from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

The idea some have floated is that the top four teams in each division would make the playoffs, then it’s 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 in each division and a divisional final in the second round. The four division playoff winners would then meet in the league semifinals.

It’s what we had in the NHL from 1981-82 through 1992-93.

The majority of NHL team executives I spoke with Monday believe this is the likely path this year for a number of reasons:

- It would reduce travel costs in the three geographically aligned U.S. divisions.

- If regular season games are to be played exclusively within division, then it makes sense to continue that in the opening two rounds of the playoffs.

- Perhaps most importantly, it pushes the Canada-U.S. border issue further down the road. The NHL would be down to the four league semifinalists in June by the time it was time for teams to cross the border.

The Canadian teams, it could be argued, catch a break here because there’s only seven teams in their proposed division whereas the three U.S. divisions will have eight teams apiece.

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