QMJHL announces more playoff changes

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced Tuesday further details and modifications to its already modified playoff format for this bizarre 2020-21 season.

As announced previously, all 18 teams will make this year's President Cup playoffs with no crossover between the Quebec and Maritime clubs until the semifinal. The semifinal will be a six-game round robin featuring the two remaining teams from Quebec and one remaining team from the Maritimes. The top two teams from that round robin will face off in the league final.

If there is a tie between the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds following the round robin, a knockout game will be played to determine the team that will advance to the President Cup final to face the No. 1 seed. 

The President Cup final will begin three days after the last game of the round robin tournament and conclude on June 15 at the very latest, according the league.

So how will the the two Quebec teams and one Maritime team for this unique round robin semifinal be determined? Here's the overview the league provided:

Quebec Divisions

• The qualifying round (best-of-five series) will take place from April 8-15. In each division, the No. 6 seed will face the No. 3 seed while the No. 5 seed will play against the No. 4 seed. Positions No. 1 and No. 2 will receive a bye to the next round.
• The second round will oppose the qualifying round winners against positions No. 1 and No. 2 of each division in a best-of-seven series.
• The quarterfinal rounds will oppose the winners of the previous round. The highest seeded team from the West Division will play the lowest seeded team from the East Division while the highest seeded team from the East Division will play the lowest seeded team from the West Division.
• The two winners of the quarterfinal round will advance to the round robin semifinal.

Maritimes Division

• The six teams from the Maritimes Division will qualify for the playoffs under the following scenario:
• Positions No. 6, No. 5 and No. 4 will play two knockout games:
• The No. 6 seed will play the No. 5 seed on May 4 in a single elimination game.
• The winner of the game will play the No. 4 seed on May 5. The winner will advance to the next round.
• The No. 1 seed will play the winner of the knockout round while the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will play against each other in best-of-five series from May 8-15.
• The quarterfinals will oppose the two winners of the previous series in a best-of-five series. The winner will advance to the round robin semifinal. 

So... what does this mean? For starters, it means the Maritimes Division regular season will continue all the way through the month of April (the regular season will end on Saturday, May 1). It also creates further "meaning" to games over the next month-and-a-bit. Obviously finishing top three in the division is ideal because it avoids single elimination games. For the bottom three teams, finishing fourth overall is the best case scenario because it means playing only one single elimination contest.

The league's release did not state how long the President Cup final will be other than the fact that it will conclude no later than June 15. The Chronicle Herald reports it will be a best-of-seven... but perhaps that will be solidified once we get closer.

There has still been no formal announcement on the status of this year's Memorial Cup. While it seems very unlikely the tournament will take place, the QMJHL's June 15 end date does align with the OHL's announcement in October, which said the tournament would begin on June 17 in either Oshawa or Sault Ste. Marie (this same announcement said the OHL regular season would begin Feb. 4, so...). Again, logic says it's unlikely there will be a Memorial Cup - but there's at least a small sliver of hope?

The QMJHL's playoff format looks great. It sounds like fun. We often hear the line that "anything is possible" come playoff time - and that is more true this year than ever before. Given what's happened during this 2020-21 season, anything is truly possible. There's a lot of time between now and June 15 which, in the COVID era, is enough time for about a year's worth of events to take place.

There's almost no chance it's all smooth sailing between now and when the President Cup is, hopefully, handed out. But here's hoping the QMJHL and its teams can handle the waves that come up and ride this out.