Welcome to opening day of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs!

Tonight, the Winnipeg Jets take on the Minnesota Wild in a series that pits two 100+ point teams against each other.

Three of the West’s top four teams were in the Central division this year and while all eight teams that qualify for post-season play in the West are certainly deserving and by rights would qualify even under the old “top eight” format, fans and media have wondered if this current system in place of the top three in each division along with two “wild cards” is the best way to go.

When talking about playoff formats, there always seems to be two other systems that people discuss:

Regardless of division, the top eight teams in each conference qualify and the only benefit to winning a division is you’re placed in the top two seeding wise.

If you were to take that format and apply it today, it actually screws over both the Winnipeg Jets in the west and the Boston Bruins in the East. Instead of getting a perhaps more ideal 2 vs 7 match up, they would draw a theoretically tougher 3 vs 6 series.

Your match-ups for the first round would be as follows:

Lightning vs Devils
Capitals vs Blue Jackets
Bruins vs Flyers
Maple Leafs vs Penguins
Predators vs Avalanche
Golden Knights vs Kings
Jets vs Sharks
Wild vs Ducks

Four of the eight series remain the same, four change. It’s not too terribly problematic in the first round and if anything, it proves that the current system really isn’t bad or overly different than what the NHL had.

Where the issue lies is if we go by seeding, the Jets or Bruins theoretically would not have home ice advantage in the next found if the top four seeds all advanced on each side. The NHL could remedy that by having total points matter, but then again, what would be the point of winning a division if it doesn’t give you any benefit at all?

One idea that has been floated for decades has been the idea that the 16 best teams in the league – regardless of division or conference make it in. This could create a couple of truly unique cross-conference series as you’re about to see:

Predators vs Panthers
Jets vs Devils
Lightning vs Blue Jackets
Bruins vs Flyers
Golden Knights vs Kings
Capitals vs Sharks
Maple Leafs vs Penguins
Wild vs Ducks

Sorry Colorado, the Florida Panthers win against Boston on Sunday means they just squeaked by you into the playoffs by one single point… At least in this format anyway.

Is this any better than what we have now though? This also doesn’t factor in division or conference leaders. Would it be worthwhile to put the four division winners in the top four spots? (Sorry again Boston and Winnipeg on your suddenly much tougher draws against the Kings and Sharks)

It’s very unlikely the NHL will deviate from this format any time soon, although with Seattle coming into the league, perhaps we see a tweak? With each division about to have eight teams each, maybe we return to the classic 80’s 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 inter-division playoffs? It would at the very least give the title of “division champion” a little bit more weight to it than it has right now.