What gooney said. While the Western Conference was pretty "normal" in terms of seeding, the Eastern Conference was a mess. Because of the mandatory divisional series, you had a first round of 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 3, 4 vs. 5, and 6 vs. 7. Well, the schedule is unbalanced. This happened in the Western Conference in 2014 when the #2 seed Blues played the #3 Blackhawks. Its not really a big deal other than losing in the first round instead of the second. You have to beat four teams to win the Cup, blaming the format is silly. Besides the reason for this is because the West is split among 3 time zones while the East just one. Columbus and Detroit are now in the East where travel is easy, complaining is rather funny. How is it funny? Columbus had the 3rd best record in the East and their reward was to play the eventual Cup champs instead of a team like Ottawa. It's nonsense.