Teams like the Utah Grizzlies will have a more difficult time making the International Hockey League playoffs this year, statistically speaking.
Still, the IHL playoffs won't be too discriminating.Last season, 16 of the 18 IHL teams qualified for the playoffs - meaning the 82-game regular season was played to pare the field by 11 percent.
But the IHL lost two teams for the upcoming season - in San Antonio and Quebec. So the league had to do something with its 16-team playoff format or else every team would be a playoff team.
So on Wednesday the IHL announced a new playoff format. Now 12 teams will qualify for postseason play, six from each conference, based on regular season records. It still means that 75 percent of the IHL will be involved in the playoffs, but it's down from last season's 88.9 percent.
"Having four teams eliminated from postseason play will give more meaning to the regular season, especially down the stretch," said Bob McCammon, the IHL's vice-president and director of hockey operations.
The 12-team playoff system will give the top two teams from each conference a first-round bye. The other eight playoff teams will play a best-of-three series in the first round. The conference semifinals (second round) will be best-of-five with the conference finals and the championship series being best-of-seven.
The Grizzlies will open up the season on Saturday night against the Long Beach Ice Dogs in the E Center. Utah will have a pair of new, albeit familiar, faces to work into the lineup, as coach Butch Goring signed forwards Mick Vukota and Yan Kaminsky on Wednesday.
Vukota played 43 games for the Grizz during the 1996-97 season, scoring 11 goals with 11 assists. He played last season with Tampa Bay and Montreal of the NHL. Kaminsky played for the Grizzlies during their Turner Cup championship seasons. He was Utah's second leading scorer in 1996-97 with 28 goals and 27 assists.