New series system ahead
SM-Liiga's series system will go through many changes during the summer. So far the 14 teams have been divided to 5 groups (4 of 3 teams, 1 of 2) that play extra games against each other in addition to the regular 4 rounds. So the number of games has been 4*13 + 2*2 (or 4*1) = 56.
Starting next season there will be only two groups. They will be as follows:
A: Blues, HIFK, Jokerit, Kärpät, Lukko, TPS, Ässät
B: HPK, Ilves, JYP, KalPa, Pelicans, SaiPa, Tappara
In addition to the normal 4 league-wide rounds teams will play one round within the group. So the number of games is 4*13 + 6*1 =58 and thus increase by 2.
As previously the top 6 teams of regular season will get directly into playoffs while the 7-10 placed teams will play in "pity plaoffs" now newly dubbed as "Wild Card Round". The pity playoffs will go from best-of-3 to best-of-5 increasing the number of games and the lull period of the top 6 teams even further. All other playoff series will be best-of-7.
Another newcomer are playouts. The 11-14 placed teams will play a best-of-5 series (11 vs 14, 12 vs 13). The losers will play another best-of-5 series and the loser of that will go to SM-Liiga qualifying and face the best Mestis team in a best-of-7 series. In case the Mestis team wins, it can purchase a share to SM-Liiga on yet to be decided price. During spring 2008 the League Criteria will also be decided that will pertain to all current SM-Liiga clubs as well as newcomers.
So what do I think about all this?
The absolutely best thing is that there will be a qualifying and the SM-Liiga team CAN be relegated to Mestis.
Apart for that though, pretty much everything went worse. The number of games in regular season increased, instead of getting rid of pity playoffs they were extended and the playouts are not really what I like to see here.
SM-Liiga is trying so hard to get interesting games for each team until the end of the season but it's just making it all complicated. Playoffs, Wild Card, Playouts, Qualifying, Groups... In my opinion it is just too much. Sometimes simple is better. Just have the teams play a 4 round regular season with 52 games, 8 team go to playoffs (all series best-of-7, on of the few good changes in recent years), scrap the pity playoffs and do Elitserien style qualifying series with two bottom SM-Liiga teams and 4 top Mestis teams. If they really have to, you could have one playout round before the qualifying series.
Oh, well. In wait for better times...