Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Don't like the conferences having different numbers of teams. Not equitable.
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They're already inequitable by virtue of one conference being stronger than the other. If the Flames played in the East they probably would have made it to the playoffs the last three seasons. Some teams have worse schedules, are forced to play more difficult opponents more often, while other teams get to cruise into the playoffs (see: every Southeast Division champion, ever).
Hockey was at its best when the top four out of four divisions made the playoffs. Some teams had it easier (Norris Division), some had it harder (Smythe), and some by virtue of the number of teams in the division had to "beat out" more teams to make it (Patrick Division, which had one more team than the other divisions did). Sometimes this made for less than exciting conference finals because the second best team in the conference lost to the best team in one of the division finals series.
You know what? **** happens. Whether you're in a division of seven or eight teams you still need to be one of the top four. It could be that you end up fifth and miss out on the playoffs even though one or more of the fourth place teams in the other divisions was worse. Tough titty. It happens now with the conferences, there is no "crossover rule" as it is anyway, so I don't see why you'd bitch about it as it relates to this alignment plan.
Frankly I couldn't care less if realignment goes ahead or not but either way the scheduling must change. It's complete and utter BS that eastern teams make trips out here once every three years. At the very least the teams should play each other at least twice (home & away) every single year. It's equally ridiculous how often teams play division 'rivals'. Are the Avalanche and Wild some of the Flames' biggest 'rivals'? No, and no matter how many times you force them to play each other in the regular season it won't make it so.
The Canucks and Oilers are rivals because the Flames used to play them in the playoffs, when the Stanley Cup was on the line.