In a recent interview, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was asked about one rule change he would make in the NHL, and his answer comes as absolutely no surprise.
The NHL has been criticized plenty for their playoff format, as this is how the first-round currently works.
While it's fun to build rivalries amongst the divisions, the NHL has seen this issue pop up several times in the past few years, with the Maple Leafs and Lightning especially, as they have had to battle in the first round several times.
Ultimately, it's not the worst rule for the NHL, but if a player like Sidney Crosby, who has been in the NHL for two decades calls it out, then it's something that Gary Bettman should certainly look into.
POLL | ||
FÉVRIER 5 | 178 ANSWERS Sidney Crosby Calls on Gary Bettman to Make a Major Rule Change Should the NHL change its playoff format? | ||
Yes | 143 | 80.3 % |
No | 35 | 19.7 % |
LIST OF POLLS |
G | A | PTS | ||
Brandon Hagel | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
Ryan O'Reilly | - | 4 | 4 | |
Sebastian Aho | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Matthew Boldy | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Matt Duchene | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Seth Jarvis | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Erik Cernak | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Alex DeBrincat | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Jonathan Marchessault | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Ilya Mikheyev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Matthew Tkachuk | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Alex Tuch | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Nikita Kucherov | - | 3 | 3 | |
Will Cuylle | 2 | - | 2 | |
Filip Forsberg | 2 | - | 2 | |
Clayton Keller | 2 | - | 2 | |
Brady Skjei | 2 | - | 2 | |
Aleksander Barkov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Jesper Bratt | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Philip Broberg | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Complete stats |
STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 56 | 39 | 14 | 3 | 81 | |
Capitals | 54 | 36 | 11 | 7 | 79 | |
Oilers | 55 | 34 | 17 | 4 | 72 | |
Stars | 54 | 34 | 18 | 2 | 70 | |
Golden Knights | 55 | 32 | 17 | 6 | 70 | |
Panthers | 56 | 33 | 20 | 3 | 69 | |
Maple Leafs | 54 | 33 | 19 | 2 | 68 | |
Hurricanes | 55 | 32 | 19 | 4 | 68 | |
Wild | 55 | 32 | 19 | 4 | 68 | |
Avalanche | 57 | 33 | 22 | 2 | 68 | |
Conference | Cumulative |