Larkin Pidutti and Maxwell rank Round 1 atop Nhl Standings 2026 debate
With Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs drawing to a close, nhl standings 2026 got a different kind of snapshot: a roundtable ranking the four playoff rounds by entertainment factor. The debate split neatly over whether the opening eight series deliver the most value or simply the most overlap.
Three different rankings captured that split. Matt Larkin went with Round 1, Round 3, Round 4, Round 2; Paul Pidutti chose Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4; and Scott Maxwell flipped the order to Round 2, Round 4, Round 1, Round 3. The contrast was sharp enough to show that the same playoff format can look like a feature to one fan and a flaw to another.
Gary Bettman and Round 1
Gary Bettman has long sold the competitiveness of the opening eight series whenever he is asked about changing the playoff format, and Larkin’s vote lined up with that argument. He said Round 1 brings “the excitement of eight series, the occasional four-game slates, the thrill of seeing playoff hockey return to markets emerging from droughts, the upsets, the all-out chaos.”
Larkin put Round 1 first because it offers the widest burst of action before the field starts shrinking. He also pushed the Stanley Cup Final to the bottom of his list, saying it often features the worst hockey of the four rounds because the participants are broken down after two months of battling.
Pidutti’s two-week sprint
Pidutti agreed with the top spot for Round 1, but his reasoning leaned harder on volume and urgency. He called it “two months of diminishing returns for me from a fan perspective: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4,” then added, “Round 1 absolutely slaps.”
He pointed to the schedule itself. “Tune in any time for two weeks straight and be all but guaranteed to see high-intensity hockey stacked in every time slot? Yes, please.” He also said overtime happens almost nightly in Round 1, before adding that the entertainment factor trails off as the playoffs progress because there is less hockey, more tired bodies, fewer engaged fan bases, and days with no games.
Maxwell’s Round 2 preference
Maxwell took the opposite route and started with Round 2, then Round 4, then Round 1, then Round 3. “I’m basically going to flip around Matt’s choices and go with Round 2, Round 4, Round 1, Round 3,” he said.
He was blunt about Round 1: “I don’t get the hype surrounding Round 1.” His complaint was the overlap, which he said ruins the experience when he tries to catch every minute of every playoff game. For him, Round 1 works best on weekends, when the NHL can spread games across 12 to 13 hours instead of six on weeknights.
That’s why he said Round 2 fits better. He likes being able to watch one game at 7:00 p.m. ET and another at 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. ET, with no other games taking away his focus except overtime. He also put the Stanley Cup Final high on his list because it is the only series left and gets all the attention with the two best teams competing.
The rankings leave the same question hanging over the opening round every spring: is the value in nonstop overlap, or in a cleaner schedule that lets each series breathe? Bettman keeps pointing to the first answer, while the roundtable showed that even among informed viewers, Round 1 still divides the room.
