While I like the idea of getting a bye into the quarter finals and having a series at home, I'm wondering if anyone else feels that having a week off might be a disadvantage to teams. Hockey has a bit of a rhythm, and that generally is playing every weekend. Especially if a team is playing well, does breaking that rhythm cause problems? Does playing in the preliminary round give teams momentum that maybe the 4 teams with byes don't get? When the AHA had a single game play-in round, I'm not sure that was as much an issue, but with a 3 game series in the first round, I'm wondering if it might be a problem.
A second question/issue I have is the best of 3 vs single game finals. In some ways it seems counter-intuitive to have the early rounds as best of 3 with the semi and finals as single game playoffs. I get why they do it that way...you can't really have a 3 game play off in Rochester or some other arena, but wouldn't it make more sense to choose the champ in a best of 3?
A second question/issue I have is the best of 3 vs single game finals. In some ways it seems counter-intuitive to have the early rounds as best of 3 with the semi and finals as single game playoffs. I get why they do it that way...you can't really have a 3 game play off in Rochester or some other arena, but wouldn't it make more sense to choose the champ in a best of 3?
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