NHL Conference Realignment

[Stay Golden]

Originally Posted by #-3

I even thought the Versus / NBC Sports was a good grouping, its like the nobody cares group for the nobody cares network.

Sorry to the Stl fans, you have been a good franchise for a long time yours just in the wrong geographic region.

Versus the anybody else that you don't want to cover we will take them i guess lol

[DiracSpike]

A solution that makes the most geographical sense is a three way trade:
Nashville to the southeast, Winnipeg to the Northwest, and Minnesota to the central.
I'm biased towards this way though because I would desperately like to see Winnipeg in our division I think it would be fantastic, and I could do without the Wild. Detroit and Columbus need to stop whining the travel isn't that bad for them.

[Eagle Eye]

Although it is obvious that this will happen, but I still hate the thought of so many 'late' away games while playing against the Pacific time zone teams.

[troutman]

I played with this alignment a few years ago:


Upper Canada: Mtl, Ott, Que, Tor, Ham

Rust Belt: Buff, Cle, Cbj, Was, Pit

Atlantic: Nyi, Nj, Nyr, Phi, Bos

Great Lakes: Mil, Min, Chi, Stl, Det

North West: Win, Cgy, Edm, Van, Col

South West: Kc, Sj, Dal, La, Lv

[Flame19,289]

Originally Posted by troutman

I played with this alignment a few years ago:


Upper Canada: Mtl, Ott, Que, Tor, Ham

Rust Belt: Buff, Cle, Cbj, Was, Pit

Atlantic: Nyi, Nj, Nyr, Phi, Bos

Great Lakes: Mil, Min, Chi, Stl, Det

North West: Win, Cgy, Edm, Van, Col

South West: Kc, Sj, Dal, La, Lv

I would argue that teams in Cleveland, KC and Las Vegas would suffer from less support than in Anaheim, Raleigh, and Nashville. But geographically, it looks nice. It eliminates that pesky problem of putting Florida teams in the same division as teams from Quebec and Ontario.

[hwy19man]

Originally Posted by Red Menace

Perhaps the Western teams are getting compensated for our extra travel by being in the 7 team conferences?

In any case, I am looking forward to the re-alignment, this is how rivalries are made....

This is not necessarily how rivalries are made. They were made in the present format too.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Flame19,289

I would argue that teams in Cleveland, KC and Las Vegas would suffer from less support than in Anaheim, Raleigh, and Nashville. But geographically, it looks nice. It eliminates that pesky problem of putting Florida teams in the same division as teams from Quebec and Ontario.

Maybe swap in Seattle, Portland and Hartford.

Upper Canada: Mtl, Ott, Que, Tor, Ham

Rust Belt: Buff, Phi, Cbj, Was, Pit

Atlantic: Nyi, Nj, Nyr, Har, Bos

Great Lakes: Mil, Min, Chi, Stl, Det

North West: Win, Cgy, Edm, Van, Sea

South West: LA, Sj, Dal, Por, Col

[Phaneufenstein]

Keep same conferences and divisions.
Make the folllowing moves:

Winnipeg to NW
Minny to Central
Nashville to SE

Done!

Makes most sense geographically too

[hwy19man]

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

Keep same conferences and divisions.
Make the folllowing moves:

Winnipeg to NW
Minny to Central
Nashville to SE

Done!

Makes most sense geographically too

Dallas has to move out of the Pacific.

[hwy19man]

Another Freidman blog posted today.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opin...eeds-work.html

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

Although it is obvious that this will happen, but I still hate the thought of so many 'late' away games while playing against the Pacific time zone teams.

In the end, it's only 3 more west coast games over the course of an 82 game season.

Under the current set-up, the Flames play: Vancouver (PT), Edmonton (MT), Colorado (MT), and Minnesota (CT) three times each on the road. They play San Jose (PT), LA (PT), Anaheim (PT), Phoenix (MT*), Dallas (CT), Chicago (CT), St Louis (CT), Nashville (CT), Detroit (ET), and Columbus (ET) twice each on the road. Plus, they play one road game against 9 of the Eastern Conference teams (all of which are in ET except Winnipeg).

So that's 9 games in PT; 8 in MT; 11 in CT; and 13 in ET (it would have been 12 CT and 12 ET any season where they played in Winnipeg).


Under the proposed alignment, the Flames will play: VAN, SJS, LAK, ANA, PHX, and EDM 3 times each on the road; and every other team in the league once on the road.

That works out to: 12 games in PT; 7 in MT; 6 in CT; and 16 in ET.


Even back in the days when Vancouver and LA were the only west coast teams, the Flames played 8 road games in the Pacific time zone.

[Sainters7]

Missed this thread the first time around. Regarding the proposed conference alignments in OP, so basically we'd be back in the original Pacific Division again. Greaaaat, that worked out so well for us the last time...

I actually love the idea of going back to a divisional playoff format. But damn does our potential conference scare me.

[_Q_]

This uneven conferences business is ridiculous. I say keep it at 6 divisions, move Columbus to the East and just shuffle the west around a bit. My idea would be to do the following:

Western Conference
Pacific:
Vancouver
Phoenix (eventually Seattle)
Los Angeles
Anaheim
San Jose

North West:
Calgary
Edmonton
Colorado
Winnipeg
Minnesota

Central:
Chicago
Detroit
Dallas
St. Louis
Nashville

Eastern Conference
North East:
Toronto
Ottawa
Montreal
Buffalo
Boston

Atlantic:
New York
Brooklyn
New Jersey
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia

South East:
Columbus
Washington
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Florida

Done and Done

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by _Q_

This uneven conferences business is ridiculous. I say keep it at 6 divisions, move Columbus to the East and just shuffle the west around a bit. My idea would be to do the following:

Western Conference
Pacific:
Vancouver
Phoenix (eventually Seattle)
Los Angeles
Anaheim
San Jose

North West:
Calgary
Edmonton
Colorado
Winnipeg
Minnesota

Central:
Chicago
Detroit
Dallas
St. Louis
Nashville

Eastern Conference
North East:
Toronto
Ottawa
Montreal
Buffalo
Boston

Atlantic:
New York
Brooklyn
New Jersey
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia

South East:
Columbus
Washington
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Florida

Done and Done

32 doesn't divide into 6 though.

[Trailer Fire]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

32 doesn't divide into 6 though.

That's assuming there is an expansion. Count the teams again, there are 30.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Trailer Fire

That's assuming there is an expansion. Count the teams again, there are 30.

Exactly. One major reason for realignment has always been to even out the conferences for 32 teams.

[getbak]

So, the word going around Twitter this morning is that rather than creating 4 new "Conferences", they will still have the West and East Conferences, with two Divisions in each.

The Western Conference would have the two 7-team Divisions (Pacific and Central), and the Eastern Conference would have the two 8-team Divisions (Northeast and Atlantic).

Top 3 teams from each Division make the playoffs, then the top 2 remaining teams in each Conference would qualify. So, you could have 5 of 7 teams in one of the Western Divisions make the playoffs. You could also have only 3 of 8 teams in one of the Eastern Divisions make the playoffs.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by getbak

So, the word going around Twitter this morning is that rather than creating 4 new "Conferences", they will still have the West and East Conferences, with two Divisions in each.

The Western Conference would have the two 7-team Divisions (Pacific and Central), and the Eastern Conference would have the two 8-team Divisions (Northeast and Atlantic).

Top 3 teams from each Division make the playoffs, then the top 2 remaining teams in each Conference would qualify. So, you could have 5 of 7 teams in one of the Western Divisions make the playoffs. You could also have only 3 of 8 teams in one of the Eastern Divisions make the playoffs.

So then you don't get the divisional playoffs? That was honestly the only thing I liked about this re-alignment. This whole thing looks remarkably stupid now.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by getbak

So, the word going around Twitter this morning is that rather than creating 4 new "Conferences", they will still have the West and East Conferences, with two Divisions in each.

The Western Conference would have the two 7-team Divisions (Pacific and Central), and the Eastern Conference would have the two 8-team Divisions (Northeast and Atlantic).

Top 3 teams from each Division make the playoffs, then the top 2 remaining teams in each Conference would qualify. So, you could have 5 of 7 teams in one of the Western Divisions make the playoffs. You could also have only 3 of 8 teams in one of the Eastern Divisions make the playoffs.

I think that's perfect

[redmile04]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=416887