If anyone is interested, I've modified and attached my copy of the original Deadline 17 ROM to include this year's playoff matchups. Using NOSE, I updated 31 of the 32 possible matchup scenarios to include the correct seedings for this year's playoffs. Obviously, as the bracket is static in the game, it's impossible for all correct home-ice situations to play out correctly, though the NHL's current playoff format has at least assured that all winners will play the correct second-round opponents. However, if top seeds advance, you'll get the correct teams having home ice. Because of this, the bracket may look "weird" to you, though it plays out correctly. Because of Washington having the league's best record, (and Pittsburgh finishing second) I have the East on the right side of the screen, as if either of these two teams advance to the Finals, they'd hold home ice over any potential West champion. Also, you'll notice each conference's #1 seed is at the bottom of their bracket, as the game always recognizes the bottom team as the home team, and Chicago and Washington hold home-ice throughout. The #2 seed in each conference is the bottom team of the second matchup, as they'd be home for rounds one and two, and away in the conference Final, again if the top seeds win.
As far as the non-playoff teams, I used the last possible scenario to include them, to keep the game from freezing and crashing if you cycle through them. I seeded this last "possibility" according to points, with the teams left out...in other words, the first team out, the Islanders are the East #1 seed. In the West, unfortunately, since there were only 6 teams that didn't qualify, I had to include the Wild Card teams as the #1 and #2 seeds. So, if you're a Flames or Predators fan, you may have to restart your playoff mode once or twice, in case you happen to get this non-realistic version to load. Since there's theoretically only a 1-in-32 chance of pulling this set of teams, it's unlikely that you draw it. But if you notice Calgary matched up with Colorado or Nashville with Vancouver, cycle through again until you get Flames-Ducks or Preds-Hawks. If you're a fan of a non-playoff team, well, I'd suggest using Naples' original file, since it's pretty unrealistic to play through a bracket with 14 of the 16 teams being non-qualifiers.
Sorry for being long-winded, I just wanted to explain what I tried to do for anyone looking for an accurate '17 playoff ROM without doing the scheduling work themselves. I hope it goes without saying that all of the work for this ROM was NOT done by me, rather I just changed one small aspect of Naples' Deadline 17 ROM. The only other change I made was changing Consol Energy Center to PPG Paints Arena. (Sorry, I'm a Pens fan. )
NHL Deadline 17.bin