For Lucic and Gallagher, bigger playoffs are better
Milan Lucic and Brendan Gallagher hope the NHL’s 24-team playoff tournament has staying power.
The former Vancouver Giants stars, now wingers with the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens, respectively, have been preparing for the league’s post-season restart by working out at Planet Ice Delta. Both believe that more teams having a crack at winning the Stanley Cup benefits the game.
The 21-team NHL had 16 teams advance to the post-season, or 76 per cent of the circuit. That ended after the 1990-91 campaign, when the league started on a run of adding franchises. The NHL is now at 31 clubs, with another coming in 2021-22 with the addition of the yet-to-benamed Seattle squad.
Playoff qualifiers hadn’t increased until this season. By moving to 24 teams, this post-season features 77 per cent of the league’s teams.
“I think it’s something that people need to look at as the new norm moving forward,” said Lucic, whose training group in Delta has included Vancouver Canucks defencemen Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher. “With Seattle coming in, you don’t want to be losing 50 per cent of your fan base for the playoffs.
“I was talking to a longtime hockey person and he was saying it’s almost harder now to make the playoffs (under the 16-qualifier format) than it is to win the Stanley Cup. To start any year, you look at everyone’s roster and there’s probably 22 teams that could be your champion if things went right for them. There’s probably 22 teams that have a chance to hold the Cup over their heads and only 16 are making the playoffs.”
NHL players’ salaries are for the regular season. There’s a playoff bonus pool from the league and it was slated for $16 million for this season under the 16-team format. There’s been no word out of the NHL if that will rise with the expanded participant list.
The St. Louis Blues split approximately US$4.9 million after their Stanley Cup win last season.
If a 24-team playoff gets traction and is kept for future seasons, you would assume the league would have to rework the bonus pool. Of course, you’d think there would be more money coming into the NHL as a result.
“I’ve heard the argument against, about affecting the integrity of the game,” Gallagher said of expanding the playoffs. “To me, you’re still getting very credible playoff hockey. And it’s good for the business aspect.
“I think there are way more positives than negatives.”
The Canadiens were the 24th and final qualifier for these playoffs. When there was talk the NHL was coming back from the shutdown to finish its regular season and then have a 16-team post-season, Gallagher admits it was difficult for him to stomach.
“I didn’t like it. I thought it would have been more beneficial to stay here and get a normal summer in, because you really had nothing to gain,” he said. “Now you have a chance to win.
“This is definitely a big ask from the league to do this, but it’s warranted when you give players a chance to win a Stanley Cup.”
The Canadiens open the playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flames are facing the Winnipeg Jets.
Gallagher’s not quite sure what the games will look like when they first return.
“Normally when you start a year your first game is an intrasquad one and you’re going 60 or 70 per cent,” said Gallagher, 28, who is the Giants’ all-time leader in goals (136) and points (280) for his stint with the club from 2008-12.
“You’re trying to get rid of bad summer habits. You’re trying to think the game. Now, you go from that to your first game back being a Stanley Cup playoff game. It’s different.
“There’ll be more mistakes than you normally see. Normally teams have their systems down. You’ll see more breakdowns. That will be exciting for fans. Coaches will hate it. I think it will take the first round and maybe into the second round before things really settle down.”
Lucic is keen on getting back “for that playoff mentality of hockey.”
“You have to look forward to the challenges and what we have to deal with and you look forward to what the reward can be,” said Lucic, 32, whose 2005-07 run with the Giants was punctuated by the 2007 Memorial Cup victory on Pacific Coliseum ice.
Gallagher and Lucic have been a part of the same summer training group in the past, under Brendan’s father Ian Gallagher, the former Giants strength and conditioning coach. He is now president of the Delta Hockey Academy, based out of Planet Ice.