Crunch Time

The ahl really needs to revamp its playoff structure...why are the Crunch playing game 1 of their series the same night that Providence and Portland are in game 3 of theirs? That means one of those teams could have a huge rest while other series havent even reached game 3...Port and Prov played game 2 of their 2nd round series the night BEFORE the Crunch wrapped up their first round series..I would think new series would start evenly, with a day difference at the most...I think thats ludicrous...series rounds should have a set start date, not just throw it together when series end...

I think it's hard because it's not really known when the arenas are going to have ice time for the teams (both for games and practices), who is going to make it into the rounds, when each of the rounds will end, etc. Even if rounds had a specific start date, you still might have huge rests times for some teams if, say, one series ends after four games while the other series goes to 7 (which is pretty much what happened in this instance...if tonight was the set date for the start of round two, Providence would have been sitting for an extreamly long amount of time, while if it was this past Wed., Syracuse would barely have gotten any rest). It's unpredictable.

I have more of an issue with the 2-2-1-1-1 series set-up.

playoff schedules, divisional schedules, there's a lot this league needs to look at over the summer

I like the 2-2-1-1-1..thats the way it shoul be...2-3-2 unfairly can favor the lower seed

Renegade11:

...2-3-2 unfairly can favor the lower seed

That is very true. 

I was thinking more about the 1-1-1...with a team like Toronto it's not a huge deal, as they're only a bus ride away, but if we were playing San Antonio it would have been a lot of miles to cover back and forth for both teams for those final three games, you know?

I do not blame the AHL as it is all about the teams playing. They have a great deal to worry about as most of the AHL arena's are just local areana's and require more than just hockey to survive. The other problem is both Providense and Portland endied their series early so they wanted to get them started. I do not seeing this as a problem no matter if we sweep or go 7 games. All will work out in the end and remember we are in the north were we play teams that are way too far away.We should be in the East but we are not so we have to deal but at least the rivallries are still their with Bingo, Albany, and Rochester. All will be fine. If we do loose it will not be because of the schedule but because we ran into a better team!

Allokago:

I have more of an issue with the 2-2-1-1-1 series set-up

   Not a bad idea though, as that is the normal playoff structure for the NHL. With the "A" being a league to get the players ready to play in "the show" might as well make it as close as possible. Plus I think that there are times when the 2-3-2 actually can help the lower seed (I know that it didn't help Manitoba) because all they would need to do is go in and get a split in the first 2 games and then they get the next 3 cracks at home to win out.

YATES MUST GO !!!!!!!!!!!!