[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by WilderPegasus

Yeah, those Montreal-Quebec, Montreal-Boston, Rangers-Flyers, Oilers-Flames, Detroit-Chicago, etc playoff series all sucked.

Meet in the 3rd round? That's silly. Only four teams get that opportunity each year.

Yeah those silly div rivals in round 3, Detroit-Chicago, Devils-Rangers, Flyers-Rangers, Flyers-Penguins, Sabres-Leafs, etc playoff series all sucked too.

It changed because of expansion. Not because those rivalries were stale and repetitive.

Actually, there was lots of noise about the repetitiveness and fans wanting variety.

It stopped because the fans were whiners and the rivalries across the division which are built up during the playoffs weren't there.

The fans were right to whine, playing div rivals 8 times was ridiculous.

But it would increase the Canucks travel.

How much would it increase? I don't think it's that much.

I highly doubt the NHL would expand by more than 2 teams for the significant future. There is not enough demand from markets to do that. And those sore losers that you talk about are not headaches to the NHL but a bargaining tool for greasy owners like Katz to use to get what he wants.

This point, we almost agree on. Seattle, Houston, and possibly Portland could be places to expand. True about the greasy owners but those Balsille mavericks are always lurking.