35 Team League-Wide Wild Card Example 1
Since 4 of the 5 Conferences will always have 5 teams in the first round, 2 crossover series will be necessary, determined by which Conference is the single 4-team group (“missing team”):
In the 4-team Conference, the matchups will be #1-#4 and #2-#3:
In the 5-team Conferences, the matchups will be #1-#5, and #2-#4:
Finally, the crossover matchups are between the #3 teams in the previously determined Conferences, with home ice advantage going to the team with the better record:
To have an idea of the fairness of these matchups, here are the teams’ overall position league-wide in grey next to their matchups:
Now, assume the faded out teams have lost their 1st round matchups:
In the second round, there will always be 2 Conferences with 3 teams, and 3 with 2 teams. The ones with 2 teams have the teams face each other:
The Conferences with 3 teams left have matchups between the first and last remaining team:
The 2 middle teams in the 3-team Conferences play a crossover series, no matter which 2 Conferences they come from:
Here are the teams’ league-wide ranking, to again keep track of how fair (or unfair) the matchups are:
Assume the faded teams have lost their 2nd round matchups, and the rest have moved on to the 3rd round:
In the 3rd round, there will always be one Conference with 2 teams, and the rest will have one. So, the 2 teams from the same Conference draw each other, and the other Conferences draw each other the same way as the crossovers from the first round are determined (2 team Conference is “missing”):
In the 3rd round, there will always be one Conference with 2 teams, and the rest will have one. So, the 2 teams from the same Conference draw each other, and the other Conferences draw each other the same way as the crossovers from the first round are determined (2 team Conference is “missing”):
Here are the remaining teams’ league-wide rankings, to look at the fairness of the matchups again. The automatic matchup between Washington and the NY Islanders clearly hurts the fairness of these matchups, with the upside being the clear way of matching up teams in this round instead of something more random:
Assume the faded teams have lost their 3rd round matchups. At this point, with 3 teams remaining, the bye occurs:
Los Angeles has the best record among remaining teams, so they get the bye to the Stanley Cup Finals, while Quebec and the NY Islanders play in the Semi-Final:
The NY Islanders win the Semi-Final, so they are the one team that has to play a fifth playoff round by meeting Los Angeles in the Stanley Cup Finals:
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