What If the NHL had a March Insanity-style playoff committee?
The NCAA males’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments are over, with Michigan and UCLA topped nationwide champions. March Insanity is formally within the books. The Frozen 4 — faculty hockey’s equal — will quickly comply with.
That brings an finish to the updates to ESPN’s bracketology. The NCAA choice present stays one of many largest days on the sports activities calendar.
What if the NHL used an analogous methodology to find out its 16-team playoff discipline? Might an NHL choice committee save the league from a playoff format that has drawn common criticism from its personal fan base?
What may it appear like?
Similar to March Insanity, the NHL playoffs function a mixture of automated qualifiers and groups that squeak in. A variety committee may assist stop a few of the lopsided matchups that followers usually complain about.
The NHL may emulate the NCAA method. The NCAA committee makes use of metrics like BPI, KenPom, KPI and NET to form its brackets. Whereas the NHL doesn’t have a direct equal, we are able to monitor metrics reminiscent of “wins above bubble” and different publicly out there stats.
That stated, the construction would not look dramatically totally different to start out. There are 4 divisions within the NHL. Naturally, the 4 division winners would obtain automated bids to the match. The opposite entrants can be “at-large” picks by the committee.
The place it would differ is in addressing the league’s largest complaints: unbalanced first-round matchups, weak divisions sending subpar groups or stacked divisions leaving sturdy golf equipment on the skin.
