Sometimes minor hockey leagues look for fresh ways to drum up attention, so the Southern Professional Hockey League announced a new twist to its postseason format Monday unlike anything we’ve seen before: top seeds get to pick their first-round opponents.
How the NHL playoffs would be even more fun with a pick-your-opponent format
An American minor hockey league has adopted a “pick your opponent” playoff format that’s undeniably interesting. What if the NHL stole it?
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
It’s an idea so interesting the NHL might have to steal it.
As the 10-team SPHL explained in its announcement, the No. 1-3 seeds for the eight-team playoffs will be able to select their first-round opponents from the No. 5-8 seeds. The No. 1 seed will get first choice, followed by the No. 2 seed, then the No. 3 seed. The No. 4 seed will play the team that goes unselected by the first three seeds.
Eighty percent of the teams in the SPHL make the playoffs, so this is an interesting wrinkle to provide them extra incentive to finish at the top of the standings. Now the No. 1 seed not only gets a more favorable first-round matchup in general, but it can handpick which team it feels most confident about defeating in the opening round.
The format, which originates from an Austrian league, adds a whole new level of strategy for teams. Winning in the regular season takes on extra importance, and for each successful franchise to finish in the top three, it’ll be a game in itself figuring out which potential opponent looks most vulnerable.
Imagine this playing out on a larger scale with decades of heated rivalries involved.
What if the NHL tried a “pick your opponent” format?
It’s impossible not to see the SPHL’s experimentation and wonder how it would work at hockey’s highest level. The NHL’s current playoff format, which is focused around the divisions, has its fair share of critics, so there’s reason to believe it could change again eventually.
Just imagine the intensity of the end of the NHL regular season if it adopted this kind of playoff format under simple No. 1-8 seeding in each conference. Teams would be jockeying at the top of the standings not just to earn home ice advantage, but to select which lower-seeded opponent they’d play in the first round.
Imagine if you’re the Blackhawks last season. As the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, would they have been happy to avoid the Predators in the first round and play the Flames instead? You can bet on it.
Recent postseasons could’ve provided several other examples like that.
In 2015, the Predators, third in the West, got stuck playing the Blackhawks in first round. They lost and Chicago went on to win the Stanley Cup. What happens if Nashville avoids the Hawks by picking the Jets, Flames, or Wild instead?
In 2016, the Penguins and Rangers played in the first round with the second- and fifth-most points in the East, respectively. Pittsburgh went on to win the Stanley Cup, but what if they decided to play the rival Flyers, the No. 7 seed, instead of the superior Rangers in the first round?
Pittsburgh going out of its way to take on Philadelphia in a playoff series would be some juicy bulletin board material and talk radio fodder. The same would go for Montreal going after Boston, or Chicago going after St. Louis, or New York going after New Jersey, or Toronto going after Montreal. What if the same elite team picked the same lower-seeded rival repeatedly over the years? Whatever the combination, it’d be nuclear-grade rivalry fuel in a sport that’s obsessed with them.
“It’s everything we like about sports, which is the competition and the rivalry,” SPHL commissioner Jim Combs of the SPHL’s new playoff format said to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski. “And it’ll definitely cause more rivalry and passion between teams. Coaches and players don’t want to be seen as the weakest link.”
The benefits could also reach to the regular season, which often feels like a trivial precursor to the arrival of playoff hockey. A “pick your opponent” playoff format could be increase the importance of the regular season more than trying to manufacture division and wild card races as teams try to position themselves for the ideal first round set-up.
Could this actually be a great idea?
The upside for fun seems undeniable, so we must consider the possible downsides. Would it make the playoffs improperly balanced by allowing top teams to select the easiest prey to pick off? Would travel become a concern given the quick transition from the regular season to the playoffs? Would fans even want this, or would they feel like it’s a gimmick?
There would be some problems to sort out, and the league would have to tread carefully in selling the new format to an international fan base that’s never really seen anything similar before.
But the SPHL is going to give it a trial run this year, and the NHL should be keeping an eye on how that goes. This idea seems like it could lead to fun, excitement, and extreme pettiness more than anything.
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