Not to jinx anything, but it seems pretty certain the Minnesota Wild are bound for the playoffs. What happens when they get there is part of a larger conversation many in hockey are having about how the postseason is structured.
Count Bill Guerin among those questioning whether the current setup is the best way to do things.
“It’s funny, we talk about it a lot. Personally, I would like to see it change,” Guerin said. "One of the top three teams should not be going home [in the first round].”
The way things are shaping up, based on the NHL's playoff format, the Wild would be either on the road or hosting a series against the Stars. This is despite the fact that both Dallas and Minnesota are two of the top four teams in the Western Conference.
No other sports league in North America has this sort of format. The closest controversy is in the NFL, where division winners are assured a Top 4 seed and a home game, even if they have a worse record than the Wild Card team they'd be hosting. Even that has been the subject of growing scrutiny, and teams have formally submitted requests to change the rules.
Bill Guerin calls out NHL Playoff format, and he's not wrong
So far, that hasn't led to any changes, and it's highly unlikely that hockey will break that streak. For what it's worth, Guerin tried to illustrate that there are two sides to this particular coin and that he can see the case for keeping things the way they are.
“There’s a scenario that doesn’t really matter because you are going to play a good team no matter what. The parity in the league is so strong that you’re going to play somebody good," Guerin said. "On the other side of it, the teams that work so hard to get to the top, maybe deserve to at least play one of the teams that haven’t gotten there."
Guerin's also made a point about how this year might be tipping the scales a bit. The Central Division is ridiculously good, with the Avalanche, Stars, and Wild being the three best teams in the conference. Unlike the NBA, which seeds conference-wide rather than division-specific, NHL awards top seeds to the two division winners -- who play the two Wild Card teams -- while the second and third place teams in each division play each other.
It's deeply stupid, but part of that angst is coming from a place of bias. Just for the sake of argument, here's what the Western Conference bracket would look like if the NHL used the NBA's playoff format:
- (1) Colorado Avalanche vs. (8) Seattle Kraken
- (2) Dallas Stars vs. (7) Vegas Golden Knights
- (3) Minnesota Wild vs. (6) Edmonton Oilers
- (4) Anaheim Ducks vs. (5) Utah Mammoth
Edmonton would still be a tough matchup but the Wild would crucially be hosting the series and not be on a road schedule.
All of this is also compounded by anxieties and frustrations that have mounted over the years thanks to first-round exits the Wild have suffered. Winning in the playoffs isn't easy, but it's certainly harder when a wierd format throws two top teams in the conferece at one another right away.