The Longest Second Season?

Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish sang, "Time, why you punish me" in their hit single, Time. It's a relevant question when you look at the length of the NHL postseason that begins on Saturday, April 19 and may not finish until June 23, 2025. That's two months of hockey to find one team that can win sixteen games before any other, and I understand that there are mandated days off as per the CBA. I've never truly understood, though, why teams can't play back-to-back games like they once did in the NHL. Every team plays back-to-back games during the regular season, so why can't the NHL and NHLPA work to cut a couple of weeks off the Stanley Cup Playoffs?

I'm not saying that we should be relying on history for this because labour relations between the NHL and NHLPA seem to be in a good place right now, but it happened that the NHL made the decision to shorten the postseason back on September 25, 1968. See below.

According to The Canadian Press's article in The Brandon Sun, "[t]he league's board of governors approved a revised set of playoff regulations Tuesday which make it possible for a team to win a best-of-seven series in five days". The new rules that the NHL introduced would have seen the playoffs begin on a Wednesday and Game Two would be played on Thursday. With travel on Friday, Games Three and Four would be played on Saturday and Sunday whereby a team could, in theory, sweep the series and complete the series in five days.

I want to be clear that I'm not suggesting that series should be theoretically completed in five days, but that idea is intriguing. No team has ever swept their way through the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but completing the playoffs in a month would be pretty awesome. As the article states, there was even a provision written into the new rules that allowed the semifinal series to be slowed if a team was ahead in their quest for the Stanley Cup in comparison to where the other conference was in their schedule. The rules make sense.

As I propose shortening the playoffs, I realize that the various networks and teams who are participating would likely complain as they'd lose a pile of revenue from the hype built for all the series, but I can't help this feeling that the NHL could reduce the length of time it takes to complete the playoffs. Knowing what we do today about the NHL-NHLPA relations, I'm convinced that the playoffs will always be a two-month battle for sixteen teams.

Again, it's wishful thinking on my part for a shorter postseason. For a guy who is a hockey fan, it seems like a contradiction from what I should want, but June 23 is the middle of summer. Hockey needs to end before that date. Heck, hockey needs to end before June in my view, but my opinion is just a whisper in the wind. I have no ability to sway the NHL or NHLPA on this, so I'll be watching until June this season. And likely for many seasons beyond this one.

Of course, I'm also the guy who would love to see the NHL return to a 70-game schedule as opposed to the current 82-game schedule in order to cut down on the length of the season overall while also making games and points more important. Yes, I realize that more and more teams are going for the two-point win in overtime as opposed to the shootout, but I'd like to see more teams raising their games earlier in the season to prevent falling out of playoff races. However, as the image above indicates, I seem to be moving closer to "old man yells at cloud" in my attitude towards hockey. Get off my lawn, ok?

The Stanley Cup Playoffs start on Saturday. It's two months of hockey action that will see people clad in shorts and t-shirts move to decks and patios to watch games while enjoying cold beverages as the sun sets during the early games. If you ask for a TV to be changed to watch a baseball game, you'll likely be tossed out of that establishment, so don't do that. Don't even think of doing that because it's playoff hockey season. In June. In baseball season.

Settle in for the two-month postseason, folks.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!