17 replies to this topic

[GetReal]

5 of 7 how stupid why not 7 for 7 it's a move done for money for owners.

Hockey
Thursday, July 10, 2003
American Hockey League Changes Divisions




HILTON HEAD, S.C. (AP) - The American Hockey League announced changes to its divisional alignments and playoff format at its annual board of governors meetings on Wednesday.

The league will change to two, seven-team divisions per conference next season. There were three divisions in both the Eastern and Western Conferences last season.

The Hamilton Bulldogs, St. John's Maple Leafs, Manitoba Moose and expansion Toronto Roadrunners will play in the Western Conference's North Division next season along with Cleveland, Rochester and Syracuse.

Hamilton, St. John's and Manitoba played in the Eastern Conference's Canadian Division last season with now-defunct St. John, New Brunswick.

The top five teams in each division will qualify for the postseason, with the fourth- and fifth-seeded teams facing each other in a best-of-three first round.

Those winners will play the No. 1 seeds in their divisions while the second- and third-seeded teams will meet in the best-of-seven second round.

[CRASHER]

Hey looks like the Rats have a shot at the playoffs now

[Triumph]

Why? Because it's a ten team playoff, meaning there's an odd number and even if one team got a bye, there would still be an odd number of teams in the next round.

So they play 3 games, because if they played 5 or 7, they might as well just not bother having that series at all because the other teams would get a 10 day-2 week rest while they battled it out in a playoff series.

[rbdf]

or they could just drop the #5 team and only take the top 4 from each division

oh, wait, that would be sensible to the fans, and it would limit playoff revenue to the owners of that #5 team, sorry, what was i thinking.

how long until some league somewhere introduces a best of 9 series. It still surprises me that the superbowl is a one game all or nothing deal, I could see the nfl making it a best of 3 eventually, think of the t.v. revenue another game or two would add to their pockets.

[Triumph]

Wait a minute, when did the owners and fans desires clash in this? If you were a fan of the 5th team in the division, wouldn't you rather have your team in the playoffs than out?

The all or nothing deal makes the Subpar Bowl the biggest event in sports every year even when it's a mismatch or even when it's an awful game, and the frenzy surrounding it attracts non-sports fans of both genders. If they went to a best of three, they'd lose all those people.

[rbdf]

believe me, i love having my team in the playoffs, but what I don't like is a system where the regular season is friggin meaningless and you watch your team sleepwalk through 80 games, creep in as the last seed (even if they don't deserve to be there) and then you get to watch another 3 months that actually do mean something. Why not just call the regular season "pre-season" or "winter league", then start up the playoffs in the spring with all teams eligible, move to a "best of nine" set up, and play all friggin summer long. Lord knows baseball sucks ass to watch, so let's get b-ball and hockey to follow this plan.

Also, let's revise the rules while we're at it so that the real star players don't have to even show up for the "winter league" until the end for a little tune up time - think about how long some guys will be able to have their careers extended then. Patrick Roy could be 50 and still winning stanley cups and conn smythes.

This is all just getting out of hand.

[Triumph]

Well, I think you're responding to other issues.. I think sports are trying to navigate a river between two banks of meaninglessness... because the problem with a league where few teams make the playoffs is that half the teams are out of contention by the 2/3rds mark of the season, which makes for a lot of meaningless games at the end of the season. Obviously, a league with a lot of teams making the playoffs means the beginning of the season is pointless.

Hockey, I think, has reached a nice balance in that respect.. which games mattered for the Devils this year? Every single one. Every one, except maybe the last one in Buffalo. If they don't beat out Philadelphia for the division, they don't win the Stanley Cup, it's as simple as that.

Most teams that have said they will turn it on when the playoffs start turn out to be wrong. Hell, the 96 Devils said that all year and never made it.

[Jas0nMacIsaac]

The Rats are going to have a great team next year. Depending on what Dmen come back. One of Hale and Giroux (maybe Martin) will make the big team.

Pihlman and Pikkarainen are signing thi offseason. Suglobov might also sign with the team. We may have Hale and Martin on the team. Foster should play a full season. We will be adding Tinute to our roster, he is 20 years old and that is the main reason Lou drafted him. well over 110 points in OHL last year.

For fun a couple days ago I made our possible a possible lineup for the team.

Berglund - Foster - Hulbig
Pihlman - Darby - Suglobov
Crozier - Guolla - Pikkarainen
Tenute - Hartsburg - Cameron

Martin - DeMarchi
Hale - Redlihs
Brooks - Uchevatov

Ahonen
Clemmensen

[GA Devil]

I am unfamiliar with Pikkarainen. Would somebody kindly give me more info on him? Thanks in advance.

[westcoastdevfan]

What about Kariya?

[sykkie15]

Isn't Kariya UFA?

[Triumph]

Steve Kariya is a type VI UFA, and Hulbig was non-tendered I thought (maybe I'm thinking of Roche), but you probably know better since you claim Pikkarinen will be over this year, which I didn't know.

That's a lot of AHL rookies to be on a 'great' team.

[Jas0nMacIsaac]

Pikkarinen is a solid two way forward that has some offensive spur to him. 21 points in 40 something games in the Finland top league is also something worthwhile to know. Kariya is a UFA, no qualifying offer was made. I think you are right with Hulbig being a UFA, will have to check on that. This team may not have alot of experience to go far in the playoffs but 3 of those players from europe all play in mens leagues so they have played in leagues as competitive as the AHL. I say they wil finish middle of the east. And get knocked out 2nd round.

[GetReal]

Any time 70% of the teams make the post season playoffs something is wrong. Probably at least half of the teams will be less than 500%.

It makes te regular season a waste.

5 teams out of 7 in a division is too many. 3 or 4 is more like it.

It's all about money for owners. They are positioning themselves for the NHL lockout and fans switching to watch in person (not TV no contract for national viewing ) the AHL games.

Smart move for AHL, there is a message there that Bettman is going to have a lockout and destroy NHL hockey.

[Pepperkorn]

For fun a couple days ago I made our possible a possible lineup for the team.

Berglund - Foster - Hulbig
Pihlman - Darby - Suglobov
Crozier - Guolla - Pikkarainen
Tenute - Hartsburg - Cameron

Martin - DeMarchi
Hale - Redlihs
Brooks - Uchevatov

Ahonen
Clemmensen

Andrews is so underrated...

OK so maybe I enjoy overrating him - and he's ugly too even! well...not ugly just sort of dull. But he's happy and stuff - his contentment makes me like him. He'll never see a day in the NHL, will he?

No one even knows who I'm talking about...well ONE lurking person does. You know and he wasn't even pleasant when he gave me his autograph - he was as dull as he plays... I don't think I'll be too cut up if he's off the team then I guess when I think about it! (He's type VI too FYI)

[Triumph]

Most of the AHL teams are in non-NHL cities. Offhand, the only ones I can think of in an NHL city are Chicago and Philadelphia, and I think they do well even with the NHL. So the AHL isn't preparing for anything, and I think this is very similar to their format already except they are combining divisions. Most AHL cities are too far away for most people to consider going often.. Springfield MA, Syracuse, Albany, Grand Rapids, Binghamton, Hartford, Houston, these places are all 2 hours + away from NHL hockey.

I don't see this 10 team playoff as a problem. The AHL is a different place than the NHL, so why should a team that has injury problems in the NHL be kicked out of the playoffs because the best players are filling in on the NHL squad? Minor league hockey isn't completely about competitiveness because the competitive teams like the Philadelphia Phantoms, Houston Aeros, and Chicago Wolves are often stocked with career minor leaguers and have few legitimate NHL prospects on them. The NHL GMs probably want more playoffs so their best prospects can be involved in the playoffs at the minor league level, and the fans want it too.

[RowdyFan42]

Figures, a post about the AHL and I haven't been here in over a week...

One at a time here:

Hey looks like the Rats have a shot at the playoffs now

Well, they had 10 teams in each conference going to the playoffs last year too, and the Rats didn't make it then, so...

The only thing that's changing is the divisional alignment and its effect on the seedings. Last year there were 6 divisions using NHL-style playoff seeding, this year there's 4 with the old-fashioned divisional seeding.

The only thing I don't like about this is that a more deserving team may be left out of the postseason in favor of someone with a worse record. Then again, with 20 out of 28 teams going to the playoffs, chances are you'll be getting teams that don't deserve to be there no matter what.

The Rats are going to have a great team next year.

That's what I said last year, and even though they started off well, they stunk for the rest of the season. Right now I'm not getting my hopes up, although that may change once training camp gets underway.

[Jas0nMacIsaac]

The Rats may be adding Suglobov, Hale, Martin, Pihlman ect. That brings more reason to get hopes up.