ICYMI: NHL makes the best change to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in years!

The National Hockey League has finally given in to a change that I know fans have been demanding for years. According to a report this week from Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman the league finally capitulated and will be dumping its current bracket format for the playoffs and will instead use reseeding in each and every round of the playoffs, giving the teams that performed the best in the regular season a consistent advantage throughout the postseason. 

Additionally Friedman also confirmed this week that the additional 8 teams in this years playoff tournament, that is to say the teams that will participate in the "play in series," will have to win a best of 5 before returning to the normal best of 7 format once the pool is narrowed down to the traditional 16 playoff teams.

From Friedman:

The NHL Playoffs will not be bracketed, but re-seeded after every round. Qualifying will be best-of-five. All other rounds will be best-of-seven.

I must admit that I am very happy to see this change, it is often a shame that we get some of the best playoff series on the way to the Stanley Cup instead of seeing the top two teams in the league clash in said final. Now to be clear this does not mean that the NHL will return to reseeeding when things get back to normal and we have a more traditional Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2021, but I have no doubt that if this results in more competitive games throughout the entirety of the tournament that the league will give serious consideration to using reseeding in the future.