While I knew realignment was necessary, what with Winnipeg being in the same division as Washington, Carolina, Florida and Tampa and Dallas being in the same division as the California teams and Phoenix, I didn't think the playoff system was bad.
I have no problem with positional alignments of the teams. It kind of makes a lot of sense but I would have had East and West conferences, the two division winners in each conference getting either a 1 or 2 seed based on record and then put the other six teams with the best record in each conference in the playoffs. That I think is fair.
I can see some teams complaining about the travel in the playoffs. For instance, Boston could conceivably have a Stanley Cup winning playoff season in which they have to travel to Florida, to Tampa to Winnepeg and then San Jose. Can you see Florida with a playoff season consisting of travel back and forth to Montreal, Boston, Vancouver and Winnepeg?
The travel costs and effects on the players could be killers.