Pretty sure we can all agree that the NHL’s qualifying round of the playoffs was all kinds of awesome. It certainly played to rave reviews. And after enduring almost five months without hockey, it was exactly what we all needed—a good dose of chaos and mayhem and all kinds of things happening every single night. It was, to borrow a title from William Shakespeare, a midsummer night’s dream.
And, thankfully, we’ll never see it again. The NHL has given every indication and made every promise that this is a one-off that was made necessary by the havoc wreaked on the industry by the coronavirus pandemic and that when things return to normal, so will the NHL’s system for determining and culling its playoff participants.