elocomotive
A useful idiot.
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Personally, I like where this puts my own team with respect to more frequent games against rivals like the Pens and Flyers. The "Patrick Division" is back + Carolina (who has probably been our chief rival in the current Southeast Division). That said, I find a couple major problems with this realignment.
(1) Uneven conferences is a major problem. Teams in a 7-team conference have a significant advantage over the teams in 8-team groupings. They have a 14% better chance of making the postseason. That not only equates to a better potential to win a championship, but gives those smaller conferences playoff revenue advantages.
(2) Intra-conference matchups in the first two rounds is a significant problem. If 3 of the best 5 teams in the league are in one conference in a given year, it's really unfair to make those teams have to play against each other in early rounds and assure 2 of them will have no chance at the 3rd round. In hockey (as in baseball and basketball), the regular season is already not that relevant to begin with. It is very lengthy and any fan could probably correctly name 2/3 to 3/4 of the playoff teams before the season even starts. The reward for 6 months worth of work, injuries, etc. is home ice and a favorable matchup. This configuration lessens the odds you get that matchup and/or rewards weak groups in any particular year with an easier path to the "semi-finals."
I don't have tremendous opposition to the groupings, but if the NHL wanted to jostle things, they would have been better served to:
-Keep these groups as divisions - more of a ceremonial grouping than one that effects competive balance
-Continue to use the 2-conference format and 1-8 seeds for the playoffs
-Moved a team like Columbus to the "East" to have 15 teams in each conference and the same number of playoff spots to teams ratio in each group
This was a decision driven by television ratings and money. That's a perfectly legitimate and worthwhile reason, but it could have been done without such an impact to competitive balance. This new alignment/playoff rules go too far. If I were a team in the "West," I'd be pissed.
(1) Uneven conferences is a major problem. Teams in a 7-team conference have a significant advantage over the teams in 8-team groupings. They have a 14% better chance of making the postseason. That not only equates to a better potential to win a championship, but gives those smaller conferences playoff revenue advantages.
(2) Intra-conference matchups in the first two rounds is a significant problem. If 3 of the best 5 teams in the league are in one conference in a given year, it's really unfair to make those teams have to play against each other in early rounds and assure 2 of them will have no chance at the 3rd round. In hockey (as in baseball and basketball), the regular season is already not that relevant to begin with. It is very lengthy and any fan could probably correctly name 2/3 to 3/4 of the playoff teams before the season even starts. The reward for 6 months worth of work, injuries, etc. is home ice and a favorable matchup. This configuration lessens the odds you get that matchup and/or rewards weak groups in any particular year with an easier path to the "semi-finals."
I don't have tremendous opposition to the groupings, but if the NHL wanted to jostle things, they would have been better served to:
-Keep these groups as divisions - more of a ceremonial grouping than one that effects competive balance
-Continue to use the 2-conference format and 1-8 seeds for the playoffs
-Moved a team like Columbus to the "East" to have 15 teams in each conference and the same number of playoff spots to teams ratio in each group
This was a decision driven by television ratings and money. That's a perfectly legitimate and worthwhile reason, but it could have been done without such an impact to competitive balance. This new alignment/playoff rules go too far. If I were a team in the "West," I'd be pissed.
