Playoff Expansion

Yahoo has an article up advocating for playoff expansion because of teams like the 2008 Washington Capitals, who could miss the playoffs,despite being one of the hottest teams in the
NHL.

This season, the Washington Capitals have gone 33-17-7 since Bruce Boudreau replaced Glen Hanlon behind the bench. That translates to a 105-point pace if maintained from start to finish, certainly playoff-worthy.

Shouldn’t a Toronto Maple Leafs team that goes 41-33-8 in 2005-06 be in the playoffs? Or the Atlanta Thrashers, who that season posted an identical record yet had to wait another year before qualifying for the field of 16 for the first time?

Doesn’t that just mean more teams are playing better hockey? Fact is, if your going to advocate playoff expansion, where is the line drawn?

In other words, while the league has expanded by 43 percent, the playoff field has remained the same. And laugh all you want about how for 12 seasons everyone played 80 games to eliminate only five teams, but the new format might be just as humorous at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I don’t buy this premise either. Let’s take a look at the other major sports, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Basketball Association.
In the NFL, there are 32 teams. 12 teams will make the playoffs each year. That’s 37.5% of teams will actually make the playoffs.
In the NBA, there are 15 teams per conference, 8 teams in each conference, the Western and Eastern, will make the NBA playoffs, essentially, the same exact setup as the NHL. That’s around 53 % of teams will make a post-season appearance.
In MLB, each of the 3 division leaders plus 1 wild card, will make post-season play. That’s a little over 26% of te franchises.
So essentially, the NHL and NBA are exactly the same. 15 teams per conference, top 8 go. That’s a little over half. MLB and the NFL are more stringent, with NFL just over 37% of teams make the playoffs and MLB the hardest at just over 26%.
That is essentially why I don’t buy the premise of the article. The NHL is generous. Over half the franchises make the playoffs. The argument would be stronger for MLB than any professional sports league.
Granted, I would love to see the Washington Caps in the playoffs, but I would rather see them earn the way in, which they have done most of the season, but hey, playoffs are based on an entire season, period. By letting just one more team from each conference to sneak into the playoffs, that would mean 60% of teams would make post-season play. How is that competitive?
Playoffs are more than just the dash at the end. It is the entire season and the Caps started out pretty poorly and have made a great run under Coach Bruce Boudreau. A run that has Caps fans super excited for the future. But, they knew what hole they were in.
Fact is this – - – expanding the playoffs even one additional team, 60% making the playoffs, well to me, that would degrade the meaning of the playoffs being for the best teams. Great for the Caps, bad for the NHL.