More NHL: | | | | |When the NHL initially announced plans for realignment into four conferences in December of 2011, it also announced a new playoff format. Now, Adrian Sanchez Jersey after a , so have new plans for the postseason.According to TSNs Bob McKenzie, there will not be expanded playoffs, nor a play-in game for wild-card teams to get into the playoffs as has been to sed around in the post-realignment report chatter.With the playoffs remaining at 16 teams, McKenzie shared the details of what we might be able to : We are looking at a situation like the original December 2011 plan -- four conferences with four teams in each conference making the playoffs and playing the first two rounds; just like the old divisional format in the National Hockey Jake Noll Jersey League. That's what the NHL wanted but the NHLPA didn't want to do that, so what we're likely to see this time around is three teams from each of the four conferences guaranteed a playoff spot and then fill out with wild card spots the rest of the way.So, four of 18 teams would Austin Voth Jersey be in the running based on their total points but we don't know at this point how those will be allocated in terms of the first and second round of the playoffs.This is basically like a hybrid of what exists now with what was proposed two Decembers ago.The playoff Kurt Suzuki Jersey format was among the major sticking points for the NHLPA, which cited inequity in the initial plan.We had an i sue with the fact that teams would either have a mathematical advantage or disadvantage of qualifying for the playoffs depending upon whether theyd be in a seven-team or eight-team conference, NHLPA executive director earlier this month.With two seven-team conferences and two eight-team conferences, the inequity is alleviated with the structure McKenzie revealed. It Aaron Barrett Jersey may not foster in-conference rivalries as effectively as the first two rounds being played amongst only conference foes, but it certainly evens things out.Keep in mind, this is not final. It is simply in the proposal stage. Theres plenty to play out before any of this gets set in stone. It does seem that things are moving rather quickly, however, so the realignment picture should become clear very soon. (h/t for the image)