The play-in tournament doesn't devalue the regular season. Teams like Nashville, Vegas, LA, Tampa have been on cruise control for weeks because their spots were set. No moving up or down. Imagine if they had to compete to stay out of a one-game play-in. Now that's fun.
@AGretz Please no. The Stanley Cup playoffs as is are the best in sports. Don’t mess up that aspect of hockey!!!
@AGretz Every argument I’ve heard from NHL fans about why a play-in is a terrible idea since I wrote about it has been exactly what NBA fans were saying too. Then the first one happened and everyone was like oh nevermind this is great. It adds regular-season value and the games are +++
@AGretz If by weeks you mean two weeks. If any of those western conference teams had totally fallen off, Blues might have caught them. But I wouldn’t mind a play-in in the NHL bc the NHL has ALWAYS had a huge chunk of teams make it in. Now is the lowest percentage ever.
@AGretz I still worry about the regular season. A 40-42 team is already making it. If there's a play-in, the league could make the first round Best of 5, which creates chances for more upsets in an already random sport. Might hurt the season, and incentivize what's happening in baseball.