The playoffs have me excited this year, but I’m finding that some of the excitement is just the same excitement that the playoffs used to bring every year.

I think part of it is because with the impending lockout, and pretty good parity at the top of the league, the playoffs promise to be pretty intense this year. There are some really good rivalries building up, despite the fact that the league has broken their rivalry generating playoff format into a more “fair” and crappy format.

One of the worst things that ever happened to the NHL was the switch to three divisions. Back in the 80’s, some extremely tense rivalries built up because of a couple of things.

• Teams played each other a lot more often if they were in the same division.
• Teams met each other a lot more often in the playoffs if they were in the same division, and
• Teams meeting in the second round of the playoffs were still from the same division, so you’d have more opportunity for rivalries.

I think bringing back a 4 division format, with the old 4vs1 3vs2 playoff is a good thing. Then you can have divisional championship series, conference championship series, and of course the Cup final.

As it is, there are a couple of rivalries in the league now, but no team has two legitimate rivals. I’m waiting for someone to post here and blow my theory away, but it’s tough to compare today’s rivalries to the bitter feuds that developed between Calgary and Edmonton, or Montreal and any other team in the Adams. Those rivalries sometimes came naturally because of geography, but they were fostered by a bunch of intense playoff meetings. It probably didn’t hurt that player movement was typically based on trading skill for skill, rather than trading high salaries for draft picks.

I have some crackpot ideas about how a league could be structured in order to remain fan-friendly, and yet provide a benefit to both the players and owners, but nobody listens to a crackpot, so I’ll have to hold off on them until I have nothing to write about some day (in the near future.)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Dear Mr. President, There are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot.” - Grandpa Simpson