NHL: Here’s My Stanley Cup Playoffs Proposal To The League

With the NHL season being put on pause, everyone is wondering what will happen with the playoffs. Here’s my proposal to the league.

Before I get called out as a bias Chicago Blackhawks fan, I’m not making this proposal because they’d be in the playoffs. This is an idea that will limit the travel by eliminating the rest of the regular season.

The playoffs should straight right away, with 24 teams being put in the playoffs. My idea will have all four rounds of the playoffs, after a “play-in” round.

The “play-in” round starts is six teams who are bidding for the top two wildcard spots. The current teams in the wildcard spots for both conferences (Jets, Predators, Hurricanes, and Blue Jackets) wouldn’t start playing until the bottom four teams were done.

The first round of the play-in games would be a single-elimination game. The team with the higher points of the two teams would host that game.

Here’s how it would look: (Western Conference) 3. Canucks vs 6. Blackhawks, 4. Wild vs 5. Coyotes. (Eastern Conference) 3. Islanders vs 6. Canadiens, 4. Rangers vs 5. Panthers.

After we get the two winners from each conference, they’d play a best of three series with the current wildcard teams in their conference. From there, they’ll have eight teams left for each conference, with the NHL playing all four rounds as normal.

It’s not a terrible idea, it could add something to the playoffs that we’ve never seen before. A bottom four team could make the actual playoffs and maybe even win the Stanley Cup.

This is something that shouldn’t be ruled out of possibility. It’s enough hockey to keep fans happy, while still waiting out the precautionary season pause.