I miss the old NHL playoff format. 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7, 3 plays 6 and so on. It made for far more unique matchups from year to year and it felt far more rewarding for the teams that finish higher up in the standings. One of the reasons they switched to the Wild Card, divisional format was because they wanted to try and promote and boost divisional rivalries and I really don't think that has worked out at all.
Teams like Calgary and Edmonton will always hate each other just because of the history and proximity to each other but has format made Oilers fans hate the Sharks or Kings any more? I would argue no.
As of today, here are the matchups for the playoffs
Panthers vs Capitals Hurricanes vs Bruins Leafs vs Lightning Rangers vs Penguins
Avalanche vs Stars Flames vs Predators Oilers vs Kings Wild vs Blues
Here is what the matchups would be if we went back to the 1-8 format
Panthers vs Capitals Hurricanes vs Penguins Rangers vs Bruins Leafs vs Lightning
Avalanche vs Kings Flames vs Stars Wild vs Preds Blues vs Oilers
Two matchups in the East would remain the same (Panthers/Capitals, Leafs/Lightning) but the rest are different. Are these more entertaining matchups? Some can be argued either way but more importantly I think they are matchups that better reflect where the teams finish at the end of the regular season.
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Moving onto the game tonight. The Oilers are looking to keep space between themselves and the LA Kings and likely the Vegas Golden Knights in the Pacific Division but they failed spectacularly against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night. Edmonton couldn't seem to finish a pass, Duncan Keith was awful, and Koskinen wasn't great either but I put more of that on the team in front of him.
It was the first game as well where we have seen Jay Woodcroft really bust out the line blender. Kassian was bumped onto the top line, Puljujarvi was moved down with Draisaitl, Yamamoto was on the fourth line for a bit. It seemed like the coach was trying to find something that would give the team a spark but unfortunately nothing seemed to work. Pray Oilers fans that a situation does not exist where the Oil play the Wild in the playoffs because it probably won't be very fun to watch.
As of now I am unsure of the lineup except for that Mike Smith gets the start. I wouldn't be surprised to see Woodcroft hit the ol' reset button and go back to the lines that overall have been very successful.
Tonight Edmonton will have to push the pace of play and challenge Saros as often as possible. While Saros was struggling and posted a 5 game average with a SV% of 0.880, allowing 21 goals against, his last 5 games have been great, posting a 0.936SV% and only 11 goals against. The Oilers will need to get far more pucks on net than the feeble entries they were able to muster against the Wild.
Another game to keep an eye on tonight? This is one of the rare times Oilers fans should be cheering for a Flames win as the Golden Knights are visiting Edmonton's southern rival. Again the idea of facing off against the Golden Knights with a full roster should scare all Oilers fans and I don't think it's a coincidence that it was Ken Holland who brought up closing the LTIR loophole at the last GM's meeting.
Enjoy the game tonight