The NHL Players’ Association landed two small but notable victories Thursday with the announcement of the final details for the revised 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
A league memo clarified that all series beyond the qualifying round will be standard, full-length best-of-seven contests.
The NHL’s return-to-play announcement on May 26 had stated that the qualifying round would be the best-of-five and that the Conference Finals and Cup Final would be best-of-seven, but left the first and second rounds undetermined.
The Thursday memo also specified that matchups in each round would be determined by reseeding rather than a pre-set bracket format.
The top remaining seed will play the lowest remaining seed in each round, regardless of the upsets that occur.
Players had reportedly pushed for both of the now-official details.
Other tiny details, like tiebreakers for the round-robin tournament between each conference’s top four seeds and the technical home team rotation at the to-be-determined neutral host arenas, were also announced Thursday.
None of the specifics will directly or immediately affect the Blackhawks, who remain locked into a No. 5-vs.-No. 12 qualifying round matchup against the Oilers.
But if the Hawks get past the talented but inexperienced Oilers — a very real possibility, given the Hawks’ experience and favorable statistical matchups — the newly announced details could come into play.
The reseeding decision would make their next opponent tougher, for starters.
In a bracket format, the 5-vs.-12 winner would be guaranteed to play the No. 4 seed — in other words, the worst of the four teams (the Blues, Avalanche, Stars and Golden Knights) getting a bye through the qualifying round. But with reseeding, a victorious Hawks team — as the very bottom seed in the West — would instead be guaranteed to face the best of those four teams in their next series.
That next series being seven games, instead of five games, also probably works against them.
Statistically, smaller sample sizes create greater variability, and thus greater likelihood of an upset. So against a superior team, the Hawks would theoretically prefer a shorter series.
They’ll get that wish against the Oilers, but not against their next opponent.
Nothing from Thursday’s memo drastically changes the outlook for the postseason, though, which was largely determined in the late May announcement and also still entirely depends on the progression of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Penguins’ own Thursday announcement that an unidentified player tested positive for COVID-19 — even though the player wasn’t in Pittsburgh and has since recovered — is a clear reminder that coronavirus still controls the fate of the NHL’s plans.
