The NHL unveiled a modified 24-team playoff format if the league resumes this year, announcing its decision to forgo the regular season in the league’s Return to Play Plan. In short: two hub cities, empty arenas, round robins among each conference’s top four teams and best-of-five play-ins for the remaining 16 clubs. The play-in series are known. The rest? A lot of uncertainty.
With a fair amount of chaos and eventual griping about the format baked in, here’s how we see each series from most to least entertaining:
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