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Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

HockeyMan2000 said:
What a dumb move. The QF round doesn't draw flies to most venues as is -- now they're expanding it, giving byes to the higher seeded teams (who won't play) while eliminating a weekend of regular season (i.e. better attended) games involving every team? Umm.....ok....lol.
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I haven't looked at the schedule yet, but this makes me think that the first round of the playoffs will start a week earlier?
This actually will mean *higher* attendance for the first round, which HEA will love because THEY make all the money from playoff games that the schools get to keep during the regular season. Many HEA schools start spring break the weekend when QF's used to be - hence lower attendance. This change should cause a boost in student attendance, and overall energy, which will bring back the casual spectators.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

jjmc85 said:
Don't get us started on the fact we lost 5 conference games because of this nonsense too.
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That's actually been the only benefit IMO

BC, BU, & NU had 29 games locked in every year -now at least we have some flexibility.

I'd still like to stay with the 8 teams making it like now. But I threw this out there on another site, if the league doesn't like 33% of the schools missing the playoffs they could always:

eliminate bottom 2
7 v 10
8 v 9

Single elimination play in then into the normal 8 team bracket.

Teams 7-12 don't like it? Too bad, don't finish in the bottom half of your conference.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

unhpuckfan2001 said:
I haven't looked at the schedule yet, but this makes me think that the first round of the playoffs will start a week earlier?
This actually will mean *higher* attendance for the first round, which HEA will love because THEY make all the money from playoff games that the schools get to keep during the regular season. Many HEA schools start spring break the weekend when QF's used to be - hence lower attendance. This change should cause a boost in student attendance, and overall energy, which will bring back the casual spectators.
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For casual fans, Best 2-of-3 is a turnoff in the first place. Very few "casual spectators" like the prospect of going 3 nights in a row -- and often don't -- as we've seen from attendance numbers over the years. So now you're increasing the amount of QF games -- and for what purpose? So the bottom schools can feel like they accomplished something for finishing in the basement? ("hey we won our 1st round QF series"??). How is having more QF's going to help sell more tickets?

In terms of the timing of these games, I can't see how it's going to help attendance either. That weekend when the QF's used to be is still going to be the weekend when all the top seeds play (they'll be getting byes now). And do you really think attendance is going to be that amazing for the new "1st round" QF series? I can see some people going, "this is just the play-in round before the next round of QF's next week, let's bypass this and wait for the real thing." Or, "we went three nights last weekend. I don't feel like going again."

The other aspect as others have raised is that this also takes away from the importance of the regular season (not to mention conference games). Instead of teams playing to get into the post-season, now everyone is going to make it -- that takes a lot of drama away from those last weekends of the year now. Instead of having a bad team trying like hell to make it into the playoffs, they'll simply be jockeying for position in regards to what slaughterhouse they'll go to the following weekend. Sure doesn't have the same level of impact.
 
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Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

defkit said:
Which is why 8 teams is reasonable (IMHO) and 1 would not be.
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To me there is not enough separation through 22 games (especially considering the unbalanced schedule) to drop 4 teams from having a chance to make the NCAAs, especially if teams are tied. If BU and BC tie for 8th one season, and BC had the significantly easier schedule (in terms of who they played home vs away) and BU got dropped, I would imagine you wouldn't feel the same (although perhaps you may), especially if say BU was only 3 points away from getting home ice.

I was always against Hockey East's dropping of 2 teams for this same reason, but at least with 27 games where you play everyone three times (and everyone at least once on the road), that provided slightly more separation. With 22 games where you don't play everyone on the road (of course, my understanding of the future hockey east schedule may be wrong)...and now people want to drop 4 teams...fortunately Hockey East didn't agree with that.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Y'all are claiming that the Conf title is worth something?!? These are like the last week of the regular season to see who makes the playoffs (NCAA). Touching the lou is like touchIng the prince of wales :D
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

22 games would have been more than enough to determine that Vermont was god awful and not deserving of a playoff spot. Sure, playoff upsets can and will continue to happen, but why give a team a chance at winning a real short series when they proved over the course of a much larger sample size that they suck?
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

J.D. said:
22 games would have been more than enough to determine that Vermont was god awful and not deserving of a playoff spot. Sure, playoff upsets can and will continue to happen, but why give a team a chance at winning a real short series when they proved over the course of a much larger sample size that they suck?
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Are you suggesting to just boot the last place team, the bottom 4, or the bottom 2?
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

mookie1995 said:
Have we learned yet whether or not it'll be h/h for everyone? Or will some teams have to play both games AT nd and some host nd at home over a weekend?
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That's a great question. I would think given the distance either two away or two at home but I don't recall seeing anything anywhere. What would happen with Maine in this instance would be interesting also.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
So they will play everyone on the road once and everyone at home once?
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I doubt that will be the case with Notre Dame, and they may also excuse it for Maine and Vermont. All the rest could probably pull it off, though.

One thing that might be interesting, if they decide to do H/H, is that you may see some western teams having one game NC stints, while they get Notre Dame for the league game the other night. I could easily see BC and BU going out to play Notre Dame one night, and Michigan (or State) the other.
 
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Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
Are you suggesting to just boot the last place team, the bottom 4, or the bottom 2?
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If we're talking about the 12 team Hockey East, I like claver's idea. Last two teams are booted from the playoffs.

7 v. 10 and 8 v. 9 in single elimination games in order to qualify for the quarterfinal series'.

this will never happen, but i would love it.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

FlagDUDE08 said:
I doubt that will be the case with Notre Dame, and they may also excuse it for Maine and Vermont. All the rest could probably pull it off, though.

One thing that might be interesting, if they decide to do H/H, is that you may see some western teams having one game NC stints, while they get Notre Dame for the league game the other night. I could easily see BC and BU going out to play Notre Dame one night, and Michigan (or State) the other.
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That would be the best way to do it. Also, Wisconsin, Miami, Ohio State, Western (closest), Ferris, and BGSU could be potential matchups as well.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

Fighting Sioux 23 said:
That would be the best way to do it. Also, Wisconsin, Miami, Ohio State, Western (closest), Ferris, and BGSU could be potential matchups as well.
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I'm a bit dubious about the nWCHA teams because they'll only have 8 NC games (sometimes 10), but most of all I'm not sure how many HE teams will want to play them; maybe some of the lower profile ones. NCHC will have 10 NC games, yes? It's obviously feasible for BTHC with 14 NC games.
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

J.D. said:
If we're talking about the 12 team Hockey East, I like claver's idea. Last two teams are booted from the playoffs.

7 v. 10 and 8 v. 9 in single elimination games in order to qualify for the quarterfinal series'.

this will never happen, but i would love it.
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When would 7v10 and 8v9 play?
 
Re: Hockey East to Expand Playoff Format

FlagDUDE08 said:
I'm a bit dubious about the nWCHA teams because they'll only have 8 NC games (sometimes 10), but most of all I'm not sure how many HE teams will want to play them; maybe some of the lower profile ones. NCHC will have 10 NC games, yes? It's obviously feasible for BTHC with 14 NC games.
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nWCHA teams will usually also have 10 NC games each season (except for those odd seasons where they don't travel to Alaska twice).

Keep in mind that all of the other conferences will likely be in conference play as well, so there may not be a lot of options for open weekends with the other schools.
 
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