Division Realignment & Scheduling Thread

[driveway]

Reggie Dunlop had the right idea and this should be in its own thread outside of the Arizona / SLC thread.

Here's my idea for a schedule change, whether realignment happens or not:

Keep 4 divisions of 8 teams.

Home & Home vs all teams in the league: 62 games.
Home & Home vs division: 14 more games (76 games total).

Now the fun part:
8 Semi-randomly drawn "pools" of 4 teams. Based on your finishing position last year, you're placed in groups (Top 8 teams = group 1, Teams 9-16 = group 2, etc.). Randomly draw one team from each group = Pool A. Draw a second team from each = Pool B, etc.)

Home & Home vs your Pool: 6 more games (82 total).

Everyone sees every team, you get to keep in-division games, and from season to season the teams you get to see more often get mixed up. Also, there's the fun of the day when they draw the pools. Could do it on an off-day between Stanley Cup Final games.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Arizona going to Utah actually keeps them in the Central.

Any expansion team going to Houston would also fit into the Central.

My guess is that its Vegas who wants to stay in the Pacific given their "natural rivals" are more the California teams than it would be central teams.

[Southside]

Moving Calgary and Edmonton to the Central would be peak NHL. Just plain stupid. SLC can slide into the Central where they belong. Ridiculous. Calgary and Edmonton already have the most travel in the league.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Southside

Moving Calgary and Edmonton to the Central would be peak NHL. Just plain stupid.

Absolutely.

At one time, Montreal and L.A. were in the same division. There is no alignment so ridiculous that the NHL won't try it.

[Paulie Walnuts]

I can’t see anyway the Flames vote to realign divisions. We are going to suck, they need to fill seats still. You won’t do that with the Wild coming in on a cold Tuesday night.

Not to mention opening a new arena and not even having Vancouver in our division.

Seriously could turn me away from the NHL.

[PaperBagger'14]

More games against the blues, predators, wild, stars and blackhawks. One bonus is that tickets will be dirt cheap when 5/7 divisional opponents have little to no history against the flames.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

More games against the blues, predators, wild, stars and blackhawks. One bonus is that tickets will be dirt cheap when 5/7 divisional opponents have little to no history against the flames.

How soon they forget.

Remember when Dallas was the last team the Flames beat in a playoff series?

It's still a stupid idea, but let's not exaggerate to make the point.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

How soon they forget.

Remember when Dallas was the last team the Flames beat in a playoff series?

It's still a stupid idea, but let's not exaggerate to make the point.

You must be the only flames fan eager and excited to see a Dallas Calgary rubber match. You win the prize for the most obscure playoff match up! Who excites you most as a Stanley Cup opponent for the flames?

Lemme guess…Buffalo.

Lol.

[FlamesAddiction]

The Alberta teams in the Central would just add the travel woes these teams already face. It would suck for the Alberta teams and the other teams in that division. Players already avoid some of these cities because of the crappy travel and making it worse won't help.

It's hard to conquer the NHL geography though. With big gaps between markets, there is always going to be some odd alignments. That's one of the reasons why I liked a team in Arizona... it helped balance the league a little. SLC shouldn't change that a lot, so I don't see why moving there would necessitate re-alignment. I wonder if the new owner is making it part of the deal to relocate the team. Maybe they see a better business model competing in the Pacific and the league is will to screw other teams to make it happen.

Hopefully one day, there are teams in places like Phoenix and Portland, because that would probably help balance things better.

At this point, I would be more in favour of getting rid of divisions completely and just have 2 conferences.

[Paulie Walnuts]

What is stopping the NHL from the NFL model. Calgary Edmonton Vancouver Seattle division. Los Angeles Anaheim San Jose and Vegas in the other. 1-8 get in.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

You must be the only flames fan eager and excited to see a Dallas Calgary rubber match. You win the prize for the most obscure playoff match up!

Yeah, Markstrom vs. Oettinger in a goalie duel for the ages, Gaudreau in overtime of game 7… what a snoozer that was.

Obscure. Right.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Yeah, Markstrom vs. Oettinger in a goalie duel for the ages, Gaudreau in overtime of game 7… what a snoozer that was.

Obscure. Right.

That’s what makes the matchup in the playoffs more fun and intense. It’s a fresh matchup. Not a team we played 6 times during the year.

It’s also why 1-8 is the best playoff format.

[All In Good Time]

Yep. Agreed
2 conferences 4 divisions of 4 in each conference. First in each division makes the playoffs seeded 1-4 the next 4 best point totals make it seeded 5-8. 1 plays 8 and so on.
That would be best.
Rivalries during the season, the schedule wouldn’t be too hard to figure out, then interesting playoff matchups.
To take it a step further, I’d even like seeing all 8 first round winners reseeded for round 2.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Yeah, Markstrom vs. Oettinger in a goalie duel for the ages, Gaudreau in overtime of game 7… what a snoozer that was.

Obscure. Right.

It was a great series but Dallas as an opponent would make myself (and presumably a large chunk of the fan base) yawn in disagreement. Here’s my list of matchups, all things equal, I’d rather see than flames vs stars:

Flames vs Oilers
Flames vs Canucks
Flames vs Jets
Flames vs Anaheim
Flames vs Kings
Flames vs Goldene Knights
Flames vs Blackhawks
Flames vs Avalanche

Then Dallas would slot in with the other teams we have little to no history with. You have a very odd opinion on this, almost contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

It was a great series but Dallas as an opponent would make myself (and presumably a large chunk of the fan base) yawn in disagreement. Here’s my list of matchups, all things equal, I’d rather see than flames vs stars:

Flames vs Oilers
Flames vs Canucks
Flames vs Jets
Flames vs Anaheim
Flames vs Kings
Flames vs Goldene Knights
Flames vs Blackhawks
Flames vs Avalanche

Then Dallas would slot in with the other teams we have little to no history with. You have a very odd opinion on this, almost contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.

Oilers, Canucks, and Jets I give you.

But that series in '22 was dynamite, and I don't see how anyone can say we have no history with Dallas after that.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Oilers, Canucks, and Jets I give you.

But that series in '22 was dynamite, and I don't see how anyone can say we have no history with Dallas after that.

1 noteworthy series (and it was very exciting) in 40 years of history just doesn’t ring strongly for me. You aren’t wrong for it but I disagree. Anyways, cheers.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

1 noteworthy series (and it was very exciting) in 40 years of history just doesn’t ring strongly for me. You aren’t wrong for it but I disagree. Anyways, cheers.

If you're going back all those years, there was also the semifinal series against the North Stars in '81. Alas, I remember Dino Ciccarelli, then a rookie phenom, making fools of the Flames that year.

To think it could have been us that got dummied by the Islanders that year!

[FlamesAddiction]

Nashville is about the same distance from Calgary as Toronto is. Imagine being in the same division as Toronto. That would probably make more sense actually as all the games between the two would be sellouts.

[Enoch Root]

8 divisions of 4 makes a lot of sense, IMO

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Nashville is about the same distance from Calgary as Toronto is. Imagine being in the same division as Toronto. That would probably make more sense actually as all the games between the two would be sellouts.

All the games in Calgary, you mean.

Leafs fans in Toronto don't know if a calgary is something you eat or something you wear.