There has been a decisive uptick in discussion about National Hockey League expansion in recent weeks. And we aren’t merely talking affiliate expansion and the push towards a 34-team league; the public debate as to whether the NHL should pursuit an NBA-style playoff format expansion has also increased.

For a variety of reasons (and surely, a topic worth getting to in the off-season here), I don’t think the NHL should expand its playoff footprint, though it’s a nuanced debate and one that brings real incremental business opportunity to a league yearning for growth.

Setting aside the playoff expansion debate for a moment, can I bring to your attention – for what seems like an annual recurrence since the league reformatted to a divisional-based playoff format in 2014 – to a colossal issue that can be fixed in a moment’s notice? It’s the current playoff format.

It is a topic I have exhausted in this space, but it’s also a problem the league has yet to address. When the NHL made its format changes, much of the focus was on rewarding........

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