There's been some chatter in these final days of the NHL's regular season about the mysteries of the new division-based playoff format and how it's going to result in some great teams in the Western Conference going home early.

The fact is that was going to happen no matter what the format.

Based on Wednesday's standings, the matchups in the first round would be the same as with the old format and if form held and the teams with the most regular-season points won each series (admittedly not likely the way things have gone the last few years), the second-round matchups would be the same as under the old conference format.

Where it gets really interesting is if there's upsets in the first round. In that case, the team with the most points in the regular season is not guaranteed of playing the remaining team with the least points in the next round, which was the case in old format.

A hypothetical (based on Wednesday's standings): say in the West the wild card Phoenix Coyotes upset the Central Division champ St. Louis Blues while over in the Pacific Division, the division champ San Jose Sharks beat the other wild card team, the Minnesota Wild. Under the old format, the Sharks would get the Coyotes in the second round.

Instead, in this year's format, the Sharks get the winner of the other Pacific Divison matchup, the Anaheim Ducks (third most points) against the Los Angeles Kings (sixth most points).

From the Coyotes' standpoint, in that scenario, instead of having to play the Sharks, they would get the Chicago Blackhawks or the Colorado Avalanche, who had the fourth- and fifth-most points, respectively.

All that said, with the parity we've seen in the NHL the last few years, what's the difference between the top eight teams in each conference?

Don't forget the Kings won the Cup two years ago out of the eight hole in the West.

Just in case you're still not clear on how this year's playoffs work (and based on the continued emails from readers and even conversations with people whose living is derived from what goes on in the NHL there are still people who don't understand it): the simplest way to put it is the tournament for the Cup has gone from a seeding to a bracket format.

* I think everybody has got the first round figured out: the top three teams from each division qualify and the next two teams with the most points in the conference, regardless of divisional alignment, are the wild cards. The division winner with the most points in the conference plays the wild card with the least points. The other division winner in the conference gets the wild card with the most points. The second- and third-place teams in each division play each other. In each division, it's 1. vs. 4 (with 4 being one of the two wild cards) and 2 vs. 3. As of Wednesday, in the Atlantic Division, for example, that would have been the Boston Bruins vs. the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning.

* The big difference is when you get to the second round: there is no reseeding. The matchups are dictated by the brackets: first-round winners of the division-based series playing each other to crown a division champ. The division champions play to determine the conference champ, which advances to the Stanley Cup final.

Clear as mud, right?

NHL.com has an excellent graphic, updated daily, to show you how the playoffs would unfold if the playoffs were to start today: http://www.nhl.com/ice/stanleycup.htm

HEAR AND THERE: I like Hockey Canada giving a guy like Rob Blake a chance to cut his teeth as a manager on the international stage. Like players, executives need to be developed, too. Blake, who is in his first year as assistant GM with the Kings after three years in the NHL's player safety department, will be the general manager for Canada's entry at the world championships in Belarus May 9-25. He'll be seconded by Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers and Brad Treliving of the Phoenix Coyotes, both assistant GMs with their respective clubs, and Hockey Canada's vice-president of hockey operations, Brad Pascall. Former NHLer Steve Staios will be the team's director of player development ... Also good to see the Hockey Hall of Fame being more transparent with their appointments after Serge Savard, Jim Gregory and Pat Quinn reached their term limits and were replaced by Flyers VP/Hall of Famer Bob Clarke, Nashville GM David Poile and Kings executive/Hall of Famer Luc Robitaille. Now if they can just get that Pat Burns oversight corrected.

THE BUZZ: Next on the Russian national team menu: Oleg Znarok. He's expected to succeed Zinetula Bilyaletdinov as coach of Russia's men's national team after Bilyaletdinov oversaw Russia's latest Olympic disaster and famously said, "Eat me alive right now," in Sochi after being told his successor, Vyacheslav Bykov, was "eaten alive," after the Vancouver Olympics. Znarok is the coach of Moscow Dynamo and has won the KHL championship twice. He's known for getting the most out of Dynamo's modest payroll with strong team play. Given the divas on the national team this has the makings of being either exactly what Russia needs or an even bigger buffet for the Russian hockey media ... Another indication of Sidney Crosby's excellence, if you needed it: the Pittsburgh Penguins point out their captain's 16-point lead in the scoring race is the largest margin over second since Jaromir Jagr won the Art Ross by 20 points in 1998-99.

JUST SAYING: A media conference with Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter can range from a blank notebook to gold, Jerry. Some gold: "The strength of our team is we don't spend much time in our zone," he said. "There is very little of what is called defending done in the league now. There is a lot of checking. The teams that say they defend, they spend all the time in their own zone. Everybody has to figure out that these teams that defend backing up all the time, by April 12 or April 13, they're watching." Anybody you know?

THE LAST WORD: Russian president Vladimir Putin has apparently made it clear a foreigh-born coach of the Russian national team isn't an option, so Team Russia has basically become the Montreal Canadiens when it comes to their pool of potential coaches: something other than the best credentials dictates who gets the job.

chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca

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