OK, NHL, I’m on board with adding more teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs in the form of wild-card games.
The league brought in the term “wild card” when it moved to making the playoffs divisional-based brackets rather than going 1 through 8 in the conference.
After watching the latest wild-card games in Major League Baseball, why not have wild-card games in hockey?
They are essentially Game 7s, which are the best games, so why not have four more before the playoffs begin?
The top wild-card team in each division takes on the 10th-best team, while the second wild-card team takes on the ninth-best.
Last year the Carolina Hurricanes would have played the Florida Panthers and the Montreal Canadiens would have had a chance to play the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1 by battling the Columbus Blue Jackets in a wild-card game.
In the West, the Dallas Stars would have played the Chicago Blackhawks and the Colorado Avalanche would have played the Arizona Coyotes.
More revenue, more drama and more intrigue as playoffs begin? Yes, please.