Playoff Format

[Shootmaster_44]

Can anyone explain the rationale for the playoff format? Granted I haven't followed the WHL closely in many years, but I noticed that the playoff format doesn't have a second round reset, like the NHL does.

What I mean is #1 Portland plays #2 Kelowna and #3 Spokane plays #4 Tri-Cities. In the East, if the Blades win, you'd have #1 Saskatoon against #2 Red Deer.

Why does the WHL do this? Wouldn't it make more sense to have #1 Portland play #4 Tri-Cities and #2 Kelowna play #3 Spokane? I assumed that winning your division would give you an easier path to the Conference Finals. Apparently, by winning your division and then winning your first round series means likely you have the tougher path to the Conference Final.

[west coast]

at first glance - it would be number 1 Portland vs number 4 Kelowna because of the 4 teams in the west Kelowna had the least amount of points.They had a number 2 seed going into playoffs because they won their division.After the first round it appears the seeds go by number of points in the regular season.

[Shootmaster_44]

at first glance - it would be number 1 Portland vs number 4 Kelowna because of the 4 teams in the west Kelowna had the least amount of points.They had a number 2 seed going into playoffs because they won their division.After the first round it appears the seeds go by number of points in the regular season.

Though if you follow the bracket on the league's website for the East, it appears that Saskatoon will play Red Deer, if the Blades go through. That would be #1 versus #2, is it simply an error showing it that way?

Edit: I found the format buried on the website. You are indeed correct, if the Blades make it through they would play the lowest ranked team that remains solely based on points.

[west coast]

i would agree that it is a confusing way of doing things ,it would be easier if Kelowna would just keep number two seed and the matchups would be different in the west .........but on how things went in the east the matchups will be more straight forward

[LifelongChiefsFan]

Though if you follow the bracket on the league's website for the East, it appears that Saskatoon will play Red Deer, if the Blades go through. That would be #1 versus #2, is it simply an error showing it that way?

Edit: I found the format buried on the website. You are indeed correct, if the Blades make it through they would play the lowest ranked team that remains solely based on points.


Yeah it is confusing. Unlike the NHL system where the seeds remain fixed throughout the playoffs, the division winners only get the top 2 seeds for the first round, then afterward every team left is re-seeded based on total points. This happened to the Chiefs in 2008. Vancouver was the 2nd seed with 106 points and Spokane was the 3rd seed with 107, but when the Chiefs and Giants played in the 2nd round, the Chiefs had home ice advantage.

I really don't see the point to it, but if you're going to have the conference split up into two divisions, I guess you gotta give the division winner a cookie. Even if it only lasts one round.