NHL's disputed playoff format ought to make for a grand entrance for the Central Division this year

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The current concentration of power in the Western Conference makes the Central Division a good bet to be the star of the show in these Stanley Cup playoffs. Don't wait for the ending, though. The bracket ensures that two of the conference's top three teams — Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota — will be ousted over the first two rounds. “The rules are the rules, so you deal with them, and if you’re going to win the Stanley Cup, you’ve got to beat all the teams anyway, so it is what it is,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said. The postseason format the NHL brought back with the divisional realignment for the 2013-14 season to intensify the first round and double down on regional rivalries has occasionally proved controversial. With the Avalanche, Stars and Wild cemented at the top of the conference and their division for most of the season the calls for change have come louder this spring. League-leading Colorado would face the Minnesota-Dallas winner in the second round if the Avs beat the second wild card team as they will be favored to do. The Stars, who have lost in the Western Conference final in each of the last three years, don't get much of a reward for finishing third overall in the league. “Well, I’ve yet to meet somebody who likes it, so I’ll leave it at that,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said. “I think everybody feels the same way. Regular season should set you up well if you do well, and with our division being as strong as it is, it doesn’t, right? But at the same time, there’s nothing we can do about it. You’ve got to go through great teams no matter what round you’re in.” The Stars were close to overtaking the Avalanche last month before a late fade. The bonus for Colorado of finishing first was avoiding a familiar Central Division foe in the first round. “We’re just worried about our business. We like to clinch the one seed just to be able to have home ice throughout the entire thing,” center Brock Nelson said. This will be just the third time in 13 years of the current format that the top three teams in one conference were all in the same division. In past occurrences, though, the favorites didn't fare well. Washington, which led the NHL and won the Metropolitan Division in 2016-17, lost in the second round to second-place Pittsburgh, which went on to win the Stanley Cup. Dallas, which was second in the league in 2015-16, won the Central Division with 109 points and lost in the second round to second-place St. Louis. Commissioner Gary Bettman is committed to the format that fuels what he has called the best first round of the playoffs in any sport, touting not only more intense series but longer matchups that mean more games. This is a throwback to a 12-year period between the 1981-82 and 1992-93 seasons when the NHL qualified the top four teams from each division with no wild cards, until eventually switching to conference-based seeds. There's nostalgia in effect for those playing the game now who grew up watching that era, or for those in coaching or executive roles who were players then, which softens a bit the frustration of the format. “Winning the Stanley Cup, there’s no such thing as an easy path,” said Nill, who played for Winnipeg in the mid-1980s when his team was perpetually stuck behind Edmonton and Calgary in the Smythe Division. The Wild, who matched the third-best record in franchise history with 104 points, have lost nine straight series since the last time they advanced in 2015. Beating the Stars would be quite the way to end that skid. “It’s an opportunity for us to get better and to build our game and to hopefully be there at the finish line, right? So I’m not too concerned about who we’re playing," forward Nick Foligno said. "I think this team understands that if we play the way we need to, we have a great chance against anybody.” \\\_ AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Denver and Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed. \\\_ AP NHL: