So nice of the league office to get around to making the official announcement. The Wings let the cat out of the months ago. You can read the press release HERE
Taken from the press release
Divisions and Scheduling
Each team in the West Division will play two division opponents twice and the other two division rivals three times, while facing each team in the North and East Divisions once.
Unbalanced division schedule yuck. Sure would of been nice if the league would of announced the tie breaker procedure as well.
Teams located in the North and East Divisions will play the other three teams in its division three times, while facing non-divisional opponents once. The schedule format was approved by the league’s Board of Governors during the offseason.
Playoff Format
Eight teams will once again qualify for the playoffs. The three division winners will now automatically receive the top three seeds in the playoffs, based on their records and tiebreakers.
The three second-place teams in each of the three divisions will receive the fourth through sixth seeds in the order of their records and tiebreakers.
The seventh and eighth “wild card” seeds will be awarded to the next two best records from any division.
Eight teams in a thirteen team league make the playoffs? That is just too much in our opinion. Bet Philly still manages to the miss the playoffs. 🙂
Playoffs
The first two rounds of the playoffs will remain single-elimination and teams will not be re-seeded after the opening round. The championship round will remain as a best-of-three series. The highest remaining seed will host Game 1 and, if necessary, Game 3.
LaxScoop 