new divison

[nj_cup]

NHL memo details new realignment plan for 2013-14 season | Puck Daddy - Yahoo! Sports


nice to get columbus in it...easily the hardest division in hockey. esp if the isles keep rising.

interesting that they have 2 wild card spots so #7 and #8 teams in the conference can make it in either division

 

[Nasty_Magician]

In pretty much every proposed realignment thrown out there the Atlantic division gets the shaft compared to other divisions.

 

[CalamityX11]

It's going to be very interesting...

Detroit is different dynamic that we're accustom to seeing/playing in our division IMO... that's going to be interesting to see which team changes its style, Detroit or Non-Detroit East team

 

[MCDevils]

I always liked the following:

Atlantic:
Devils
Rangers
Islanders
Flyers
Capitals
Hurricanes
Panthers
Lightning

Northern:
Boston
Montreal
Toronto
Ottawa
Buffalo
Detroit
Pitt

Central:
Chicago
Columbus
Winnipeg
St Louis
Nashville
Minnesota
Dallas


Western:
Vancouver
Edmonton
Calgary
Phoenix
Anaheim
Kings
San Jose
Colorado

This lets you put another team in Eastern Canada somewhere (Toronto or Quebec)

And accounts for the increasing potential of Phoenix moving somewhere like Seattle.

In the most ideal situation. Detroit and Columbus stay in my "central" division and then you add a team to Quebec City and another in Toronto. To make all the divisions at 8.

 

[nj_cup]

Yeah how Tampa and florida gets stuck in the new division is beyond me. pitt should be back in the north east. I know the flyer rivalry but its not about 2 teams. Just funny that Columbus a little further west gets stuvk in the western conference and pitt is in the atlantic?

 

[MCDevils]

I'm not old enough to remember Detroit being anywhere besides the Western conference, but apparently they are hellbent on getting back in the Eastern timezone. I can see how playing a huge amount of your games in the Central and other time zones could be a huge issue for fans. We obviously get lucky in the east, because even in a normal year, we basically have every game start in the 7 o'clock hour. I actually wouldn't be surprised at all if the league expands to two more canadian teams in Eastern Canada, if they move detroit back, because otherwise it would be too crowded.

 

[nj_cup]

I too don't remember the wings in the east. I do remember the leafs out west though. I wonder what rype of game detroit will play in the east. Also all the mention of them having to travel dont forget they had west coast teams flying out to them also for games who knows how that effected their home record.

They really shouldnt but they will expand 2 more teams and probably move 1 or even 2 more. Qc and Toronto will get teams and can see the yotes moving somewhere. That's why a baseball style alignment makes sense and makes it even.

Just hope it doesnt lead to a 1 game playoff for a "wild card" team like baseball its stupid. Play 162 games and your season comes down to 1 game?

 

[linebackeru]

I too don't remember the wings in the east. I do remember the leafs out west though. I wonder what rype of game detroit will play in the east. Also all the mention of them having to travel dont forget they had west coast teams flying out to them also for games who knows how that effected their home record.

They really shouldnt but they will expand 2 more teams and probably move 1 or even 2 more. Qc and Toronto will get teams and can see the yotes moving somewhere. That's why a baseball style alignment makes sense and makes it even.

Just hope it doesnt lead to a 1 game playoff for a "wild card" team like baseball its stupid. Play 162 games and your season comes down to 1 game?

Yeah, they were dicussing this on XM radio yesterday. said it would be 2 wildcard play ins in each division 7-10 and 8-9 to decide the final 2 spots. That is bullshit. If you finish 9th, tough shit.

 

[nj_cup]

i agree what if 8th place is 10 points ahead of 9th but in the wildcard game they get beat? how is that fair or even fun?

just keep it 16 teams if they want to go back to the division format im not thrilled with it. then 4 teams each division gets in. even if they expand to 32 teams just keep it 16 make it.


division playoffs will be good for a few years but get stale pretty fast. ranger/devils playoffs are good because they are rare. now if you get the rangers every year in the playoffs zzzzzz

 

[Nasty_Magician]

It all just seems way too gimmicky. It makes the regular season even less relevant.

 

[nj_cup]

the regular season is already a joke. 3pt games make the standings look more competitive then they actually are.

 

[linebackeru]

i agree what if 8th place is 10 points ahead of 9th but in the wildcard game they get beat? how is that fair or even fun?

just keep it 16 teams if they want to go back to the division format im not thrilled with it. then 4 teams each division gets in. even if they expand to 32 teams just keep it 16 make it.


division playoffs will be good for a few years but get stale pretty fast. ranger/devils playoffs are good because they are rare. now if you get the rangers every year in the playoffs zzzzzz

yeah, if you can't finish in the top 50% of your league, you have no business being in playoffs anyhow. I can see the wildcard system in football as their season is much shorter and more teams are very close every year, but hockey already makes the regular season more irrelevant than any other sport, don't need to water it down any further,

 

[nj_cup]

one thing they could for playoffs is go back to the super format they had where its 1-16 overall

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Why does it need to change at all? Unless they plan on expansion, which seems like a terrible idea.

 

[nj_cup]

i agree im all for keeping the current format for everything. move the wings and jackets east. move the jets west.

so the east has 1 more team the west does. big deal?!?!?!? the bad teams will still miss the playoffs and the good teams will still make it. im sure down the road sometime it will even back out like say if the panthers move to seattle?

 

[TheSgtDabbs]

I'd rather move teams like FLA and PHO than expand. Expanding seems dumb when you have teams in other areas that are struggling to fill their arena and/or keep fan interest. And yes the Devils were one of those teams as well so I can't be biased in that regard, although they have done a great job this year (I think all but one sellout?). Like the idea but I think the Florida/sun belt experiment didn't work and it's time to keep hockey where it belongs.

Anywho, I don't really have an issue with the new proposal. It bones teams like TAM/FLA but maybe it'll give them incentive to move somewhere else. We will of course be in a tough as hell division, but we already are as it is so it won't be much of a culture shock.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Am I crazy or did the Thrashers move to Winnipeg happen pretty much overnight, meanwhile they've been dragging their heals with Phoenix and refusing to chalk it up as a loss for what seems like years now. Why the preferential treatment?

 

[SJ20]

Detroit belongs in a division with Chicago.

 

[nj_cup]

Yeah the move to Winnipeg was 3 weeks and done. When you look back its crazy how fast it went and no one seemed to care

 

[DevilishWon]

Because no one in Atlanta tried to keep them.....