Taken from Iceweb.. Changed this year... Shame as I liked the last format.
New format for Superleague Play-offs
The Superleague today revealed the new format for the 2002/03 Play-offs.
Instead of all teams automatically qualifying for the play-offs, only the top 6 teams in the Superleague will now participate in what is an extremely exciting part of any ice hockey season.
The six teams will play each other once, with the top 3 teams in the League gaining the advantage of 3 home games, and just 2 away, whilst clubs finishing 4th, 5th and 6th will face 3 games on the road and just 2 at home. These play-off qualification games will run from the 10th to the 30th of March 2003.
The top four teams will then progress to the Play-off Finals weekend, which this year will be held on the 5th and 6th April 2003 at a venue to be confirmed.
Got to admit I did think last seasons play off format was good but I do think that the bottom place team missing out has got to make the league even more competitive. At seasons end it means everybody has something to play for.
The play offs must have some sort of qualification to prevent the mid/lower placed teams forgetting about the last two weeks of the league season in order to prepare for the play offs. IMHO should be top four go through to a best of three series for the semi and final.
... what do people think about having a slightly longer season and have the top 4 teams go straight into the playoffs semi's. This would put more meaning into the regular season games (and not just the bottom 2 or 3 teams)
What I don't like about this is that we now have a 5-game playoff season.
If we're only going to go with six teams, which I agree with (it's not really a playoff if everyone gets a go) then we should have every team home and away - a ten game playoff campaign followed by the playoff weekend as usual. Although the idea of a five- or seven- game NHL-style playoff series against the Panthers has a certain appeal!
Can see the point re competition in League not to miss out, but loss of income from having no playoff games could affect teams. (Did NP know of this possibility before splashing out???)
