Jeffrey K asked:
In NHL hockey, the top 8 teams in each conference make the playoffs. The first place teams in each division get the top 3 spots.
What would happen if a division winner is not one of the top 8 teams? Would they still get a playoff spot, thus eliminating the 8th place team? Or would the top 8 teams get spots, thus eliminating a division winner from the playoffs?
I know this is unlikely to happen, but it is possible.
Highly unlikely but they would still be the 3rd seed.
As long as you win your division, the worst position you can be is third in the conference.
The division winners get the top three seeds, even if there are other conference teams with more points.
There are 3 divisions on the east. The top 3 spots go to the Division leaders. However there are 8 playoff spots for the east so after the Division leaders take the top 3 the teams with the highest points who aren’t division leaders get the last 5 spots for the playoffs.
So a Division Winner will always have a playoff spot. If there are a tie for a division leader let’s say they each of 100 points then the team with the most wins will be the division leader for Overtime games give you 1 point they don’t count as a win. If some how the two teams have the same exact Win-Loss-Overtime Loss then they will go by goals depending on how soon the playoffs are, if there is a week or so before the start of the playoffs They will have an option to have an extra game which happened 5 or 6 years ago between the Islanders and the Bruins.
So let’s say the Atlantic division (which is really the weakest division) let’s say they only get 60 points but the other teams get 80 or 90 the Atlantic Division winner would still get a playoff spot, Sad but true.
I suppose that is theoretically possible even with team playing 32 games in their own division. But yes, the division winner would still take the #3 spot no matter what.
The rule isn’t the top 8 teams — it’s the 3 divisional winners in order of their records, followed by the next 5 best teams in order of their records. It’s just that it’s only ever been the top 8 teams; the 3rd divisional winner has never had a record that would put them below 5th or 6th in the conference. It’s possible that the 3rd division winner could be as bad as 10th.
They would get the spot and the 8th place team would be out. And in that case, I’d rather rank 6th over all and play that bad ’3rd place’ team.