PITTSBURGH _ The NHL Players' Association is supposed to vote on a proposed 24-team playoff format to get the NHL season underway soon. The most important details are that there will be 12 teams from each conference that will make the playoffs and the two sides will compete in separate hub cities until the Stanley Cup Final.
That would mean the Penguins would be the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference a play against No. 12 Montreal in a best-of-five "play-in" round. The winner of that series would then move on to face the Flyers, at least under the latest proposal we have seen.
Call me crazy _ and I have been called worse _ but I think that is a great draw for the Penguins, and I would expect them to get at least to the Eastern Conference semifinals if that format holds.
Some so-called experts have mentioned how tough this would be on the Penguins, having to survive a first-round series against Montreal and excellent goaltender Carey Price then getting a rested Flyers team that was playing at a high level when the season shut down.
First, Lou Holtz couldn't do a better job of hyping up the Canadiens than most of the nonsense I've read and heard. I'll try to be as gentle as possible when I say this: The Canadiens stink. They are a terrible team and they shouldn't be in the playoffs. Price is fantastic, but he isn't a miracle worker. Yes, great goalies on playoff-caliber teams are scary, but great goalies on horrible teams are not. If this series comes to fruition, I would be surprised if the Penguins didn't sweep the series and do so without breaking much of a sweat.
You might be asking _ what about 2010? That was the year the eighth-seeded Canadiens, behind the heroic efforts of goalie Jaroslav Halak, upset the Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The difference then was that Halak was playing with a playoff-caliber team, one that had earned that spot in the regular season.
The next potential stage would be the Flyers, and that would be a classic, extremely entertaining series, one in which I think the Penguins would have an edge and win in seven games.
Having already played a series would give Mike Sullivan the opportunity to figure out line combinations, help the team work off some of the rust and find its edge. Those extra games should certainly play in the Penguins' favor.
After that round it is anyone's guess as to who will win and lose, but at that point the Penguins will have as good of a chance to win the Stanley Cup as anyone else left standing.
Boston and Tampa are tremendous, and Washington is always a tough out for the Penguins. But those series will all come down to who plays the best hockey over seven games as it always does.
The Penguins, though, will have a really favorable road on paper to get to that point, and that is more important this year than just about every other year.
