from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Here’s one you haven’t read in this space all that often over the last 20 years, but Slap Shots has an ally in Gary Bettman with the commissioner’s opposition to expanding the playoffs by including a couple of play-in series per conference that would involve teams in seventh place through 10th place. All in the name of keeping more clubs in it.

That’s just what we all need, isn’t it, teams representing the bottom third of the league in the postseason and teams perhaps among the NHL’s five-worst artificially vying for spots down the stretch? All in the name of giving everyone a chance to win at the expense of quality control.

Why anyone would give credence to general managers supporting the proposal when doing so is nakedly self-interested balderdash is beyond me (“Hey, we finished over .500!” anecdotally said the GM of a team that won 36 out of 82 games, as a pair of clubs did in 2018-19). I’m sorry but no, no championship-caliber team has ever finished in 10th place in its conference.

The NHL is enough of a lowest-common denominator league as it is. Everything is skewed to level the playing field for lesser teams. The cap punishes and suppresses success (except when long-term injured reserve is available for a no-state-tax team). The loser point speaks for itself. The disappearing-ink rulebook whipped out for the playoffs benefits less-talented teams.

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So how come, if the Islanders and Lightning could play Game 7 of the semifinals with maybe one mild, post-whistle scrum, can’t every playoff game be played that way?

They can, they could, they should and they would if, starting with Game 1 of Round 1, officials called unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on players mugging it up after the whistle.