It’su200b the most wonderfulu200b timeu200b ofu200b theu200b year.u200b Specifically,u200b the timeu200b of year foru200b everyone to startu200b complainingu200b about the playoffu200bu200b format.
It’s pretty much an annual tradition. By this point we’re far enough into the season that the standings are starting to firm up and we can look ahead to potential matchups. But some of those matchups don’t seem to make sense. In the East, three of the four best teams are all in the same division, meaning two of Tampa, Toronto and Buffalo would face each other in the first round. That’s not fair! And it’s also not fair that you could conceivably have teams like the Lightning and Leafs finish with the two best records in the conference, or even the entire league, and still end up playing in the second round.