2019-2020 NHL season thread

16 teams make the playoffs, not 24.
The odds in every draft are that the shittiest teams will slip. You think this is just a Wings thing? You don’t like the lottery, that’s fine, I don’t like it either but it’s not because my team slipped in the draft. The lottery is not new and it’s just now you’re saying fuck Bettman?

 

Are you one of those guys who hits a rut at a blackjack table and blames the dealer?

It’s a lottery. There’s luck involved. Not all of it good.

 

Yes, lotteries have an element of luck. But then they manipulate the process -- tweak it, adjust it -- to give some teams chances they wouldn't normally have gotten. I said at the beginning of this that the league will keep batting around the playoff process until they figured out a way to get the Rangers in. They did it, but didn't stop there, also getting the Blackhawks and Canadiens in. Three big market, Original Six teams. Remember when the Knicks miraculously "won" the NBA lottery when Patrick Ewing was going to be the No. 1 pick?

 

This year 24 teams made the playoffs, not 16
Calling the first round a play in is semantics
I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for Wings fans
They had a good run for a long time
I’ve said fuck Bettman for a long time
I agree with Brian Burke
The lottery is a fucking disgrace
How happy will any of you be if McDavid or Crosby has LaFreniere on his wing?
Not the way the system should work

 

And adjustments are made to the lottery long before they know what teams will be in it. Can you walk me through the process they manipulated to benefit a certain team.

 

You can repeat it all you like that 24 teams make the playoffs, you are factually incorrect.

Do you consider the teams that lose the playin game to have made the NCAA tournament?

 

Yes

 

The NCAA does.

 

Just checked Michigan’s web site
The Wolverines received an at-large bid in 2016
They played in the first four
Ergo, they played in a play in game as a NCAA Tournament participant

 

They let teams be in the playoffs AND the lottery. That gave the three I mentioned a chance. I originally thought it would just be the Rangers. But they went above and beyond.

On Jake's point, if you are still scheduled to play, you ARE in the playoffs. You'll never hear somebody say the won the Cup even thought they weren't in the playoffs.

Please stop issuing challenges just so you can find somebody to argue with.

 

The NCAA actually calls those games the first round now.

 

It happens every year
Chicago went from 12 to 3 last year
Carolina went from 11 to 2 the year they got Svechnikov
The system is flawed