Lucic, Gallagher insist bigger will be better for NHL post-season
24-team tourney will appeal to fans, gives more players shot at Stanley Cup
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 overall.
The 21-team NHL saw 16 teams, or 76 per cent of the circuit, advance to the post-season. That ended after the 1990-91 campaign, when the league started adding franchises. The NHL lodge now houses 31 franchises, with another coming on board 2021-22 with the addition of Seattle.
The number of 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 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 are probably 22 teams that could be your champion if things went right for them. There are 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 paid during the regular season. There’s a playoff bonus pool of $16 million for this season under the 16-team format. There’s been no word out of the NHL if that amount will rise with the expanded participant list.
The St. Louis Blues split approximately US$4.9 million after winning the Stanley Cup last season.
If a 24-team playoff tournament gets traction and is retained for future seasons, you would assume they would have to rework the bonus pool. Of course, you would think there would be more money coming in to 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 that the NHL was coming back from the shutdown prompted by the novel coronavirus to finish off its regular season and then launch a 16-team post-season, Gallagher admits that 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 up the playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flames face off against the Winnipeg Jets.
Gallagher’s not quite sure what the games might look 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 for (136) and points (280) for his stint with the club from 2008-12.
There will be more mistakes than you normally see. ... That will be exciting for fans. Coaches will hate it.
“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 will 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’s 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 with a 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’s now the president of the Delta Hockey Academy, based out of Planet Ice.