What a 24 Team Playoff Format Would Mean for the Carolina Hurricanes

Full Conference Format

This is probably the most demanded formatting and probably the least likely one as the league continues to try and push divisional rivalries. This formatting would rank the teams 1-12 seed per conference and give byes and set initial matchups based on those rankings.

The top four teams from each conference would be given the first round off. The remaining eight teams from each conference would play 5 -12 with 5 seed facing off against 12 seed , 6 seed against 11 seed , 7 seed against 10 seed, and 8 seed against 9 seed.

The initial round would probably be abbreviated to a best of five played 1-3-1 or a best of three with the final two games played at the higher seed. The second round would also be abbreviated to at least a best of five in order to “catch up” a little and put less of a dent on the next season.

Regardless if they go with current points or point percentage, the Carolina Hurricanes would be the sixth seed and face off against the 11th seed. This would give Carolina home ice for the first round.

The opponent however would change. If they chose to go with current points the 11 seed would be the Florida Panthers who are a point behind the New York Rangers with a single game in hand. That game in hand however would give the 11th seed to the New York Rangers.

Regardless of how that works out the Hurricanes, if they get past that initial round, would end up facing the third or fourth seed in the second round depending on if the fifth seed team survives the initial round as well.

That would be either the Philadelphia Flyers (third) or the Pittsburgh Penguins (fourth). Regardless of if they choose current points or point percentage the top six are set.  So for now if the league goes with a full conference format, the Canes would likely see one or more of these teams in the playoffs.

Divisional Playoff Formatting

If you thought the full conference 1-12 formatting was unlikely, this one is probably even less likely. While the league enjoys pushing divisional rivalries upon us, to break down the playoffs strictly by division would be difficult.

To start things off, there isn’t an even number of teams across the divisions that make the aforementioned playoff cut-off. The Metro Division alone has seven teams above that cut-off while the Atlantic only has five. The entire Central division makes that cut-off while only five teams make it out of the Pacific.

So that would require a change to the cut off from being a league wide cut-off to a strictly divisional one. That means each division would seed internally and only the top six teams would make the playoffs. That means goodbye Rangers and hello Sabres (Jeff Skinner would finally make the playoffs, so thats a plus).  It would also mean goodbye Blackhawks and hello to the Ducks too.

So where would the Hurricanes seed within the Metro? Once again regardless of if they go via point percentage or current points, Carolina’s position wouldn’t change. In fact the top four teams in the Metro would remain seeded at Capitals, Flyers, Penguins, and Hurricanes. The Islanders and Blue Jackets however would flip in the bottom seeds with point percentage favoring the Isle.

This format would give the top two teams, the Capitals and Flyers a break of a round while the next four seeds duked it out. The Hurricanes would get the fifth seed while the Penguins got the sixth. A point percentage seeding would have the Canes facing off against the Islanders while the current points would have them face against the Blue Jackets.

Getting past that first round would have the Hurricanes face off against either the Capitals, if the Penguins also won their series, or the Flyers if the Penguins lose. This sort of playoff formating would probably be prefered by Capitals fans eager for some revenge against the Canes with full knowledge that they wouldn’t see the Penguins until the third round.

This formatting is not my favorite, and I am glad it is very unlikely to happen, although you never know with Bettman at the helm. The only good thing that would come from it is that there would be a verified divisional champion as well as a conference champion named during the playoffs before the Stanley Cup would be awarded.

Wildcard playoff formatting

It is with a heavy heart that I must say that this would be the most likely option. It is a happy medium between the league favored divisional matchups and keeping the aforementioned cut-offs to make the playoffs. Good news is that there is more than one way to do this.

The question here becomes, where is the wildcard cut-off?

We know that four teams are going to get the first round off and that 12 teams are going to make the playoffs from each conference. The league could keep the wildcard cutoff where it is and add four more teams to it. But that would be six wildcard teams to six automatic playoff spots. The math would still end in an odd number and it would be irrelevant, so let’s forget this one.

They could also make it four automatic playoff spots per division and four wildcard spots with the next four teams be wildcards, which would technically bear the same results as the full conference formatting for the East at least. In the West Edmonton and Dallas would trade seeds.

And could go completely off the rails however and make it five automatic playoff spots, and two wildcard spots. This could get dangerous as they would force the fourth and fifth teams in each division to match up with each other while giving the third team a wildcard team.

So where would that leave the Hurricanes? I bet your brain is hurting right now. So let’s break it down a little more and focus on that last option since the second one is basically the same as the full conference option for the East.

The Hurricanes would fall into the fourth seed in the division and matchup with the fifth seed be it the Islanders or Blue Jackets based on points or point percentage. The Penguins would take the final wildcard team as they would beat out toronto as the better third seed. That team would regardless be the Rangers since all Atlantic teams will get automatic playoff spots.

Let’s go with point percentage to simplify things. The first round would look like this:

• Rangers (WC2) at Penguins (3M)
• Blue Jackets (WC1) at Maple Leafs (3A)
• Islanders (5M) at Hurricanes (4M)
• Canadiens (5A) at Panthers (4A)

Would the Panthers deserve home ice over the Blue Jackets or Islanders? Probably not, but it wouldn’t be the first time a wildcard team deserved better.

Now the second round would have the top two teams from each division waiting on the results of the first round but would guarantee any wildcard team would face a divisional leader if they survived the first round. It would look something like this.

• Rangers (WC2)/Blue Jackets (WC1)/ Canadiens (5A) / Panthers (4A)  at Bruins (1A)
• Blue Jackets (WC1) / Islanders (5M) /  Hurricanes (4M)  at Capitals (1M)
•  Canadiens (5A)/ Panther (4A)/ Maple Leafs (3A) at Lightning (2A)
• (Islanders (5M)/ Hurricanes (4M)/ Penguins (3M) / Maple Leafs (3A)  at Flyers (2M)

Look at this mess. Either way If the Hurricanes win they would stay within the division and take on the Capitals or Flyers in the Second round. From there they would take on the other Metro high seed team or whichever team manages to defeat them. Way too much going on here.

I would hope the league does not take this route, but knowing Bettman’s zealous need for creating divisional rivalries, you can bet on this one.

But let’s step back from reality for a minute and take one last look at an option that will never happen.

The Craziest Option, The FULL LEAGUE FORMAT

This one might be my favorite because it will involve crazy cross-conference matchups and might give us some of the most bizzare Stanley Cup Finals we have ever seen. In this option, conferences are thrown out the window. Rankings are 1-24 straight up by point percentage and the top eight teams get a bye.

I say point percentage because of how random the number of games played is between teams across the two conferences. There would be no way to control the standings any other way. The Cutoff would still be held by Montreal at 0.500. So let’s take a look at how the rankings would end:

1. Boston Bruins
2. St.Louis Blues
3. Tampa Bay Lightning (beat out Aves by games won tie breaker)
4. Colorado Avalanche
5. Washington Capitals
6. Philadelphia Flyers
7. Pittsburgh Penguins
8. Vegas Golden Knights (Final bye team)
9. Carolina Hurricanes
10. Dallas Stars
11. New York Islanders
12. Edmonton Oilers
13. Toronto Maple Leafs (beat out CBJ by games won tie breaker)
14. Columbus Blue Jackets
15. Vancouver Canucks (beat out Panthers and preds by games won tie breaker)
16. Florida Panthers (beat out Preds by regulation wins tie breaker)
17. Nashville Predators
18. New York Rangers (beat out Flames by games won tie breaker)
19. Calgary Flames
20. Winnipeg Jets
21. Minnesota Wild
22. Arizona Coyotes
23. Chicago Blackhawks
24. Montreal Canadiens

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I love this. Look at how many tie breakers had to be used! Every win has its place. Even regulation wins come to play in the rankings. What’s even more amazing? How the first round would play out as seeds 9-16 play host to 17-24 in a best of three:

• Canadiens at Hurricanes
• Blackhawks at Stars
• Coyotes at Islanders
• Wild at Oilers
• Jets at Maple Leafs
• Flames at Blue Jackets
• Rangers at Canucks
• Predators at Panthers

That is five different cross conference matchups and perhaps even a rivalry or two. After this round the next round is simply 1-8 against the remaining seeds by strength. The Hurricanes would get the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round if they get past the Canadiens in the Aho Series. Imagine all the wild and fun Stanley Cup Finals that can come out of this.

But enough daydreaming. To get to any of this, there has to be a playoffs left to salvage. There also has to be a commitment to 24 teams. Perhaps they only add four more teams to the playoffs and go 20  teams instead. Who knows what will happen if and when the league returns from the hiatus. What we do know is that the status quo is long gone this season.

Question for CC Readers: Do you think a 24 team playoff format could work?