It seems that every hockey fan, players, etcetera is a little bit upset over the plan to radically realign the NHL as soon as next year. Of course when everyone is a little upset that usually means an effective compromise has been reached. This new realignment many not be perfect, but it looks to be a lot better than what we have right now.
Before we go any further let us take a look at the new four conferences NHL:
Conference A- Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks
Conference B- Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets
Conference C- Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs
Conference D- Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals
So along with the realignment comes some new rules. The first two rounds of the playoffs will now be against conference foes. However, the best thing about this new plan is every team will play a home and home series against every other team. That means every NHL team will see every NHL arena every year. That is very good news for hockey fans
The other big plus for hockey fans is no longer will many regular season games, and even games in the playoffs will be far outside the home time zone. Detroit fans will no longer have many games each year that begin at 10 PM local time. As a native Detroiter far too often have I been up to three of four in the morning watching the Wings in the playoffs.
This new alignment also bring up a lot of new potential Stanley Cup Finals matchups. Of course that could backfire if the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers made the finals. Some writers also think that the new divisional playoffs may get repetitive.
It seems that conference, and by definition now regional, playoffs will help build up rivalries between teams. We all know that rivalries are good for business and right now the NHL does not have many marquee rivalries.
The other big negative here is six of the seven Canadian teams are in two conferences. That means they will eliminate each other either in the regular season, or early on in the playoffs. Not great news for the place where die hard hockey fans live.
We also wait the naming of said conferences. It looks like the NHL would like to continue to use vague geography to name its new conferences, even though I don't see how the Northeast Conference could contain two Florida teams. Hopefully they see the light and we can get back to the Wales, Campbell, among others conference days.
Comments