What's the point of the regular season in hockey again? 7th & 8th seeds play for title!

[Captain Hilts]

And Sixth and eighth in the Western Conference?

Seriously, why do people go to regular season games?

[caraher]

1. Who do you think is playing in the West?

In the West it's San Jose (#1 seed) vs. Chicago (#2 seed) for the conference title.

And of course, in the East Philadelphia and Boston meet again Friday, so it could be #6 vs. #8 rather than #7 vs. #8.

It has long been true that the Stanley Cup playoffs are an entirely different beast from the regular season. And actually, I might watch 2-3 games total during the regular season (all on TV). Apart from the Olympics my hockey viewing takes place from April through June.

[KamaAina]

2. Not only that, the Flyers sleazed into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season

in a shootout. And they'd get to host.

By the way, the B's aren't toast quite yet; they still have a Game 7 on Friday.

[joeybee12]

3. Yes they are, they needn't bother to show up...all is lost...n/t

[TZ]

4. Damn Joey!

I thought I was a cynical pessimist about my teams....:D

[joeybee12]

5. Nothing compared to me...

:cry:

[KamaAina]

6. It's a New England thing. You wouldn't understand.

although one would have thought it would be somewhat less intense after the '04 Series.

[Forkboy]

7. I never see anyone complain about upsets during March Madness and ask about they're regular season.

So what do you propose? Say we shorten the season and they play 40 games instead of 80. Wouldn't the chance for an upset always be there anyways, regardless of how many games get played? Couldn't the #8 seed always have the same chance whether it was 20,40,or 60 games?

Now let's say we cut the amount of teams that make the playoffs from 16 to 8. What are you going to say when the #4 seeds start bumping off the top teams every year? Should we just pick the playoff teams from a hat and bypass a regular season all together?

These kind of upsets are what makes the NHL playoffs so much fun. You should ask why the teams that dominate all year suddenly blew it instead.

[Captain Hilts]

11. I don't know. But a few years ago my friends and I decided that there wasn't

really a compelling reason to have full season tickets because the games just aren't that important in the regular season.

I'm not sure what the solution is.

The NCAA - with single game elimination - is a different ball of wax.

[Forkboy]

12. I can totally understand not paying for season tickets. n/t

[MrSlayer]

8. This why the goaltender is the most important position in professional sports.

He can win games and series all by himself. Your team can be dominated in every aspect of the game and still win if your goalie is in that zone. Montreal's Halak is in that zone. The Flyers haven't won their series yet and you're wrong about the Western seeds.

[Captain Hilts]

10. YES! That's very true. I adore Mike Vernon who got very hot twice. nt

[madinmaryland]

9. What's the point of Hockey. Period!!

Heck, it's almost as boring as soccer!!

:popcorn:

[KamaAina]

17. Because man does not live by figure skating alone

Hater. :P

P.S. America's City(TM) has a hockey team, the Dallas Stars. So there!

[Captain Hilts]

13. Here's the NYT on this issue

There's no compelling reason to play hard during the season:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/sports/hockey/14canadiens.html?ref=sports

One by one the favorites have fallen: the Penguins, the Capitals, the Red Wings, the Devils. All practitioners of creative, attacking hockey, and all knocked out by regular-season strugglers now playing a creative, attacking hockey of their own.

“It’s just a credit to the league,” Penguins wing Bill Guerin said Wednesday in his team’s downcast dressing room in Pittsburgh, where Sidney Crosby sat disbelieving at his stall as reporters departed. “Any team can beat anybody on any night. In the playoffs in this league, one is no better than eight.”

Montreal’s victory over Pittsburgh, the defending Stanley Cup champion, is the latest upset of this topsy-turvy spring, and despite Guerin’s observation, it raises this question again: What did the N.H.L. spend six months playing the regular season for?

If high finishers in the final standings can be ousted so frequently when the records are tossed out and 16 teams start over for the playoffs, why bother trying during the 82-game regular-season schedule? Just coming in eighth will do.

MORE AT LINK

[caraher]

16. What rubbish

First, the Wings got knocked out by San Jose - hardly "regular-season strugglers." In fact, the rap on the Sharks has always been choking in the playoffs, and this season the Wings struggled mightily (which is why they were 5th seed).

Second, while there's no doubt that the Pens and Caps play a more wide-open style than Montreal, so what? Solid defensive hockey is good hockey, too! And indeed - it's "playoff hockey." The best regular season teams with gaudy stats generally become perennial Cup contenders only after they add that element to their game. For instance, in the early '90s the Wings started posting stellar regular-season records, but the playoff success didn't come until they found a way to suffocate opposing offenses in April and May.

And while the upsets in the East this year are jarring, I don't think the regular season is therefore meaningless. The real story is that Montreal got hot (there are two of your huge upsets right there). That should happen sometimes! Meanwhile the only "upset" in the West based on seeds was Detroit over Phoenix, which was no upset at all (4 vs. 5 should be a tossup, right?). I think part of the hype here is the east coast media bias - the press are concentrated where the upsets are.

Meanwhile I'll just continue to enjoy the play of Halak and new kid Subban... while Montreal has more Cups than God, at least they're playing for a hockey-savvy crowd. (I'm still too old-school to be pleased when teams playing where there's no snow do well.)

[Iggo]

14. We go because we like hockey. (n/t)

[Onceuponalife]

15. EVERY game is important if you're a hockey fan

If you don't feel that, you're not a hockey fan. Period.

[Dulcinea]

19. Well said.

Non-hockey fans don't get that & never will.

[Bluzmann57]

18. Sharks are no. 1 seed

Blackhawks are no. 2. So get away from any east coast bias you have and realize that it's a big country and the aforementioned teams are quite good.