A Curious Playoff Format

I respect the AHL in its current iteration for a number of reasons, but the league seems to know its role as a league to develop players for NHL teams. While I lament a lot of AHL teams giving up their identities when NHL teams take over, the AHL serves its purpose by developing the next waves of stars such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonathan Marchessault, and Jason Spezza. A lot of these players are younger based on the rules that the AHL enforces when it comes to veteran players, and we often hear about "inexperience" at this team of year when playoffs on the horizon. While there likely is a lack of NHL playoff experience, it seems that the AHL is giving more and more players a chance to experience at least one playoff round during their AHL career.

Without comment, here is this year's AHL playoff format as of tonight:

The playoff matchups shown above are less important than knowing that 23 of 32 AHL teams make the playoffs in some form. Yes, there's a play-in round where two Atlantic Division teams will go home, one North Division and one Central Divison team will go home, and three Pacific Division teams will go home, but one has to question why the AHL would choose this format for its playoffs when 72% of its teams make the cut.

One could say that the playoff races last longer for teams that are on the bubble, but should that really justify an entire extra round of playoff hockey? If you're the Utica Comets or Iowa Wild who battled all season and ended up in fourth-place in the North and Central Divisions, respectively, their playoff lives could be over in two games to a team that finished lower than them in the standings. Does that seem fair considering how hard they pushed to finish in fourth-place?

I can't speak for the general populace out there, but if a fourth-place team embroiled in a race to secure fourth-place against a team surging from behind them in the standings, that could be an exciting playoff race. If those two teams have enough of a cushion on the sixth-place team that both will make the playoffs, the thrill of that playoff race as a fan is erased. It doesn't exist. Is that the AHL's goal here with a 23-team postseason field?

Obviously, that question is quite loaded in terms of knowing how the AHL would answer, but you can already see from the image above that all of the AHL's playoff spots have been filled. There could be some flip-flopping of position between teams, but the only teams who could shake things up from this point forward are the Cleveland Monsters (3pts back of Laval with three games to play) and the Chicago Wolves (3pts back of Rockford with three games to play). Both teams will also need some help along the way as neither plays the team they are chasing.

I'm not here to justify or explain why the AHL puts 23 teams in the playoffs. They do, and that's a fact. However, I would suggest that AHL is going in the wrong direction with respect to the number of teams in the playoffs, and they may want to look at the league they absorbed for reasons to reduce their playoff field. Of course, I'm talking about the IHL who found themselves at the start of the 1998-99 season with 16 teams in their league after Quebec and San Antonio folded, and 16 teams who made the playoffs.

The IHL cut the number of playoff teams to 12 for the 1999 Turner Cup Playoffs, and Bob McCammon, the IHL's vice-president and director of hockey operations, explained the reason for the change, stating, "Having four teams eliminated from postseason play will give more meaning to the regular season, especially down the stretch."

I happen to agree with McCammon - I like better playoff races, particularly down the stretch. If the top-four teams in each of the four divisions were the teams that made the playoffs, the Pacific Division would have been decided long ago; the Central Division would have Iowa and Rockford separated by a single point with Chicago four points back of Iowa; the North Division would have Laval trailing Utica by two points with Utica having a game in-hand and Cleveland back five points with three games to play; and, the Atlantic Division would see Lehigh Valley and Springfield tied at 80 points with Springfield holding a game in-hand while Hartford trailed both teams by one point.

Compare the two situations: right now, the AHL has two races for the final playoff spots, but, if they went the traditional route, there would be nine teams fighting for three playoff spots. If you wanted playoff races, the traditional 16-team field would have produced better races that would last into the final games this weekend than the current 23-team field. The battle through 72 AHL games to finish as a top-four team should matter more than just playing one best-of-three series.

AHL President Scott Howson won't listen to me about this, but I honestly think the AHL is doing a disservice in expanding the playoff field. I get there are uneven conferences and divisions, but that shouldn't prevent the top-eight teams from both conferences playing for the Calder Cup. 72 games should mean something more than a sixth-place team potentially upsetting a third-place team in a best-of-three round. The third-place team earned the right to be there while the sixth-place team should be watching from the golf course.

The AHL's 23-team playoff field is a curious format, and the playoff races it pretends to extend actually takes more teams out of the running when it comes down to the final games of the season. If we're aiming for exciting hockey, it seems the AHL is moving in the wrong direction.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!