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Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

B

boblav1

Well-known member
From the Mack Report: Hockey East to expand playoff format starting with the 2013-14 season.

Starting with the 2013-14 season when Notre Dame joins the conference, all 11 teams will qualify. The top five teams will receive first-round byes with the remaining six playing on the extra weekend to determine the final three opponents for the four quarterfinal series. When Connecticut joins in 2014-15, all 12 teams will qualify, with the top four teams receiving first-round byes and the bottom eight playing for entry into the quarterfinals.

Under the new format, teams seeded fifth through eighth in the regular season will host the first-round (beginning with Connecticut’s arrival in 2014-15). The added first-round games will either be a single-elimination, winner-take-all game or a best-of-3 series, a detail that has yet to be determined.
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Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Good God, why mess up something that works and makes Hockey East's format the best in D-I??

Keep the top 8 only. It works, its clean, its simple, and it creates a "race" for the last spot in the last few weeks of the regular season. This isn't Little League anymore, not everyone needs to be included in the playoffs.

That first round needs to be single elimination.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Agree completely with the early sentiment in the thread. This is the same format the CCHA has used for the last couple of seasons, following UNOs departure and the league shrinking to 11 teams. While I prefer it to any format that has teams receiving a bye DURING the semifinal weekend (like the WCHA still does and the CCHA used to as a 12 team league at one point years ago) I still prefer a regular season that has more meaning than just as a 5 month long seeding process for a conference tourney.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

I guess this is happing for 2 main reasons:

1) More games = more ticket revenue for the conference. The extra money could be distributed to help defray the extra travel costs to ND?

2) There would now be 4 teams per year that don't make it in under the old format. There are some members that are going to be in that 4 more often than not. They will have a big issue with that.

All that being said, I still don't like it. Only positive is that it would still be better than a "Final Five" format like the WCHA has.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Dumb dumb dumb...which is exactly why I'm not surprised. Agree with someone else who said the hockey east playoffs were unique in that not everyone made it...not anymore.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Every college basketball tournament includes every team. Every college hockey conference includes every team besides Hockey East. I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but it had to be done.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

I don't understand why it absolutely had to be done. If they stayed at 10, there was no indication they ever would have changed the format.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

irishfan85 said:
Every college basketball tournament includes every team. Every college hockey conference includes every team besides Hockey East. I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but it had to be done.
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Why did it have to be done? This is a much worse format.
 
irishfan85 said:
Every college basketball tournament includes every team. Every college hockey conference includes every team besides Hockey East. I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but it had to be done.
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Even without the ivies that is not true about basketball.

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I will again say that I am glad that I was able to catch the end of the good old days of hockey east and college hockey. Mid-80s to early 2000s will be seen as a special time.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Copy-Cat B.S. *WHY* can't a League stand by what has made it truely a Playoffs with a meaning....play for a reason not to get a Post Season extra game and head home being happy that we played a Post Season game....this is hockey not Round-Ball let 'em all in....Little League Baseball is run better then what we will end up seeing.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Brian Gentry said:
I guess this is happing for 2 main reasons:

1) More games = more ticket revenue for the conference. The extra money could be distributed to help defray the extra travel costs to ND?

2) There would now be 4 teams per year that don't make it in under the old format. There are some members that are going to be in that 4 more often than not. They will have a big issue with that.

All that being said, I still don't like it. Only positive is that it would still be better than a "Final Five" format like the WCHA has.
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Then do what the ECAC did from 1993 to 2002. Top 10 make it while the last two don't, and you do the old Final Five format.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Hate meaningless regular seasons. Clearly money grab and/or way of guaranteeing Uconn gets in. Guess it does mean more home playoff games for the mid-pack teams though, and the chance to carry momentum into a matchup against an idle top team.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

It's still not a meaningless regular season. Play for byes, home ice, etc...It's more hockey. I like it.

Plus, there is nothing better than playoff hockey, at any level...I'm pumped for more hockey.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

i do not like the week break here. i prefer teams to keep playing and rolling.

if they are planning on letting everyone in, they should go with the final five format. 1-12, 2-11, etc for a best of three. then six teams go to providence (or boston :p) and have 3-6 / 4-5 play thursday. winners play the top two seeds friday, then the finals saturday.

i would also guess that the added revenue from these empty campus games (i'm not buying 6 flippin' games!!!!) would not equal the gate of a full dunkin (or garden)
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Brian Gentry said:
1) More games = more ticket revenue for the conference. The extra money could be distributed to help defray the extra travel costs to ND?
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f them. if they are cryin' poor they can stay with the sisters of the poor in the ccha.
 
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