The NHL has reportedly finalized a couple more parts of its return to play plan, and one of them adds a little more importance to the round-robin tournament in which the Bruins will be playing.
According to multiple reports, the league will reseed after each round rather than sticking to a bracket, and every round after the best-of-five play-in series will be best-of-seven like usual.
The NHL Playoffs will not be bracketed, but re-seeded after every round. Qualifying will be best-of-five. All other rounds will be best-of-seven.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 4, 2020It's that first part that's most important for Boston. The Bruins had the best record in the NHL and were well on their way to clinching the No. 1 seed at the time the season was suspended, but they'll have to play in a round-robin tournament with the Lightning, Capitals and Flyers to determine the seeding for the top four teams in the Eastern Conference.
If the league stuck to a strict bracket, seeding may not have been as important since that would mean the No. 1 seed wouldn't be guaranteed to face the lowest-remaining seed.
But now that the league is reseeding after each round, including the play-in round, the top seed in the conference will get the lowest-remaining seed in each round, meaning there's even more incentive for the Bruins to win this round-robin tourney and keep their No. 1 seed.
It also means that if the Bruins do finish first, they could potentially face the 12th-seeded Canadiens in the first round if Montreal manages to upset the Penguins in its play-in series.
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