In 1996, the CFL introduced a tweak to its playoff system that upset traditionalists, but was implemented for all the right reasons - to ensure fairness, reward success and ultimately banish teams that didn't belong in the postseason because of their mediocre play.
The CFL decided, in the years when the fourth-place team in one conference had a better record than the third-place team in the other conference, that the former would qualify for the playoffs instead and "cross over" to compete in the playoffs on the other side of the great geographic divide.
It meant that there could be a Grey Cup featuring Calgary v. Edmonton or Toronto and Montreal and five times altogether, according to the CFL, a fourth-place team crossed over to play a playoff game in the other conference.
The NHL - long a stirring example of innovation and progressive thinking - could learn something from the CFL's experience, based on the way that, once again, the 2010-11 standings are heavily skewed in favour of the top-heavy Western Conference.
With four weeks plus a day to go in the regular season, it looks as if 90 points will be enough to qualify for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, while it could take upwards of 95 or 96 points to make it in the West.
Last year was typical of how things have unfolded in recent years. Two teams in the West - the ninth-placed St. Louis Blues and the 10th-placed Calgary Flames - missed the playoffs, despite recording 90 points apiece, while the Philadelphia Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens qualified with 88 points respectively.
The Flyers and Canadiens caught fire at just the right time, and eventually met in the Eastern Conference final, and Philadelphia came within two victories of winning the Stanley Cup. If the Flyers had played in the West, they would have been eliminated in April, with their players heading to either the world championship or the golf course.
The year before, it went the opposite way. The Florida Panthers managed 93 points but finished ninth in the East, while St. Louis, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Anaheim Ducks made it in with 92, 92 and 91 points respectively. Not fair, especially to a team such as Florida, which will miss out again this year for the 10th consecutive season, mostly because of overall organizational ineptitude. But one year, they were bumped because of mathematics - and that just isn't right. Performance over 82 games should be recognized and rewarded as opposed to teams that just happen to have geography working for them in any given year.
Accordingly, two modest proposals about how to amend the NHL's playoff system to make it fairer: Firstly, Permit the top six teams in each conference to qualify for the playoffs and then award the next four spots as wild cards to the teams with the best records. If the playoffs started tomorrow, that would mean that Nos. 7 to 10 in the West (the Los Angeles Kings, the Phoenix Coyotes, the Minnesota Wild and the Nashville Predators) would all qualify while the Eastern representatives would end with No. 6 Montreal. Nos. 9 and 10 in the West would move over and meet the top two seeds in the East in the opening round. This would most closely mimic the CFL's crossover format.
Alternatively, if that approach is too radical or sensible, then the NHL could modify the system that's used by the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which provides for a 'play-in' game in advance of the main 64-team draw. Applying it to the NHL model, if either or both the ninth and 10th-place finishers in one conference had better overall records than the seventh and eighth place finishers in the other, the NHL could schedule a one-game 'play-in' playoff, which this year, would give the runners-up in the West a second chance to qualify for post-season play by playing against the No. 7 and 8 teams in the East.
Low-level attempts to expand the NHL playoffs beyond 16 teams have mostly fallen on deaf ears (as recently as a year ago, New York Islanders owner Charles Wang proposed that every team in the league qualify for postseason play through a play-in format, which would further undermine the integrity of the 82-game regular season).
As it is, playoffs go on too long anyway; they will open on Apr. 13 this year; and if the Stanley Cup final goes the distance, the last possible date to decide a winner would be June 18 - too long for most people's tastes. But adding a play-in playoff game wouldn't necessarily add any time to the postseason. You'd play the game on Tuesday after the regular season ended and make sure the surviving teams get under way Thursday, which is traditionally the second night of the NHL playoffs anyway.
Ever since the introduction of the three-point game, in which overtime or shootout losses receive a consolation point anyway, the playoff races often go right down to the wire. This year, in the West, they're as close as they've ever been. Player after player has commented on this phenomenon - how in the span of a week, depending upon results, a team can slip from fourth to 12th.
Back in 2007, the Colorado Avalanche went 15-2-3 in a fabulous final quarter, finished with 95 points, and finished ninth, one point behind the Calgary Flames. Their record was better than three Eastern Conference qualifiers (the New York Rangers, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Islanders). The Avalanche might have been the best team in the NHL when the playoffs started - and could have posed a significant 'sleeper' threat in the postseason, but never got a chance to discover how much trouble they could have caused.