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NHL.com wrote:PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The NHL's Board of Governors on Monday approved a radical realignment plan, eliminating the current two-conference, six-division setup in favor of a configuration that features four conferences based primarily on geography. Two conferences will have eight teams and the other two conferences will have seven teams.
CONFERENCE (7 TEAMS)
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
Washington Capitals
Carolina Hurricanes
CONFERENCE (7 TEAMS)
Boston Bruins
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto Maple Leafs
Ottawa Senators
Buffalo Sabres
Florida Panthers
Tampa Bay Lightning
CONFERENCE (8 TEAMS)
Detroit Red Wings
Columbus Blue Jackets
Nashville Predators
St. Louis Blues
Chicago Blackhawks
Minnesota Wild
Dallas Stars
Winnipeg Jets
CONFERENCE (8 TEAMS)
Los Angeles Kings
Anaheim Ducks
Phoenix Coyotes
San Jose Sharks
Vancouver Canucks
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Colorado Avalanche
I was expecting that since they were talking about it a couple of days ago. The only question I have is is there gonna still be the Est and the West? Because this way there is 14 on the East and 16 on the West. That's kinda weird.
I really like the new proposals. The situation with Winnipeg couldn't really go on for more than one season. I think having at least two games against every team in the league is a good result - as are the larger divisions. In my opinion, this will make it feel like a closer league.
McQwak wrote:
That would be impossible to set in EHM
I know! Why on earth did Bettman not take EHM's hardcoded structure into consideration!!! At least we have nearly a year to figure out whether anything can be done to EHM to make it closer to the new alignment.
There is no East or West. Those were conferences with divisions within them. Now there are 4 conferences with no divisions within them. You play each team in your conference 6 times and every other team in the league twice, once at home and once away.
From what I understand, there will be 4 teams to make the playoffs out of each conference. The 4 playoff teams from each conference will play each other (2 rounds) until one team from each conference remains. Once it's down to the 4 winners of the 4 conferences, the teams will be re-seeded. They haven't decided how they will be re-seeded but I would think that they would base this on regular season points. So once those 4 teams are reseeded, they'll play each other until 2 remain and go to the Stanley Cup Finals. If I'm understanding this all correctly, you could see a Boston vs NY Rangers final or maybe a Chicago vs Edmonton final. This could be very interesting!
It is also smart of them to have PHoenix in one of the eight-team conferences as they could move and they wouldn't have to move more teams around(depending on where/if they move, of course)
1. Detroit, Columbus, Boston, Philadelphia voted against (just my guess). The first two because they hate where they are and wanted to just move to the Eastern conference. The last two because their owners are jerks, and they only want 1/2 hour drives to all their games. Could also substitute in Florida and TB as haters for Det, Columbus.
2. The conference names will be (according to Bob McKenzie): Pacific (Van, LA...), Atlantic (NYR, Phi, NYI...and Car (hah)), North East (Bos, TOr, Mon, Ott, Buf, (And Flo and TB HAHAHAHA), and Central (Det, Nas ....)
3. I think they will reseed after the two rounds, but it will be weird if one conference is way better than the other three ...because the comparisons of points will really mean nothing)...they are doing it so they can get a final that is Phi-Pit, Bos-Mon, Det-Tor, Tor-Mon, NYR-NYI, Det-Tor, ...historical rivalries. But...the problem is they will most likely end up with a Phoenix-Florida final before they get those...one noone cares about.
4. Do you realize it has been 8 years since Cal-VAn played a playoff series? Worse than that it is 20 since Van-Edm did. And most disgusting the battle of Alberta (Cal-Edm) it has been 21 years. This is way way better.
5. I love how the conferences balance out the travel a bit, with the North East teams travelling to Florida, the Atlantic teams to Carolina, and the Pacific teams staying closer to home. STill not perfect (And never can be)...but this will give us a way better picture of the league and parity, with all the possible travel involved.
6. The final piece to the puzzle is what they need to do....they need to make it the top 3 teams in each conference are in. Then the fourth team needs to be the four teams with the best records...and crossing over to other conferences to play. This won't happen but it should.
Example:
Van 101 pts
Cal 98 pts
Edm 96 pts
LA 94 pts
SJ 93 pts
Det 100 pts
Chi 98 pts
Stl 96 pts
Nas 82 pts
Min 80 pts
Under the way they have set things...Nas gets in, SJ does not. It should be that SJ would get in and play in the Central playoffs, and Nashville does not get in. Wild Card scenario...so if one conference is way stronger which it will be at some point..more teams get in. Especially in the 8 team conferences where you have less of a chance to get in than in the 7 team ones.
This is a very useful map of how the alignment will work (below). It just goes to show how isolated Tampa and Florida are. Couldn't they have been grouped with the 'Canes, Stars, Nashville, St Louis and somebody else instead? Then again, it's not as wide as the West Coast conference and I'm sure it's impossible to get them all equidistant.
Why do you think they went for two conferences of eight and two of seven? They could have split it evenly by splitting it into five conferences of six. Is this purely because of geography or are they expecting the league to expand or contract? Am I reading too much into this?
batdad wrote:
6. The final piece to the puzzle is what they need to do....they need to make it the top 3 teams in each conference are in. Then the fourth team needs to be the four teams with the best records...and crossing over to other conferences to play. This won't happen but it should.
Example:
Van 101 pts
Cal 98 pts
Edm 96 pts
LA 94 pts
SJ 93 pts
Det 100 pts
Chi 98 pts
Stl 96 pts
Nas 82 pts
Min 80 pts
Under the way they have set things...Nas gets in, SJ does not. It should be that SJ would get in and play in the Central playoffs, and Nashville does not get in. Wild Card scenario...so if one conference is way stronger which it will be at some point..more teams get in. Especially in the 8 team conferences where you have less of a chance to get in than in the 7 team ones.
I disagree with point #6, Unless the schedule is completely balanced you could have 5 teams in one conference make it in just because the have an extremely weak 6th team that the other 5 beat up on a regular basis... Ie If the 2011-12 Blue Jackets are in your conference, the other 5 teams should and will collect more points because of the weak link
The new system allows this BS of naff teams with fewer points making the playoffs more often than it does under this system. Can happen in 4 places instead of 2. Sorry guys...I fully believe the teams with the most points win. And this stuff about beating up on one weaker team...not the truth. The most that could happen is for 12 points. And you might still not get in, because the other teams got their 4 against that weaker team. The difference is eight points....not enough to make that assumption.
Think about the old Snorris division guys. Where teams that would not have even made playoffs in other divisions, WON their division crown and got into the playoffs. Cause that is what is going to happen again. Albeit on a lesser scale as have 7 or 8 teams not just 4 or 5. Seriously guys .... it used to be real bad.
So how does it work with different number of teams in some conferences do the teams in 8 team conferences play each other slightly less? This really to me looks like opening up to the possibility of expansion. Room East for another team in either Greater Toronto or Quebec, maybe even both if Boston moved to the Atlantic conference. Detroit also could easily move top East or Atlantic if required for say a team in somewhere like Kansas. Trickier in the west/Pacific if Phoenix were to move perhaps keep it in the conference area and so that might appeal to Seattle, Portland or less likely Las Vegas or Salt Lake City. To be honest this system makes sense yes the NHL is the top hockey league in the world and a global brand but even by their standards the travel costs must be excessive and need to be addressed. I would rather see conferences with equal number of team but against that not sure if further expansion is a good idea as it will dillute quality if they do decide to expand go for the hockey markets like Greater Toronto, Quebec or a US border rival for Vancouver.
By looking at the map above, and I know this will cause some harsh feedback, but why not have Tampa and Florida in the "yellow" conference, and boot Detroit to the "blue", along with, say Columbus or Chicago. I won't take any teams from the "green" conference as there are too many rivalries that could be split up.
Winnipeg have to go to Florida six times this season anyway, so they'd be used to it.
archibalduk wrote:I really like the new proposals. The situation with Winnipeg couldn't really go on for more than one season. I think having at least two games against every team in the league is a good result - as are the larger divisions. In my opinion, this will make it feel like a closer league.
McQwak wrote:
That would be impossible to set in EHM
I know! Why on earth did Bettman not take EHM's hardcoded structure into consideration!!! At least we have nearly a year to figure out whether anything can be done to EHM to make it closer to the new alignment.
The definition of jerk, right there. Yes Mr. Bettman, I mean YOU!
1. The $ value of travel to Florida 3 times per year is too limiting for Winnipeg to be a competitive team. Had to change that. No way no how could they survive.
2. The home and home games with each team was the only way to get Detroit and Columbus to agree to any change that did not involve them moving to the east. They needed to spend more time in their time zones.
3. Florida/Tampa-The travel there is not as bad as some may think. Although limiting for Winterpeg...is not bad for teams like Montreal and Boston. And it also balances out the travel to the western outpost teams a little. Check out how far Vancouver is from its closest opponent. Guarantee it is the furthest from anyone save maybe Dallas.
4. Phoenix is not likely to stay west when they move. all the discussion from Bettman and the boys refers to Quebec City. So....once they move 15 in each conference, room for one expansion team in each conference. Exactly what the league would want.
5. I really hate the fact that Chicago only comes to Vancouver only once per year under this schedule. I love watching the Hawks play (although not so much this year-they are playing incredibly soft, passionless hockey.
6.IN the 8 team conferences-the teams will play each team in their conference 5 times. Total of 35 games. The other 22 teams will play them 2 times..that is 44 more. So 79 games. Then the other 3 games will be against 3 different IN conference teams, on a yearly rotational basis. If the league continues with this....in 7 years each team will have played every team in their conference an equal # of times in total, and at home and on road. It will not really be done on a "competition" basis like in the NFL..it will be equalled out over time.
7. I like alot about this regular season schedule. But...the playoffs I am not sure about. It will develop new rivalries, bring back old ones (Edm-Cal) because of the in conference playoffs. But it is going to kill some recent rivalries. Van-Chi is a great example of this.
Wow I really like that east or west team could be in the Stanley Cup final. That will be very interesting. The only thing I think about is do you think some teams will whine because they got more team in their division than some others? This will make things harder for them to make the playoffs. Personnally I don't care but who knows.
Oh and Batdad, please, don't talk about an expension!!!!
SImply a bargaining ploy on both sides. Do not at all be surprised if this changes back to being a go...once the NHL gives the players something in the bargaining process that they are just beginning to deal with.
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