On Saturday, May 22, the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) executive board members voted on a return to play format that included a 24-team playoff bracket. Under this proposed format, NHL training camps would start no earlier than July and the playoffs would run through the summer.
Under the 24 team format, the Islanders are set to face off in a qualifying round against the Florida Panthers. The winner will play either the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning or Washington Capitals. There seeding will be determined by a round-robin tournament.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets will have a best-of-five or best-of-seven qualifying round. While it may seem more coveted to be a higher seed and have a “bye.”
It is more likely that the teams that play a qualifying round will be better off. When the winner of each qualifying round plays the higher seed, the team that played in the qualifying round will have had a greater opportunity to adjust to the game. It is quite simple: the lower-seeded teams will have played more hockey and have gotten more NHL ready.
They will have gotten back into a higher and faster style of play (since they have just played at most a five-game series) while the higher-seeded teams will be more flat-footed. (The NHL does not make it clear how the round-robin style tournament works for the top four teams in each division; however, this argument holds if it is only one game.)
What is great about this format is that it includes 24 teams rather than the traditional 16 team format, with more teams in the playoff pool one certainty is fans will be getting more hockey. And it is much deserved. With all the deaths, struggles, hardship and pain going on in the world at the moment, sports gives between hope and allows individuals to take their mind off everything that is going on. The week of May 25 will be the 11th straight week without hockey or any sports. With the absence of sports, fans from all over the world are itching to get any bit of normalcy back in their lives, and with the return of hockey that is exactly what is happening.
The proposed 24 team playoff format benefits the organization a great deal more specifically to the New York Islanders. 
Before the hiatus of play in the National Hockey League, the Islanders were in complete free-fall. When the NHL suspended its season in mid-march, the Islanders had lost the last seven games, leaving the team searching for its first win in over two weeks. Also, adding more gasoline to the fire, the Islanders were out of the playoff picture. With the number of injuries facing the team, on top of an extremely competitive Eastern Conference, the Islanders playoff chances were looking slimmer and slimmer each day. Without the added four teams from each conference to the playoff pool, it seems highly unlikely the Islanders would be returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs based on how the team was playing as the season came to halt.
On top of allowing the Islanders to get into the postseason, the suspension of play gave the Islanders an extremely key opportunity: rest.
Before the break, the overall team play looked sluggish, and the players seemed like they had barely anything left in the tank. One particular reason why the Islanders were so fatigued was that the injuries to key players like Adam Pelech, Casey Cizikas and Johnny Boychuk placed a heavier burden on other core players.
And, the Islanders struggles show that this added load of work in the wake of injuries was just way too much to handle, leaving other players more fatigued with no positive results.
Furthermore, another reason for the Islanders’ exhaustion was because of their particular style of play. The Islanders lack talent. There is no question about it. The Islanders cannot rely on skill, they have to work for every opportunity they get. They are a nitty-gritty type of team. It is rare to see any goal for the Islanders to come easy for them. And, this style of play works for the Islanders.
However, it comes with a price. Players take a tremendous toll on their bodies. It is challenging to maintain that style of play for all 82 games of the season. Hence, the reason for the Islanders slide.
11 weeks off is an enormous amount of time to heal physically and to gear up for a playoff run mentally. The suspension of play hurts teams that started to heat up for the playoffs and were picking up momentum. For the Islanders, the break was almost a blessing in disguise. Not only did the suspension of play help the Islanders by being the catalyst for a 24 team playoff pool, but it also allowed the Islanders’ players who were injured to become 100% again, and allowed the overall team an opportunity to get rest.

Ethan Halle

Ethan is an Economics Major at the University of Florida looking to pursue a double major in Sports Management with a minor in political science.