As many know, the NHL season was cut in half this season due to problems with a collective bargaining agreement, or CBA. It’s funny how in the past 2-3 years, labor issues have been a serious problem in professional sports across the board. The NBA and NHL lost games while the NFL lost certain preseason workouts. All three were greatly affected. However, this 48 game season of hockey (a full season has 82 games) has been nothing short of exciting yet confusing.
I’m a big New Jersey Devils fan. They lost in the Stanley Cup finals last year to the Los Angeles Kings, but I wasn’t torn up about it. I was excited to even get to the finals and win the Eastern Conference. That was way more than I was expecting last season, but it elevated my expectations for this season.
We aren’t the best team in hockey. But, we play very well. At least we can say we are better off than Columbus.
Regardless, the playoffs are fast approaching as there are about 10 games left for most teams in the regular season.
The NHL is ranked on a point system. A team is given 2 standing points for a win, 0 for a loss, and 1 for a loss in overtime or a shootout. In each conference, there are 3 divisions. This is the last year we will see this, as next year the league is realigning into four conferences. Anyway, there are three divisions in each conference, and the division leader in each makes the playoffs as the first, second or third seed. In order to finish off the playoff bracket, the next 5 teams in point standings are added to the bunch. 8 teams from each conference go to the playoffs, making a total of 16 teams.
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