@hyp
As much as fans, coaches and players hate the NHL playoff seeding, I think I know the unspoken reason why the NHL loves it:
More parity in early rounds means longer series in early rounds. More games when there are 8 or 4 matchup means way more revenue in sales and ads.
The conference finals may be less interesting with this format, but way fewer people/markets are watching as a whole by this point anyhow.
It’s always about the money.
It sucks but likely won’t change for this reason. They’ve done the math.