NHL has no appetite to expand playoffs beyond its 16-team tournament for the Stanley Cup

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NHL has no appetite to expand playoffs beyond its 16-team tournament for the Stanley Cup

2024-04-18 01:19 Last Updated At：01:20

Sixteen teams, each one needing to win 16 games over four rounds of best-of-seven series to lift the Stanley Cup, has been the way the NHL decides its champion for nearly four decades. That isn't changing any time soon.

The NHL is the only one of the major four North American professional sports leagues not to expand its playoffs in recent years. It is content with the current format and isn't looking to add more teams, a play-in round or anything else amid plenty of discussion about doing so.

"We’re not giving any thought to expanding the playoffs," Commissioner Gary Bettman said in advance of the playoffs, which begin Saturday. “We have no interest in it. What we have is working very well. When you look at how our playoffs play out, the number of six- and seven-game series, the competitiveness of it, nothing in anybody else’s playoffs rivals that.”

There is an added benefit, Bettman said: It makes the regular season more meaningful. A handful of players who have won the Cup in recent years agreed that they prefer the status quo.

“You like what you know, I feel like,” said Washington's Trevor van Riemsdyk, who won the Cup with Chicago in 2015. “It keeps the importance of the regular season and all that stuff in the right place. I think 82 games is plenty of time, ample time, to make it.”

It has been that way since 1987, and in that era 16 of the league's 21 teams qualified for the playoffs. Now the league has 32 teams and half of them make the cut.

“Where we’re at right now at the NHL, I think we’re in a good spot,” said Pittsburgh's Reilly Smith, who won with the Golden Knights last year. “There’s a lot of parity in the league, but 16 teams is plenty.”

Smith thinks the playoffs are tough enough already, arguably the most physically taxing and grueling route to a title in sports, and adding games would put it over the edge.

If more games is the goal, hockey already has that. Over the past decade, over two-thirds of the 150 playoff series (67.3%) have gone to a sixth or deciding seventh game, compared to just over half (54%) in the NBA, which is in its third season with a four team per conference play-in tournament.

The NFL went from 12 to 14 playoff teams starting in 2020, and two years later Major League Baseball expanded to 12 teams, with six division winners and six wild cards making it.

Boston's Kevin Shattenkirk, who won the Cup with Tampa Bay in 2020, pointed to the end of this regular season as another reason playoff expansion isn't needed — particularly in the Eastern Conference where the Capitals, New York Islanders and others were essentially playing play-in games to make it.

“I feel like naturally our situation kind of creates that,” Shattenkirk said. “It’s not as heavy at the top as it is in basketball, I think. I think that’s why we don’t really need it.”

He and others would like to see the NHL go back to a 1 to 8 seed by conference setup, rather than the current divisional format designed to fuel rivalries and create a competitive first round, sometimes at the expense of the best teams facing off later in the playoffs.

Doing that could pave the way for any potential playoff expansion, which Pittsburgh's Lars Eller thinks would be prudent if the league expands beyond 32 clubs.

“If you’re adding more teams to the league at this point, I would think I would be open to have some sort of play-in — the top 20 or something like 14 to 20 play for spots or something like that,” said Eller, who won the Cup with Washington in 2018. "It’s OK as is. Half the teams get in. But if you’re adding more than that, it feels like there should be a few more spots."

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Protesters take over Columbia University's Hamilton Hall in escalation of anti-war demonstrations

2024-04-30 16:04 Last Updated At：16:20

NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of protesters took over a building at Columbia University in New York early Tuesday, barricading the entrances and unfurling a Palestinian flag out of a window in the latest escalation of demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war that have spread to college campuses nationwide.

Video footage showed protesters on Columbia's Manhattan campus locking arms in front of Hamilton Hall early Tuesday and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building, one of several that was occupied during a 1968 civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protest on the campus. Posts on an Instagram page for protest organizers shortly after midnight urged people to protect the encampment and join them at Hamilton Hall.

“An autonomous group reclaimed Hind’s Hall, previously known as ”Hamilton Hall,” in honor of Hind Rajab, a martyr murdered at the hands of the genocidal Israeli state at the age of six years old,” CU Apartheid Divest posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, early Tuesday.

The student radio station, WKCR-FM, broadcasted a play-by-play of the hall’s takeover – which occurred nearly 12 hours after Monday’s 2 p.m. deadline for the protesters to leave an encampment of around 120 tents or face suspension. Representatives for the university did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment early Tuesday.

In the X post, protestors said they planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to the CUAD's three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.

Universities across the U.S. are grappling with how to clear out encampments as commencement ceremonies approach, with some continuing negotiations and others turning to force and ultimatums that have resulted in clashes with police. Dozens of people were arrested Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah and Virginia, while Columbia said hours before the takeover of Hamilton Hall that it had started suspending students.

Demonstrators are sparring over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll, and the number of arrests at campuses nationwide is approaching 1,000 as the final days of class wrap up. The outcry is forcing colleges to reckon with their financial ties to Israel, as well as their support for free speech. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.

At the University of Texas at Austin, an attorney said at least 40 demonstrators were arrested Monday. The confrontation was an escalation on the 53,000-student campus in the state's capital, where more than 50 protesters were arrested last week.

Later Monday, dozens of officers in riot gear at the University of Utah sought to break up an encampment outside the university president’s office that went up in the afternoon. Police dragged students off by their hands and feet, snapping the poles holding up tents and zip-tying those who refused to disperse. Seventeen people were arrested. The university says it’s against code to camp overnight on school property and that the students were given several warnings to disperse before police were called in.

The plight of students who have been arrested has become a central part of protests, with the students and a growing number of faculty demanding amnesty for protesters. At issue is whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students through their adult lives.

The Texas protest and others — including in Canada and Europe — grew out of Columbia's early demonstrations that have continued. On Monday, student activists defied the 2 p.m. deadline to leave the encampment. Instead, hundreds of protesters remained. A handful of counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags, and one held a sign reading, “Where are the anti-Hamas chants?”

While the university didn’t call police to roust the demonstrators, school spokesperson Ben Chang said suspensions had started but could provide few details. Protest organizers said they were not aware of any suspensions as of Monday evening.

Columbia’s handling of the demonstrations also has prompted federal complaints.

A class-action lawsuit on behalf of Jewish students alleges a breach of contract by Columbia, claiming the university failed to maintain a safe learning environment, despite policies and promises. It also challenges the move away from in-person classes and seeks quick court action requiring Columbia to provide security for the students.

Meanwhile, a legal group representing pro-Palestinian students is urging the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office to investigate Columbia’s compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for how they have been treated.

A university spokesperson declined to comment on the complaints.

In a rare case, Northwestern University said it reached an agreement with students and faculty who represent the majority of protesters on its campus near Chicago. It allows peaceful demonstrations through the June 1 end of spring classes and in exchange, requires removal of all tents except one for aid, and restricts the demonstration area to allow only students, faculty and staff unless the university approves otherwise.

At the University of Southern California, organizers of a large encampment sat down with university President Carol Folt for about 90 minutes on Monday. Folt declined to discuss details but said she heard the concerns of protesters and talks would continue Tuesday.

USC sparked a controversy April 15 when officials refused to allow the valedictorian, who has publicly supported Palestinians, to make a commencement speech, citing nonspecific security concerns for their rare decision. Administrators then scrapped the keynote speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu, who is an alumnus, and declined to award any honorary degrees.

The backlash, as well as Columbia's demonstrations, inspired the encampment and protests on campus last week week where 90 people were arrested by police in riot gear. The university has canceled its main graduation event.

Administrators elsewhere tried to salvage their commencements and several have ordered the clearing of encampments in recent days. When those efforts have failed, officials threatened discipline, including suspension, and possible arrest.

But students dug in their heels at other high-profile universities, with standoffs continuing at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale and others. Police in riot gear at Virginia Commonwealth University sought to break up an encampment there late Monday and clashed with protesters.

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas, and Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Hannah Schoenbaum, Sarah Brumfield, Stefanie Dazio, Christopher Weber, Carolyn Thompson, David Collins, Makiya Seminera and Corey Williams.