The NHL basked in the praise of its realignment vote this week. No longer will teams in the middle of the country be stuck making one long road trip after another to the West Coast. And for teams in the Eastern time zone, including the Capitals, the switch to a four-conference format only enhances longtime rivalries. It seems like a win-win scenario for the league — save for one hiccup. The NHL also adopted a new Stanley Cup playoff format that has a chance to undo the benefits of realignment. The league decided to revise one of its older traditions. Now the top four seeds in each conference will play each other in the first two rounds of the postseason. That means the Caps, Penguins, Flyers and Rangers likely will see a whole lot of one another in the coming years — or the Devils, Hurricanes and Islanders if those teams force their way in. Those matchups could become repetitive year after year. And it all comes at the expense of rivalries with other Eastern Conference teams.
Washington has had playoff meetings with Northeast Division opponents Montreal, Buffalo, Ottawa and Boston over the years. The Caps have twice played current Southeast Division foe Tampa Bay in the spring. Those series only enhanced future regular-season games between those teams. That will be far harder to replicate under this system. Plus, half the fun of the NHL’s final weeks is the wild sprint for one of the last playoff spots. The top teams in either conference never know who they’re going to be matched with. That was a bonus the NHL has all-too-casually tossed aside and one it may regret soon enough.
– Brian McNally
