NHL Commish Says That Changes To Playoffs And Overtime Formats Aren't Happening
The NHL held general manager meetings this week in Florida, and that's where Commissioner Gary Bettman was asked about the potential for changes to the league's playoff and overtime formats.
However, Bettman says there are no changes on the horizon.
When it comes to overtime, the idea that has been bandied about has to do with adding five more minutes to three-on-three overtime. That extra five minutes would almost certainly guarantee that the game ends in OT instead of a shootout.
But the Commish has some issues with this.
"I'm not a fan of the extended overtime because of ice conditions and the wear and tear on the players who would be playing the additional five minutes," Bettman said.
I kind of get that. As you may or may not be aware, the ice isn't resurfaced between the end of regulation and the start of overtime in the NHL. That means that the ice that players skate on overtime is already chewed up from the third period.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman shot down the idea of potential changes to the league's playoff and overtime formats. (Photo by John Deputy/NHLI via Getty Images)
By the end of 10 minutes of overtime, yeah, he's right, it would be total mess.
The options would be to resurface — a logistics headache especially as it relates to TV broadcasts — or just deal with it.
I say just deal with it because most overtime periods won't go 10 minutes.
But hey, they didn't ask me… I could have swung by and offered these points had they asked, though.
The other format some want to see changed is the current playoff format and would like to see a return of the previous 1-8 seed format.
That gets a big "N-O" from Bettman.
"I'm pretty dug in on this, I like exactly what we have and if you look at the races that we're having for the regular season, playoffs have started already. We're in our play-in tournament, " he said, taking a dig at the NBA. "Best team to win the Cup has got to get through the best teams. And having great matchups in the first rounds, that's not a problem, that's a great thing."
Well, I guess that's settled.
So not much will change, but at the very least, I think we can all agree that the league needs to go to a 3-2-1-0 points system so the loser point carries less weight.