Boston or Tampa Bay. Thanks for playing.

That’s the reality under the divisional playoff format that could pit the top two teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences against each other in round 2 after Pittsburgh and Washington were forced into that predicament in back-toback playoffs.

“There’s not a whole lot of logic there,” Capitals defenceman Brooks Orpik said.

How’s this for logic? If ranking teams one through eight in each conference like the old format that was in place from 1993-94 through 2013, the No. 2 seed is facing the No. 4 seed, 3 versus 7, and 5 versus 6 in the first round in the East and the West this year.

“It is what it is. You’re going to have to see a team like that eventually. There’s not much you can do to change it.” Predators’ Ryan Ellis

A Penguins-Capitals style repeat could happen this year with the Central’s Predators and Jets on a crash course for a second-round showdown and the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning locked into a stacked Atlantic bracket with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“You’d think that’d almost be a third-round series kind of thing, but so be it,” Predators defenceman Ryan Ellis said. “It is what it is. You’re going to have to see a team like that eventually. There’s not much you can do to change it.”

Maybe this spring will be enough to spark a change in the oft-criticized format in its fifth season that is agreed to between the league and NHL Players’ Association through the 2019-20 season. The Capitals getting knocked out in the second round by the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Penguins didn’t lead to much debate.

“I would assume after his year there’d be a bigger appetite to do it,” Washington general manager Brian MacLellan said. “In the past, it hasn’t affected as many teams as might be required to get that movement. It’s basically been us that’s been the team that’s not benefited from the 1 through 8. But we’ll see what happens this year with a couple more really good teams being beat out in the second round.”

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the playoff format is not a burning issue for owners, wasn’t discussed by GMs and should be looked at during a long period of time instead of focusing on “anomalies.”

Reigniting and creating new rivalries was the goal of this playoff format, which mimics the one in place for most of the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Inequities have happened, but so has plenty of drama on Cup runs by the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks and the Penguins twice.

“I think that as a fan, you want to see matchups against rivals,” said New Jersey defenceman Ben Lovejoy, who won the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016. “I think that that pits archenemies against each other more often and it can backfire every once in a while. You can get two high seeds playing each other in the first round or the second round and perhaps that’s not fair but I think ultimately it’s good for the game to have heated playoff series against teams that don’t like each other and see each other a lot.”