Alex Killorn reveals why the Lightning voted “no” on the NHL's proposal.

Killorn reveals the Lightning's motivations.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Alex Killorn reveals why the Lightning voted “no” on the NHL's proposal.
Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times/Zuma

The Tampa Bay Lightning were one of two teams who voted against the National Hockey League's proposed 24 team playoff format on Friday and since then there have been plenty of questions about why those two teams opted to vote against the proposal.

In an earlier report I had speculated that in the case of the Lightning in particular the addition of an extra 8 teams to the field would likely have appeared to be rather unfair given how well they performed during the regular season, and given how poorly some of the teams now getting in performed by comparison. Since that report Tampa Bay Lightning winger Alex Killorn, the team's representative at the National Hockey League Players Association and the man who cast the actual vote, has shed some light on the reason he cast his ballot against the proposal.

Killorn confirmed my suspicions regarding the addition of the extra teams as being a motivating factor behind the vote, with the Lightning feeling that some of those teams simply did not merit a shot at the Stanley Cup after their respective regular seasons. 

“I brought the format to my team,” Killorn Lightning insider Joe Smith via text Saturday night. “They didn’t feel it was fair that certain teams that probably wouldn’t have made the playoffs would have a chance to make the playoffs in a best-of-five series.”

I have to be honest that seems like a perfectly reasonable point from the Lightning's perspective, although I also understand the economic motivations behind the league's decision to add extra teams to make up for all the revenue that has been lost this season. Killorn however brought up a second reason for the Lightning's opposition to this new format, and this one I believe is even more pertinent that the addition of the extra teams. You see the Lightning will be getting a "bye" from the first round "play in" format due to their success in the regular season and although that could be perceived as an advantage under normal circumstances, it could in fact be a detriment given the long layoff that players have had due to the season shutting down.

“The only problem I have with that format is that the top teams that have a bye, I don’t know how competitive their games will be going forward where the teams at the bottom will be playing playoff games right away and (would be) potentially more prepared for, I guess, the real playoffs,” Killorn said. 

It's an excellent point. The team that advances through the "play in" series will have had actual games under their belt when they face off against Killorn and the Lightning, and if the Lightning can't get up to game speed in time that could prove to be a significant disadvantage for them. That being said they will be facing a lower seeded team so hopefully that will prove to be enough of an advantage that it balances out the proposed playoff format.

Do you agree with the Lightning's decision to vote no? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.\

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