The six to eight weeks after the Masters have always been my favorite time to be a sports fan. The NCAA tournament and the greatest golf tournament of the year have just ended, and baseball season is just beginning. But the greatest thing about this time is having the NBA and NHL playoffs on at the same time.
As an avid sports fan, nothing beats a competitive playoff series. Although the MLB and NBA playoffs are fun to watch, the NHL has the greatest playoff system.
There are a few problems with the MLB playoffs. The first and biggest problem is the league that wins the All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series. This makes absolutely no sense. The team with the better record of the two teams that reach the World Series should get home field advantage. The fact the majority of the players who helped win the All-Star game will not be in the World Series makes this a ridiculous way to decide home field advantage.
The second reason this is an inferior system is because the opening series is played as a best of five series instead of best of seven. Additional games would give the better team a greater chance to advance; having fewer games leaves more room for a fluke team to advance in the playoffs. Also, with fans, more playoff games are always better.
The NBA realized this and made the change to the best of seven series for all rounds in 2003. The problem with the NBA is the fact that, unlike the NHL, the NBA does not reseed after the first round. In the NHL, it benefits to earn the top seeds because it guarantees if there is an upset, you will be facing the lowest seed in the next round. In the NBA, the top seed will have to face whoever is in their bracket regardless of what the other seeds do.
The biggest reason the NHL playoffs is the perfect system is the fact it has a 2-2-1-1-1 series format for all rounds instead of a 2-3-2 – the higher seed gets home court advantage for games 1,2,5 and 7. The NBA uses this format until the finals, when it switches to the 2-3-2 format. The main problem with this is it gives the lower seed an unfair advantage. If the lower seed can split one of the first two games, they have a huge advantage getting three home games in a row. This gives the lower seed the opportunity to take control in a series they probably shouldn’t win.
I still blame the Mavericks’ downfall in the 2006 finals on this bad system. After going up 2-0, the series went back to Miami where the Heat won all three games and completely changed the momentum of the series.
Ultimately, the NHL playoff system is the perfect system because everything it does benefits the higher seed. This is the way it should be; otherwise, what is the point of the regular season?
