Should the NHL Consider an NBA-style Play-in?
Right now, six teams have a shot at taking the Eastern Conference's second wild card spot. With the success of the NBA’s play-in round, should the NHL consider a similar expansion of its postseason?
Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports - Should the NHL Consider an NBA-style Play-in?Does anyone actually want the final Eastern Conference wild card spot?
I mean, really, not one of the Islanders, Red Wings, Capitals and Penguins have actually proven they’re the best team of the bunch chasing the eighth seed in the playoffs. No one has strung together a definitive streak to claim the playoff spot. No one has pulled ahead. Instead, the order of the four-team pack is shaking up every day — overall, six teams have a mathematical shot at the final wild card spot in the final few games.
Maybe that’s due to league parity — or mediocrity, if negativity’s more your vibe. Maybe it’s a symptom of head-to-head cannibalism between some playoff-hungry teams.
Or, maybe it’s a sign that the NHL should consider a play-in?
Hesitations with expanding the playoffs are understandable when there are already so many teams struggling to pull away from each other. Yet that’s exactly why the league might want to expand its postseason format with a play-in tournament, and it can look to its winter season sibling, the NBA, for an example of how that can work.
Under the NBA’s play-in system, the seventh and eighth place teams face off for the seventh seed in the NBA playoffs. The loser of that game plays the winner of a game between the ninth and 10th place teams, and the winner of that game gets the eighth seed in the playoffs. This was a result of a successful 2019-20 pandemic-altered playoffs, when the league instituted a play-in for the playoff bubble.
The NHL, too, followed a similar plan that season, with 24 teams competing for the playoffs. The top four teams in each conference received byes, while the next eight teams played a play-in round to decide who would make the playoffs.
The result: some of the best hockey in recent seasons. So many teams battled for playoff spots, and the games felt like playoff hockey given their stakes. There were major upsets — both No. 5 seeds lost their opening series. So did the Maple Leafs back when the whole playoff curse had yet to be broken. It led to an interesting product, with so many teams in the mix and able to prove they belonged in the playoffs.
But that play-in came from the needs of a global pandemic that prematurely ended the regular season. Normally, it’s that regular season that is constructed to decide who the best eight teams of each conference are (granted, divisional standings can skew the results). Adding a play-in would sacrifice the work of the seventh and eighth seeds and make them prove they belong in the playoffs.
Is that fair? When so many teams can’t pull away from each other, it’s difficult to argue that anyone but first wild card Tampa Bay has proven they’re a playoff team beyond a shadow of a doubt. But, whoever ends the season in that final wild card spot will have run the gauntlet to earn it, straight up.
Getting NHL owners to agree to make that change is going to be a hard bargain. It’s even harder because of a lack of viewership data. While the NBA’s play-in round ratings have steadily increased over the two years of the tournament, the NHL’s play-in dalliance back in 2020 didn’t net such positive results. At 2.1 million viewers, that year’s Stanley Cup final between Tampa Bay and Dallas was the least watched final since 2007, granted that came against NCAA football and NFL competition it usually doesn’t face. Even so, adding a play-in round would be a broadcasting risk for a league that generally doesn’t like to take those.
If the NHL does add a play-in round in the future, this extra selection process could raise the quality of competition making the playoffs, but the NHL doesn’t have the issue of a chalky playoff bracket that the NBA does. Before instituting the play-in, the NBA’s last eighth seed to pull a playoff upset was Philadelphia in 2012. Last year, the Miami Heat did the same after retaining its eighth-place finish in the play-in. Meanwhile, the NHL has had five such 1-vs-8 upsets since 2012, including two in 2019. The NHL doesn’t need a play-in to increase the chance of an upset, even if it might ensure more teams get a crack at pulling one.
Whether a play-in is worth adding or not, the issue ultimately comes down to perspective. Wherever the playoff line is drawn, value judgments are based on the perspective that line creates. If the line were drawn at 12 teams, the playoffs would feel all but decided by now, even with the current wild-card chasers fighting for exact seedings. The argument of whether anyone “deserves” to make the playoffs wouldn’t even be a discussion. And even now, we see arguments of whether NBA teams should make the play-in, too. Add the play-in to the NHL and the same arguments will arise.
The critique of whether any teams deserve to make the playoffs comes from frustration with the frenetic pace of a deep playoff race. But having more teams in contention for the playoffs this late shows that more teams are competitive. Really, that’s something to celebrate rather than criticize.
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