trivia





This has always been an issue with the Wild Card system, which I’ve never enjoyed in the SHL or the NHL. I get the theory that it both enhances divisional rivalries while still rewarding the eight best teams in each conference. But the second part of that is essentially non-existent, especially with the SHL only having 10 teams per conference. At most, a flat 1-8 seeding would put in 5 teams from one division and 3 from the other… but that’s already possible in the wild card system.

As for rivalries, this season did the exact *opposite* in the Western Conference. Instead of having San Francisco play their in-state rival Los Angeles and New Orleans getting divisional foe Winnipeg, the wild card caused those matchups to be reversed. If you want divisional matchups, just do divisional playoffs. And if you really want to push divisional rivalries, go do what I’ve said in the last half a dozen Championship Weeks and change the regular season schedule. 66 games remains the weirdest, imbalanced number that no one has ever attempted to explain to me.

The biggest rivalries might be built in the playoffs, but they can’t be manufactured. The NHL’s Boston and Toronto playing each other every first round is funny, but I’m not sure it’s created a rivalry anymore than already existed between those two Original Six teams. Detroit and Colorado wasn’t a rivalry built in the first round; it was built in the Conference Finals. Heck, in the SHL, San Francisco and Texas having now played in three of the last four West Conference Finals is one of the bigger rivalries and it has nothing to do with the wild card structure.