A former Oilers GM's bold playoff scheduling concept, giving top seeds home-ice control, is sparking new debate among league decision-makers.
According to Pierre LeBrun, a concept from former Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland is gaining some traction at this week’s GM meetings. Part of Holland’s pitch involves a potential change to the playoff format.
Rather than altering seeding or restructuring the brackets, Holland suggested that the top seed be given greater control over the scheduling and location of games within a series.
LeBrun writes, "A few years ago, Ken Holland suggested an interesting idea at a GMs meeting: that the top seed in a playoff series have the option of opening on the road instead. So play Games 1-2 and 6 on the road. Play Games 3-4-5 and 7 at home.
Look at Florida last year as road warriors, started each series on the road, fed off of it.
Anyway, I do think it’s an idea worth re-visiting."
Could Ken Holland's old playoff formatting idea resurface?The idea has several benefits, beyond giving the top seed an advantage. Among the greatest is the amount of travel required as teams wouldn't have to hop on a plane as often to go back and forth if the series lasted longer than four or five games.
Oilers Play Ducks in Game 1 Tonight
The Oilers are at home on Monday night, playing the first of a best-of-seven series against the Anaheim Ducks. The Oilers worked hard to gain home-ice advantage, even though they did not finish as the top seed in either the Western Conference or the Pacific Division.
Will that home ice start help the Oilers get out of the gates quickly?
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