from Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News,

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of March Madness, but bringing college basketball’s format to major junior hockey doesn’t seem like a great fit.

In an article from La Presse, translated by Pro Hockey Talk, Sportsnet president Scott Moore floats the idea of turning the four-team round-robin tournament into a 16-team single-elimination bracket, reminiscent of college basketball’s Sweet Sixteen (March Madness actually starts with 68 teams and don’t get me started on the switch from 64). Moore acknowledges that he and the stewards of the Memorial Cup tournament would have to be careful not to spoil what the junior world already has and that’s the right attitude because there are several major barriers to making this work in hockey.

First off, the Memorial Cup is already too long and it only involves four teams. Yeah, I get that all these squads are tired from a long post-season already – except for the hosts, who always seem to bomb out of their league playoffs early nowadays – but the one-game-a-day format is arduous for those not playing the games. Eight contests in 10 days? This isn’t cricket.

Now we’re talking about 15 games – how long would that take?

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