Would NHL ever introduce Stanley Cup Playoff play-in games?

Expanding the Stanley Cup Playoffs presents an interesting conundrum for Gary Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors.

On the one hand, the current 16-team field isn’t a problem and doesn’t need fixing, even if the NHL’s stewards like to mess around with how those teams qualify every few years.

On the other hand, restricting the field to 16 teams is sacrificing a pipeline of additional playoff revenue for teams, the League and their television partners. It’s said there’s nothing that matches the drama of a Stanley Cup Playoff Game 7, as teams face the end of their marathon with one loss – well, what do you think a playoff play-in game is, essentially?

But in the perpetual tug-of-war between the classical and the commercial in hockey, will the NHL resist expanding the playoffs to include a play-in game eventually?

Consider that we’re growing to 31 teams next season, and that total is eventually going to be at least 32 when the conferences are balanced. (Hi, Seattle.) Consider that the NCAA basketball tournaments, Major League Baseball and the National Football League all have some variation of play-in games between playoff teams on the bubble.

Consider that if the NHL had a “wild card play-in game” between the last wild card team and the team that finished right behind it, we would have had a Boston Bruins vs. Philadelphia Flyers single-elimination game in the East last season. In the previous season, it would have been the Bruins vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins. In the West, the Winnipeg Jets would have had to defeat the Los Angeles Kings at home in a play-in game: a single-elimination game for the Jets’ first trip to the playoffs since relocating from Atlanta.

That’s a whole lotta money and hype being left on the table.

And consider that playoff excitement is the easiest way to grow a team’s fan base in any market, which is part of the argument Craig Custance made on ESPN.com last year for expanding the playoffs:

People would watch. People would most definitely watch.

Arizona Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc certainly has noticed the success in baseball and it has him intrigued. “I can just look at baseball from a fan’s perspective, it keeps people engaged in their team longer. There’s a chance they can get that final spot,” LeBlanc said. “Our league tends to have some competition coming in for those last couple spots the last couple of weeks, but not always. I kind of like it.”

So is the NHL considering it?

“It’s something that’s come up over time,” admitted deputy commission Bill Daly on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Thursday, “and every time it’s come up, it hasn’t gained any kind of traction.”

Why not?

“We start from the premise that what we have is really, really good. If it’s really, really good, I’m not sure we need to tinker with it in that way,” said Daly.

(Well yeah, not in that way. Other ways, sure. But not that way.)

Daly said a play-in game would be unfair to teams that made the top eight in each conference.

“In our sport, to play a full season of 82 games and to be able to establish some distance in the standings between you and another competitor, and then to be knocked out of the playoffs in a one-game matchup, I don’t think that’s necessarily fair. And I’m not sure our clubs would appreciate that,” he said.

“We think the 16-to-31 ratio actually works, and it makes our regular season more credible.”

Again, it must be hard to resist it. But to the NHL’s credit, there’s no “everyone else is doing it so why can’t we?” There’s no putting revenue over tradition. At least not yet. So for the time being, kudos for not trying to force expansion on the best postseason in professional sports; and, in the process, further devaluing the regular season.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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