Toronto Maple Leafs: Victims of a Broken Playoff Format

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the midst of an exceptional season, but the NHL’s broken playoff format is threatening their Stanley Cup aspirations once again.

The NHL’s current playoff format was introduced in the 2013-14 season. It emphasizes divisional matchups and features two divisions in each conference. Three teams from each division make the playoffs as well as two wild card teams from each conference.

The three divisional playoff teams and a wild card team are then separated into a mini-bracket of four teams that play against each other for the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Since this format was implemented, some of the best teams in hockey have had to play against each other early in the playoffs due to their division’s success.

The Toronto Maple Leafs know this issue all too well. Last season, the Leafs finished third in the Eastern conference in points and played the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, who finished second in the Eastern Conference in points.

The Leafs actually would have faced an easier playoff schedule had they finished as a wild card team (seventh place in the East) and been placed in the Metropolitan playoff bracket as opposed to their own Atlantic division playoff bracket.

Shifting gears to this season, if the 2019 playoffs began today, Toronto and Boston would once again face off in the first round of the playoffs, despite being the second and fourth-ranked teams in the entire NHL.

NHL players have taken notice of the unfair matchups in recent years and expressed their displeasure in The Athletic’s 2019 player poll:

Predictability

Another overlooked issue with the current playoff format is that playoff matchups are often decided well before the end of the season.

According to hockeyreference.com’s playoff probabilities report, there is now a 99% chance that the Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.

If the Leafs beat the Bruins, they will have about a 70% chance of playing the Tampa Bay Lightning, based on the fact that division winners advance to the second round 70% of the time (with a 15-point cushion over Boston, Tampa Bay is considered a lock to win the Atlantic division).

With 15 games still remaining in the Leafs regular season, the suspense surrounding playoff matchups has clearly been eliminated. Needless to say, fans would prefer to see more meaningful games as the team approaches the playoffs.

The Solution

For the NHL, the simplest solution to their playoff format problem would be to adopt a 1-8 seeding process for each conference. The NBA has used this format since 2016.

Unfortunately, NHL executives and the majority of general managers still stand opposed to changing the playoff format. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly had this to say last week when asked about changing the playoff format:

"“I would say that there doesn’t appear to be a consensus or desire for change […] The current system has done what it was intended to do. It’s emphasized and featured rivalries in early round matchups. And that has generated enhanced interest and better [television] ratings.”"

Based on Daly’s statement, it seems that the league will continue to prioritize ratings and rivalries above the fairness of playoff matchups. This decision could be damaging to the integrity of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Regardless of the NHL’s current position, one thing remains clear: The NHL playoff format is broken and it needs to be addressed by the league.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com