The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t the only victims of the NHL’s silly and ill-advised divisional rivalry approach to the NHL Playoffs.
I was watching a Don Cherry Rock Em Sock Em video from after the Penguins and Sharks met in the Stanley Cup Final (the year the Toronto Maple Leafs finished last, and Connor McDavid’s Rookie Season) and I saw something interesting:
The 3rd (St Louis) and 5th (Chicago) best teams in the NHL had to play in the opening round of the playoffs.
Its kind of embarrassing that the NHL didn’t fix their format after realizing this could happen, and now it’s basically happening annually, as Tampa, Boston and Toronto are 3 of the NHL’s best teams.