A/B-Rival Playoff Format Example 2

Here is a second example to show more intricacies of the format. We start like before, identifying which teams are 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in their respective A-Rival groups, and deciding on playoff spots based on that, and the teams’ overall records, indicated to the left of them:

Teams who are in first place automatically earn a playoff spot, while teams in last place are automatically eliminated from the playoffs (Philadelphia, Winnipeg, Montreal). Remaining spots go to each second-place team in order of overall record, or 3rd place teams that either have a better record than a 2nd place team or lead two other unqualified 3rd place teams uninterrupted by second place teams (Los Angeles clinches by leading Detroit and Buffalo in this case):

Now, each qualifying team is seeded by overall record. #5 Edmonton and #15 Minnesota are the farthest separated Rivals:

NY Rangers and New Jersey draw each other next, separated by 8 spots in the seeding:

#4 Tampa Bay/#11 St. Louis and #7 Nashville/#14 Chicago are both separated by 7 spots:

#13 San Jose is separated by 6 spots from #19 Los Angeles:

#6 Ottawa has 2 options separated by the same number of positions: #2 Pittsburgh, and #10 Toronto. In scenarios like this, the opponent is determined by having the team draw the lower opponent if they are in the top half of all playoff teams (#1-8) and drawing the higher opponent if they are in the bottom half (#9-19, in this case). Since Ottawa is in the top half, they draw Toronto:

The remaining 4 teams do not share any Rivalries, so they draw each other in order of record:

In a scenario with 2 Non-Rival matchups or more, the odds of matchups becoming more fair through Rival opponent switches are very high. Here, there are numerous options, but the most fair one is switching #2 Pittsburgh’s opponent to #9 New Jersey, and #8 Calgary’s to #13 San Jose. This results in a #1/#19 and #3/#18 set of matchups:

After the 1st Round, the faded out teams have lost their matchups, and the remaining teams move on:

In the second round, the greatest difference in seeding position between Rivals is between #1 NY Rangers and #9 New Jersey:

Next, #8 Calgary draws #15 Minnesota:

The only remaining Rivalry between any 2 teams is #3 Boston and #4 Tampa Bay. This is not a fair matchup, since the remaining 2 teams both have worse records (#6 Ottawa and #14 Chicago). If there were more alternative matchups for the teams in this round, this would likely be able to be corrected:

The faded teams lose, and remaining teams move on to the third round:

Now, with the top 2 teams sharing a Rivalry, an unfair matchup between #1 NY Rangers and #3 Boston must occur, while #8 Calgary and #14 Chicago meet in the other matchup. The winners of these matchups meet in the Stanley Cup Finals:

A/B-Rival Playoff Format Example 2

All logos © National Hockey League or respective owners, used for purpose of graphic aid only Ice background © Artsfon wallpapers

All logos © National Hockey League or respective owners, used for purpose of graphic aid only
Ice background © Artsfon wallpapers