Sixteen teams, each one needing to win 16 games over four rounds of best-of-seven series to lift the Stanley Cup, has been the way the NHL decides its champion for nearly four decades. That isn’t changing any time soon.
The NHL is the only one of the major four North American professional sports leagues not to expand its playoffs in recent years. It is content with the current format and isn’t looking to add more teams, a play-in round or anything else amid plenty of discussion about doing so.
“We’re not giving any thought to expanding the playoffs,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said in advance of the playoffs, which begin Saturday. “We have no interest in it. What we have is working very well. When you look at how our playoffs play out, the number of six- and seven-game series, the competitiveness of it, nothing in anybody else’s playoffs rivals that.”
Tesla asks shareholders to reinstate Elon Musk's $55 billion pay package
NYC paints Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower
Xinhua Headlines: China, Vietnam Lift Ties to New Stage, Aiming for Shared Future
China strongly condemns UK's suspension of extradition treaty with HKSAR
Columbia's Abbey Hsu chosen as Met Writers Association Player of the Year
Orange harvest in central Gaza Strip
Dutch PM meets with Spanish counterpart in the Netherlands
World should act as one when it needs China to play a role in creating economic growth
Pilot who died last week in Indiana plane crash was Purdue student, authorities say
Xi Urges Guangxi to Write Its Chapter in Chinese Modernization
Nursery worker accused of killing a nine
Primary, secondary schools reopen in Ireland under phased plan