NHL Needs To Seriously Consider REDUCING The Number of Playoff Teams

[WordsOfWisdom]

When I look at the NHL standings and see FIVE teams from a division of seven or eight teams selected for the playoffs, I rip my hair out. 

 

I realize the league wants to create an atmosphere where every team plays a "meaningful" game until game 82 when half of the teams are eliminated from playoff contention. That's the NHL's dream. Unfortunately, what happens is you get the opposite problem. By making it difficult to miss the playoffs, half of the teams in the NHL (the playoff bound teams) have schedules filled with meaningless games in February and March. So as the regular season should be reaching its climax, the most exciting games were in October, November, and December. The ones that determined whether your favourite team was going to make the playoffs or not. Once you hit January, February, and March, it's already decided. The upper teams are just waiting for the season to end so the playoffs can get going. 

 

In an effort to eliminate "meaningless" games from the bottom teams in the league by preventing early playoff elimination, the league has moved the meaningless games to the upper half of the teams instead. 

 

I think the NHL needs a system much closer to what MLB has so that good teams are battling other good teams right up to game 82 for those final playoff positions rather than coasting.  Thoughts?  

 

 

[JR Ewing]

6 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

I realize the league wants to create an atmosphere where every team plays a "meaningful" game until game 82 when half of the teams are eliminated from playoff contention. That's the NHL's dream. Unfortunately, what happens is you get the opposite problem. By making it difficult to miss the playoffs, half of the teams in the NHL (the playoff bound teams) have schedules filled with meaningless games in February and March. So as the regular season should be reaching its climax, the most exciting games were in October, November, and December. The ones that determined whether your favourite team was going to make the playoffs or not. Once you hit January, February, and March, it's already decided. The upper teams are just waiting for the season to end so the playoffs can get going. 

 

All 82 games per year determine if you make the playoffs.

 

6 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

I think the NHL needs a system much closer to what MLB has so that good teams are battling other good teams right up to game 82 for those final playoff positions rather than coasting.  Thoughts?   

 

 

 

Almost the exact same percentage of MLB's teams make the playoffs. By next season, half of the NHL teams will play post-season games, while in baseball, 47% of the league are in the playoffs. If we count wild card games, it's 60%.

 

[B21]

There is no such thing as "too much playoff hockey". 

[WordsOfWisdom]

11 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

Almost the exact same percentage of MLB's teams make the playoffs. By next season, half of the NHL teams will play post-season games, while in baseball, 47% of the league are in the playoffs. If we count wild card games, it's 60%.

 

In MLB, 10/30 teams make the playoffs. (1/3)

In the NHL, 16/31 teams make the playoffs. (1/2)

 

[JR Ewing]

11 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

 

In MLB, 10/30 teams make the playoffs. (1/3)

In the NHL, 16/31 teams make the playoffs. (1/2)

 

 

I dun goofed.

 

[Buffalo Rick]

This is ridiculous.  The number is fine.  There are many teams now.  Attendance would drop and franchises would be lost. 

[WordsOfWisdom]

1 hour ago, Hockey Junkie said:

This is ridiculous.  The number is fine.  There are many teams now.  Attendance would drop and franchises would be lost. 

 

I like the idea of having six divisions again. Division leaders are in. Then you have two wild card teams like MLB that play a best-of-1 to decide the 4th and final team in each conference.  The playoffs would then continue as usual, effectively starting from the second round on.

 

That would mean the East would look like this right now:

(Using the old six-division format and ignoring re-alignment issues and defunct teams....)

 

Northeast Division

1. Boston
2. Toronto
3. Montreal
4. Detroit
5. Buffalo
6. Ottawa

 

Southeast Division

1. Tampa Bay
2. Washington
3. Carolina
4. Florida
5. Atlanta

 

Atlantic Division

1. New York Islanders
2. Pittsburgh
3. Philadelphia
4. New York Rangers
5. New Jersey

 

So Boston, Tampa, and NYI would be in the playoffs. The Capitals would own the first wild card spot and the Leafs and Penguins would be tied for the final wild card spot heading into the last game of the season with Toronto holding the tie breakers. 

 

MLB does it better. This would be so much more exciting. The games would actually mean something in February and March unlike now.   

 

 

[WordsOfWisdom]

Assuming Toronto wins, they would play the Capitals in a wild card game to determine the fourth team in the East.  (Epic.)

 

Assuming Toronto won that match, it would be:

1. Tampa vs 4. Toronto

2. Boston vs 3. NYI

 

Assuming Washington won, it would be:

1. Tampa vs 4. NYI

2. Boston vs 3. Washington

 

[Buffalo Rick]

20 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

Assuming Toronto wins, they would play the Capitals in a wild card game to determine the fourth team in the East.  (Epic.)

 

Assuming Toronto won that match, it would be:

1. Tampa vs 4. Toronto

2. Boston vs 3. NYI

 

Assuming Washington won, it would be:

1. Tampa vs 4. NYI

2. Boston vs 3. Washington

 

Will never happen

[WordsOfWisdom]

1 minute ago, Hockey Junkie said:

Will never happen

 

You have to admit that would be an improvement though right?  

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

On 4/4/2019 at 11:56 PM, WordsOfWisdom said:

When I look at the NHL standings and see FIVE teams from a division of seven or eight teams selected for the playoffs, I rip my hair out. 

 

I realize the league wants to create an atmosphere where every team plays a "meaningful" game until game 82 when half of the teams are eliminated from playoff contention. That's the NHL's dream. Unfortunately, what happens is you get the opposite problem. By making it difficult to miss the playoffs, half of the teams in the NHL (the playoff bound teams) have schedules filled with meaningless games in February and March. So as the regular season should be reaching its climax, the most exciting games were in October, November, and December. The ones that determined whether your favourite team was going to make the playoffs or not. Once you hit January, February, and March, it's already decided. The upper teams are just waiting for the season to end so the playoffs can get going. 

 

In an effort to eliminate "meaningless" games from the bottom teams in the league by preventing early playoff elimination, the league has moved the meaningless games to the upper half of the teams instead. 

 

I think the NHL needs a system much closer to what MLB has so that good teams are battling other good teams right up to game 82 for those final playoff positions rather than coasting.  Thoughts?  

 

 

 

Hmm....I am with you on not liking the amount of meaningless games towards the last quarter of the season, however, I am not sure that reducing the amount of playoff teams is the way to go.
In truth, I don't have a neat solution for it, but the hockey playoffs are considered the "Second Season" for a reason (no rhyme intended...hehe)

I understand that it looks like "anybody can get into the playoffs", but it all depends on how you look at it.
I prefer to look at it as, the 82 game campaign is to weed out the under .500 teams, and so the top 8 above .500 teams in each Conference get to play in the 2nd season!

I also feel, because of the amount of teams and the length of the playoffs, it truly IS the most grueling championship to win (much less repeat or THREE-peat!) of all five major team sports in North America (and yes, I started including MLS in that ).
Thus, the winner of the Stanley Cup is NO FLUKE, is no lucky champion, is nothing but what the Cup says they are....the very best damned team  in the league.

 

About the only thing I would like to see changed (or rather go BACK to) is the Conference 1-8 format.
While it wouldn't change WHICH teams got into the playoffs this year, it would change what match ups were played, and, IMO, 1-8 Conference seeds, as opposed to top 3 in division +2 Wild Cards, lends itself better to seeing the better matchups LATER in the playoffs.
And no, I am not a fan of the six divisions because I feel it dilutes the playoff field because chances of a "weak" division leader being given a 3-seed is too great.

As things stand now, the match ups are a bit wonky, and sometimes you get ECF or WCF quality matchups early on, then get a dud match up for the Conference Finals.
Taking your team as an example, if play started today, the Leafs would face the Islanders in Round 1, because honestly, Bos v Tor would be better suited to either a 2nd round matchup or an ECF match up instead of a 1st.

Of course, I would like to see the elimination of the loser point (yes, I realize that is a dead horse being beaten some more), and let rivalries come about naturally through the 1-8 format.

None of this addresses the "meaningless games" issue, but right now, I don't know if there is a way completely around that, except to rely on player pride in not wanting to lose games or going out there like they don't care.
I do know, I don't want the playoff field reduced. I think its fine the way it is.....just wish the NHL would go back to Conference 1-8 as I feel it gives the better match ups later on.

[WordsOfWisdom]

5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Hmm....I am with you on not liking the amount of meaningless games towards the last quarter of the season, however, I am not sure that reducing the amount of playoff teams is the way to go.
In truth, I don't have a neat solution for it, but the hockey playoffs are considered the "Second Season" for a reason (no rhyme intended...hehe)

 

If the NHL operated under the system that MLB uses, then tonight's game would have meant a great deal to Toronto. Pittsburgh finished with 100 points, so Toronto would have needed to get the game to OT to clinch the final wild card spot (which they did) and prepare for their wild card game against Washington. You have to admit that would be infinitely better.   

 

The only intrigue with tonight's game was watching Bob Cole call his final game. Toronto finishes with a .500 record on Saturday games (I'm not impressed) and to me, this is only just barely a playoff calibre team. 

 

5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

About the only thing I would like to see changed (or rather go BACK to) is the Conference 1-8 format.

 

It has pros and cons. I don't mind the division based focus of the current system. 

 

5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Of course, I would like to see the elimination of the loser point

 

Agreed. 

 

5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

None of this addresses the "meaningless games" issue,

 

The problem the NHL has is that all the intrigue in February and March is focused on the BOTTOM of the standings. The race of .500 teams battling for 8th.  The focus should be on the TOP teams as they battle for playoff spots.

 

I look at the last month's worth of games and I didn't watch a lot of them because they didn't mean anything. Toronto had nothing to play for. Boston had nothing to play for. Tampa had nothing to play for. The three most exciting teams in the division and I'm watching what amounts to pre-season exhibition games... in March.  It's like a schedule "dead zone" of nothing games. The more teams that are allowed in, the larger and longer that dead zone gets until ultimately the regular season means nothing.

 

I know this is my personal hobby horse but I truly believe MLB has it right. Having the upper 1/3 of teams in is the right number.   

 

[OccamsRazor]

I don't know about playoff teams but these bottom teams need to be relocated and given to cities that will support them...

2018-19 NHL Attendance

Team	Average Attendance	Total Attendance	Capacity Percentage
Chicago Blackhawks	21399	855972	108.50%
Montreal Canadiens	21046	862914	98.90%
Philadelphia Flyers	19141	765622	99.14%
Toronto Maple Leafs	19276	790316	102.40%
Detroit Red Wings	19120	783958	98.00%
Tampa Bay Lightning	19092	782772	100.00%
Minnesota Wild	18907	775216	105.30%
Pittsburgh Penguins	18565	761203	101.00%
Washington Capitals	18508	758845	100.00%
Calgary Flames	18501	758550	95.90%
Edmonton Oilers	18347	752227	98.40%
Vegas Golden Knights	18318	751067	105.50%
Dallas Stars	18178	745314	98.10%
Vancouver Canucks	18022	738918	95.30%
Los Angeles Kings	18000	738029	98.70%
Buffalo Sabres	17908	734238	93.90%
Boston Bruins	17565	720165	100.00%
Nashville Predators	17445	715276	101.90%
St. Louis Blues	17361	711823	90.70%
New York Rangers	17318	710074	96.20%
San Jose Sharks	17266	707909	98.30%
Colorado Avalanche	17132	702446	95.10%
Anaheim Ducks	16814	689385	97.90%
Columbus Blue Jackets	16658	682984	91.80%
Winnipeg Jets	15321	612840	100.00%
New Jersey Devils	14904	596166	90.30%
Ottawa Senators	14553	596684	76.00%
Carolina Hurricanes	14322	587222	76.70%
Arizona Coyotes	13989	573552	81.70%
Florida Panthers	13256	530244	77.80%
New York Islanders	12442	510150	78.90%

 

...the bottom 3 for sure...i would at last like to move the Panthers...let's bring back the Nordiques. 

Edited July 23, 2019 by OccamsRazor

[notfondajane]

6 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

I don't know about playoff teams but these bottom teams need to be relocated and given to cities that will support them...

2018-19 NHL Attendance

Team	Average Attendance	Total Attendance	Capacity Percentage
Chicago Blackhawks	21399	855972	108.50%
Montreal Canadiens	21046	862914	98.90%
Philadelphia Flyers	19141	765622	99.14%
Toronto Maple Leafs	19276	790316	102.40%
Detroit Red Wings	19120	783958	98.00%
Tampa Bay Lightning	19092	782772	100.00%
Minnesota Wild	18907	775216	105.30%
Pittsburgh Penguins	18565	761203	101.00%
Washington Capitals	18508	758845	100.00%
Calgary Flames	18501	758550	95.90%
Edmonton Oilers	18347	752227	98.40%
Vegas Golden Knights	18318	751067	105.50%
Dallas Stars	18178	745314	98.10%
Vancouver Canucks	18022	738918	95.30%
Los Angeles Kings	18000	738029	98.70%
Buffalo Sabres	17908	734238	93.90%
Boston Bruins	17565	720165	100.00%
Nashville Predators	17445	715276	101.90%
St. Louis Blues	17361	711823	90.70%
New York Rangers	17318	710074	96.20%
San Jose Sharks	17266	707909	98.30%
Colorado Avalanche	17132	702446	95.10%
Anaheim Ducks	16814	689385	97.90%
Columbus Blue Jackets	16658	682984	91.80%
Winnipeg Jets	15321	612840	100.00%
New Jersey Devils	14904	596166	90.30%
Ottawa Senators	14553	596684	76.00%
Carolina Hurricanes	14322	587222	76.70%
Arizona Coyotes	13989	573552	81.70%
Florida Panthers	13256	530244	77.80%
New York Islanders	12442	510150	78.90%

 

...the bottom 3 for sure...i would at last like to move the Panthers...let's bring back the Nordiques. 

Always liked the Islanders-Rangers rivalry. I wasn't thrilled when the Colorado Rockies transferred to New Jersey. (Thou I do like the Pens-Devils rivalry). I was hoping to see the Devils transfer to Houston to rival the Stars or back to Kanas City to rival the Blues. Then bring Nashville East to rival Columbus or Carolina. (I believe Nashville is closer to Columbus.) 

As for the playoffs I would like to see a 12 team playoff with divison winners receiving byes and the next 8 with the most points play it out. (Get rid of the loser point and bring back the tie or do away with the point system like MLB and the NBA.)

[ruxpin]

On 4/5/2019 at 12:56 AM, WordsOfWisdom said:

When I look at the NHL standings and see FIVE teams from a division of seven or eight teams selected for the playoffs, I rip my hair out. 

 

I realize the league wants to create an atmosphere where every team plays a "meaningful" game until game 82 when half of the teams are eliminated from playoff contention. That's the NHL's dream. Unfortunately, what happens is you get the opposite problem. By making it difficult to miss the playoffs, half of the teams in the NHL (the playoff bound teams) have schedules filled with meaningless games in February and March. So as the regular season should be reaching its climax, the most exciting games were in October, November, and December. The ones that determined whether your favourite team was going to make the playoffs or not. Once you hit January, February, and March, it's already decided. The upper teams are just waiting for the season to end so the playoffs can get going. 

 

In an effort to eliminate "meaningless" games from the bottom teams in the league by preventing early playoff elimination, the league has moved the meaningless games to the upper half of the teams instead. 

 

I think the NHL needs a system much closer to what MLB has so that good teams are battling other good teams right up to game 82 for those final playoff positions rather than coasting.  Thoughts?  

 

 

I agree less teams should make the playoffs, but I don't agree with the argument. 

 

My problem is the exact opposite. It's the early season games that are boring for me. Well, all of it, but especially the early games. 

 

Actually, it could be the fact that I cheer for a team that is NOT one of the 80% getting in (and don't win anything if they accidentally do), but the entire regular season has been cheapened and has become boring (could also legitimately be age, too). 

 

The past several years, I've been much more involved with fantasy hockey standings than nhl. 

 

It's not just the "too many teams get in" thing. It's the three point games that hide some real suckage among some of the teams and delude some really not too bright fans into believing their team is good.   (no offense, Minnesota) 

 

All this to attract "passive fans."  Well, screw passive fans.  We've sacrificed competition and excitement on the altar of universal mediocrity and bloated contacts. 

 

The resulting product is bland and uninteresting.  It's really not much different than watching people skate at Rockefeller. 

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by ruxpin

[ruxpin]

2 hours ago, notfondajane said:

Always liked the Islanders-Rangers rivalry. I wasn't thrilled when the Colorado Rockies transferred to New Jersey. (Thou I do like the Pens-Devils rivalry). I was hoping to see the Devils transfer to Houston to rival the Stars or back to Kanas City to rival the Blues. Then bring Nashville East to rival Columbus or Carolina. (I believe Nashville is closer to Columbus.) 

As for the playoffs I would like to see a 12 team playoff with divison winners receiving byes and the next 8 with the most points play it out. (Get rid of the loser point and bring back the tie or do away with the point system like MLB and the NBA.)

This. 

12 teams 

Get rid of the stupid points and the shootout. 10 minute overtime 3 v 3. If it's still tied, it's still tied. 

 

If a team is out by Christmas, so be it. Get them next year.  But an owner might be quicker to do what he needs to do to correct it if he doesn't want his investment to die. 

 

And again, I hate the casual fan. Go casually step in traffic. 

[FD19372]

The Tampa Bay Lightning completely agree with you. Just sayin'.

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 7/23/2019 at 6:52 AM, ruxpin said:

I agree less teams should make the playoffs, but I don't agree with the argument. 

 

My problem is the exact opposite. It's the early season games that are boring for me. Well, all of it, but especially the early games. 

 

Interesting, because the season is usually set by the end of December. Whatever the standings are by January 1, those are your playoff teams more often than not.  

 

On 7/23/2019 at 6:52 AM, ruxpin said:

Actually, it could be the fact that I cheer for a team that is NOT one of the 80% getting in (and don't win anything if they accidentally do), but the entire regular season has been cheapened and has become boring (could also legitimately be age, too). 

 

If 50% of the teams make the playoffs, how could the regular season not be cheapened right? A great comparable I like to make is with MLB. Back when MLB only let 4 teams into the playoffs, late season games were treated like playoff games. They had the same feel, and this was a league with 26 teams at the time (I believe). A late season series against a division rival could determine your playoff chances over one weekend. It was like playoff baseball but wasn't called playoff baseball. Whenever the league tries to "manufacture meaning" into the games it's usually because the games have none. 

 

On 7/23/2019 at 6:52 AM, ruxpin said:

It's not just the "too many teams get in" thing. It's the three point games that hide some real suckage among some of the teams and delude some really not too bright fans into believing their team is good.   (no offense, Minnesota) 

 

All this to attract "passive fans."  Well, screw passive fans.  We've sacrificed competition and excitement on the altar of universal mediocrity and bloated contacts. 

 

The 3-point games were designed to keep the teams in the standings together, and as a result, they further remove meaning from the individual regular season games because now teams are playing for a 1-point separation on most nights instead of 2. You can go on a 10-game win streak and find that you're not putting any distance between your team and the team behind you. So it's manufactured parity.

 

The NHL has reduced its regular season to a coin toss, and the playoffs are essentially four more coin tosses between equally skilled teams to determine a winner. When you look at the Stanley Cup winner (Blues most recently), I don't see a great hockey team. I see a team that is no better than anyone else that made the playoffs. Toronto could have easily beaten that team, yet Toronto was out in round one. The bounces just happened to go the Blues way, or they would have been gone long ago. They lucked their way to victory and they won't do it again next season because odds are the bounces won't go their way twice. That's just what the NHL is today. It's luck over skill now. It's not like it was 20-30 years ago when you had teams that were genuine powerhouse teams. Today's Stanley Cup champions don't strike fear in anyone, not even the teams that missed the playoffs, because they're usually only ONE player better than the non-playoff teams. (My two cents.)    

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by WordsOfWisdom

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 7/23/2019 at 6:52 AM, ruxpin said:

The resulting product is bland and uninteresting.  It's really not much different than watching people skate at Rockefeller. 

 

What I find hard to watch is that the talent is spread so thin across all 31/32/etc..... teams that every team is the same. Every team has one good line and then a bunch of non-descript equally talented filler players that nobody remembers.

 

If I was releasing a collection of hockey cards today, I would deliberately cap the number of cards in the set at 100.  I'd pick the 3-4 most notable players per team and then nobody else would get a hockey card. 

 

Sorry, trying to keep things positive.   

[ruxpin]

4 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

Sorry, trying to keep things positive.   

 

That was so obvious.  I mean, who couldn't have noticed that?  LOL

[brelic]

8 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

That's just what the NHL is today. It's luck over skill now.

 

I'd say it's just the opposite. 

 

Back then, if you had the luck to land a Gretzky or a Lemieux or a Bossy, then those generational players made you a powerhouse because the GAP between players on a roster was much larger than it is today. 

 

The level of attention organizations put on players' conditioning, systems development, training, and so on is leaps and bounds beyond what it used to be - and everyone today has access to the same things, so you do end up with a lot of rosters that have no separation. The bottom 9 today can trump a team with a better top 3.

 

That's more skill, not more luck. 

[WordsOfWisdom]

5 hours ago, ruxpin said:

 

That was so obvious.  I mean, who couldn't have noticed that?  LOL

 

I'm actually in a good mood right now too.  Summer is going nicely and I'm feeling refreshed. No NHL burnout whatsoever.   

[WordsOfWisdom]

2 hours ago, brelic said:

I'd say it's just the opposite. 

 

Back then, if you had the luck to land a Gretzky or a Lemieux or a Bossy, then those generational players made you a powerhouse because the GAP between players on a roster was much larger than it is today. 

 

This is a tricky one to explain. I know what you're saying and I agree that (overall) players are better and more highly skilled today. That wasn't my point though.

 

My point is that skill isn't leading to goals as often as luck leads to goals in the NHL today. We are seeing a lot of pucks going in from accidental deflections and screened shots rather than goals where one player simply "out-skills" another and scores.

 

Once upon a time, if you got the puck, you skated into the opposition zone at high speed and blasted a shot past the goalie to score. That's all skill. Today, a player will enter the zone with speed, slam the brakes on, circle back to the blue line, wait for a crowd to form in front of the net, and then flick the puck into the mosh pit of players standing in front of the goalie and hope for the best. That's not skill. That's no different than rolling the dice in a casino game.

 

The difference between winner and loser is often just the team who got the bounces that night. If both teams play exactly the same way (which they pretty much do), someone is going to get those oddball deflections to go in and the other team isn't. So if one team flicks the puck into the crowd and gets 2 goals out of it and the other team does the exact same thing and the deflection hits a post or misses the net, they get 0 goals and lose. 

 

I'm not even talking about intentional deflections either. I'm talking about the unintended consequences of throwing the puck into a group of players and the puck bouncing off SKATES, LEGS, or other body parts and going into the net.    

 

 

[brelic]

23 minutes ago, WordsOfWisdom said:

My point is that skill isn't leading to goals as often as luck leads to goals in the NHL today. We are seeing a lot of pucks going in from accidental deflections and screened shots rather than goals where one player simply "out-skills" another and scores.

 

Once upon a time, if you got the puck, you skated into the opposition zone at high speed and blasted a shot past the goalie to score. That's all skill. Today, a player will enter the zone with speed, slam the brakes on, circle back to the blue line, wait for a crowd to form in front of the net, and then flick the puck into the mosh pit of players standing in front of the goalie and hope for the best. That's not skill. That's no different than rolling the dice in a casino game.

 

I agree with this as well, though I feel as though that strengthens the argument that there is more skill today - especially on the defensive side. That means that one player is usually not able to just skate right through a lineup and do everything himself. There are a few exceptions in the NHL - McDavid is one of them - that can do that more often than others, but still not to the extent that Gretzky and Lemieux could, and I would say that's largely because everyone else in the middle and bottom of the lineup - including goalies - are just much better at defending and countering. 

 

Whether or not that's desirable is a different topic altogether - but teams and players seems to have mastered that defensive side within the rules of the game as they exist today. 

 

You are right about luck - of the four major sports, hockey is the one whose outcome is the most dependent on luck. There was a great analysis (I'll try and find it) that demonstrated just that. Basketball is second, and that makes sense because it is also a more fluid game than football or baseball. 

 

What you're suggesting may make the games more meaningful for the top 3rd of teams, but it would likely lead to more teams being on the outside looking much earlier in the season in with no chance of catching up . And that means more disinterest or apathy from those fan bases. 

 

 

[WordsOfWisdom]

23 hours ago, brelic said:

I agree with this as well, though I feel as though that strengthens the argument that there is more skill today - especially on the defensive side.

 

No doubt about it.  I just want to see more goals coming from plays where a forward defeats that defence, finds an opening, and scores (because the average forward today is better too), and not from plays where a player simply directs a puck into a crowd of players from the side boards or blue line and the puck caroms off a skate and goes in.