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NHL Update: Re-Seeding and Best of Seven
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The NHL continues to iron out details on a return to play and TSN’s Pierre LeBrun has some tidbits for us. Some morsels:
Keep in mind, this is just the format agreement. Still to come are Phase 3 (training camp) and Phase 4 (games/hubs/protocol) which still have to be negotiated. Only preliminary talks so far on those fronts.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 4, 2020
Originally the NHL was gonna roll with a bracket based off the traditional playoff format. Now it’ll be the top four teams in each conference with an auto berth, while the remaining eight enter via a best of five play-in series.
The Flyers would play a round robin with Boston, Tampa, and Washington to determine top four seeding, with regular season points-percentage serving as the tiebreaker. Then we’d re-seed after the opening round and move to best of seven with the Flyers/Bruins/Lightning and Caps jumping in.
Make sense? It’s a little chaotic but this is what we’ve got.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com