Minnesota Wild’s Fall To St. Louis Highlights A Flaw In The Playoff Format

The Minnesota Wild lost last night against the St. Louis Blues in a challenging game six, which saw the Blues win 5-1 thanks to an excellent performance from Jordan Binnington, who had 25 saves on the night.

The Minnesota Wild’s season came to an end with the loss. After a record-setting franchise season with the best performance from the franchise, they are out after round one. This loss highlights a flaw in the Stanley Cup Playoff format that needs to be addressed.

The NHL adopted a divisional format in the postseason with the start of the 2013-14 season. It has been talked about a lot in the past as a flawed plan that, while it might create more rivalries in divisions, often pits the best of the best against each other.

The Wild and Blues should not have met in round one of the playoffs. If you look at the standings within the Western Conference, the Wild were the second-best team with 113 points; the Blues were the fourth-best behind Calgary with 109 points.

Under the old format, the Wild would have been the third-ranked seed as the top team in each division (Calgary and Colorado) get the top two spots. The Wild should have faced off against the Los Angeles Kings in round one with that in mind. The Wild should have had the sixth-best opponent in the conference, but because of the current format, they had the conference’s fourth-best opponent.

Obviously, no series is a guarantee. Maybe if the Wild did face the Kings in round one, they still would have lost, but at least it would have meant the best of the best will meet in round two or three and not round one.

This has been an issue in a lot of different series in the past few years. After Saturday, fans are going to be without either Tampa Bay or Toronto but both teams are some of the best around. This format has not even led to heightened rivalries between different teams, all it has led to is frustrated fans feeling their favorite team was bounced unfairly. Hopefully, in the future, the NHL addresses this mistake and fixes their format down the line.

Minnesota had a season they should be proud of. While it did end a bit too soon, overall it was a great year for the Wild!