from Ry MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

The playoffs simply take too long.

As Randy Turner, the admirable writer with the Winnipeg Free Press, tweeted Wednesday evening, “When the #NHLJets won their first playoff series in 31yrs i didn’t know it was going to take another 31 years for the 2nd round to start.”

Complaining about the length of the hockey season is certainly nothing new. The last time the Ottawa Senators won a Cup in my city, 1927, it was widely held that pushing the season all the way to April 13 was a mistake.

“The season was but three days short of five months,” Citizen sports editor Ed Baker wrote, “entirely too long in the opinion of many well-informed hockey authorities....

A better idea would be to speed up the playoff rounds. Back in 1939, when the league made its switch from a best-of-five format to best-of-sevens, the Boston Bruins took the Cup in only 10 days. Why it takes two months now is, simply, ridiculous.

The best idea of all, however, is the original one that used to determine every hockey season.

When the ice goes out, the season is over.

more