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Re-alignment?


Wamsley01

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http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/06/22/nhl-maps-out-major-changes

The top 4 teams in each division make the playoffs in this proposal, if that is the case who makes up the Eastern division?

nhl-map.jpg

My guess is the East would be

7 TEAMS

Montreal

Boston

Ottawa

Toronto

Buffalo

Detroit

Collumbus

The South

8 TEAMS

NY Rangers

NY Islanders

NJ Devils

Pittsburgh

Philadelphia

Washington

Tampa

Florida

This would keep most of the established rivalries intact, but making the playoffs would be a bitch!

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You forgot the Whalers. And by that, I mean Carolina.

This proposal would be a 16/14 conference split. Until they award two expansion franchises out west to any of Seattle, Vegas, Kansas City, Houston or Austin.

So putting Carolina in... dear God, does that mean Pittsburgh joins our new division, too?

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And now Columbus has Carter, Nash, Umberger, Vermette, Johansen, Brassard, Filatov, Calvert.... thankfully they don't have defence.

Yeah, if this goes through, making the playoffs starts to become very difficult.

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You forgot the Whalers. And by that, I mean Carolina.

This proposal would be a 16/14 conference split. Until they award two expansion franchises out west to any of Seattle, Vegas, Kansas City, Houston or Austin.

So putting Carolina in... dear God, does that mean Pittsburgh joins our new division, too?

Yikes. That would be scary!

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Yikes. That would be scary!

Maybe it would be NE+NY: Montreal, Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, NYI, NYR, New Jersey.

Then: Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philly, Washington, Carolina, Tampa, Florida.

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Maybe it would be NE+NY: Montreal, Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, NYI, NYR, New Jersey.

Then: Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philly, Washington, Carolina, Tampa, Florida.

Then you sever the Rangers/Philly/Pitt rivalry that has been in existence since the Patrick days.

The question becomes do you sever the Pens from those rivalries or the Rangers.

The geographical argument favours the NY/NE alignment. The rivalry argument favours re-uniting the Wings with the Leafs and the Habs as well as adding in Crosby and the Pens. The East Division would begin to produce Cup contenders because of the competitiveness just to make the playoffs.

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My guess is that this proposal doesn't occur. My guess is the only change will be the Wings going to the East and the Winnepeg Jets(hopefully) going to the West.

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I don't see Detroit coming east. The Chicago Rivalry is very good. I think you will see Nashville come east.

Its all about the time zones. It makes sense for either Detroit or Columbus to come to the East since their clocks are the same as the rest of the Eastern Conference. Nashville is an hour behind the East.

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Then you sever the Rangers/Philly/Pitt rivalry that has been in existence since the Patrick days.

The question becomes do you sever the Pens from those rivalries or the Rangers.

The geographical argument favours the NY/NE alignment. The rivalry argument favours re-uniting the Wings with the Leafs and the Habs as well as adding in Crosby and the Pens. The East Division would begin to produce Cup contenders because of the competitiveness just to make the playoffs.

One of the reasons they like having Detroit in the West is they boost the attendance of some softer markets, like C-bus and Nashville. They might grant them their wish of going East but make them do the same for Tampa and Florida.

They cut out the Caps from the Patrick over a decade ago... they've maintained some level of rivalry with the other teams despite this.

I'm not sure I understand divisional playoffs without going full out like the old days. This proposal is interesting, but really weird on that front. So the NHL wants every geographical region represented by at least two teams in the Conference semifinals, and then they don't care.

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One of the reasons they like having Detroit in the West is they boost the attendance of some softer markets, like C-bus and Nashville.

so many angles to division re-alignment, i'll only speak to the angle i'm aware of:

i would be surprised if they separated Nashville from Detroit --- kinda depends on how much pressure Detroit is really leveraging to try and get east. the red wings are considered to be their best rivalry (although i doubt any red wing fan would reciprocate that sentiment), and nashville is really an nhl success story, one that i'm sure the league would not want to damage. we continue to consider nashville to be soft in terms of attendance, but they were 21st in the NHL, averaging 16,142 per game --- hardly soft. i attended a game in nashville last season, and i was amazed at the hockey energy there was in that rink --- i had been totally expecting the fans to be ... well ...

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so many angles to division re-alignment, i'll only speak to the angle i'm aware of:

i would be surprised if they separated Nashville from Detroit --- kinda depends on how much pressure Detroit is really leveraging to try and get east. the red wings are considered to be their best rivalry (although i doubt any red wing fan would reciprocate that sentiment), and nashville is really an nhl success story, one that i'm sure the league would not want to damage. we continue to consider nashville to be soft in terms of attendance, but they were 21st in the NHL, averaging 16,142 per game --- hardly soft. i attended a game in nashville last season, and i was amazed at the hockey energy there was in that rink --- i had been totally expecting the fans to be ... well ...

I guess maybe the counter to that is that Nashville could build a rivalry with a similar type opponent in Dallas... and now that Chicago is hot, there's hope they can sustain and become the 'new Detroit', the successful O6 franchise out West steeped in tradition and history.

I know Detroit fans are sick of offering charity. They want their games against the Leafs, Habs, Rangers, etc. Putting them in the SE is a compromise: they get more games, but they don't get an O6 division rival, but they can build on their Pittsburgh rivalry, re-establish a Philly one, keep the Columbus one and maybe ignite a Washington or Carolina/Tampa one. I'm not convinced that Florida will be there long term, but they do still exist, I suppose.

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One of the reasons they like having Detroit in the West is they boost the attendance of some softer markets, like C-bus and Nashville. They might grant them their wish of going East but make them do the same for Tampa and Florida.

They cut out the Caps from the Patrick over a decade ago... they've maintained some level of rivalry with the other teams despite this.

I'm not sure I understand divisional playoffs without going full out like the old days. This proposal is interesting, but really weird on that front. So the NHL wants every geographical region represented by at least two teams in the Conference semifinals, and then they don't care.

I like it. It almost assures a future Leaf/Hab playoff series should they make the playoffs for any sustained period together.

I think they set it up that way to get the divisional playoff games that we don't always see (outside of Boston/Montreal which seem to have magnets attached to them regardless of the situation). It is like half old system/half new system.

As for the Red Wings propping up the weak sisters, I would like to see the individual numbers to take that as gospel. The Wings play the Coyotes 4 times, leaving 2 Phoenix home dates. If the Wings bring in 80% capacity instead of 50% capacity, what are we talking? Considering a team like the Coyotes make about $450K per game in gate revenue, how much are we talking for two games in contrast to what their average attendance is? $100,000?

Add in the factors like travel costs that will change with an alignment that is geographically based and isn't the difference negligible per team?

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I like it. It almost assures a future Leaf/Hab playoff series should they make the playoffs for any sustained period together.

I think they set it up that way to get the divisional playoff games that we don't always see (outside of Boston/Montreal which seem to have magnets attached to them regardless of the situation). It is like half old system/half new system.

As for the Red Wings propping up the weak sisters, I would like to see the individual numbers to take that as gospel. The Wings play the Coyotes 4 times, leaving 2 Phoenix home dates. If the Wings bring in 80% capacity instead of 50% capacity, what are we talking? Considering a team like the Coyotes make about $450K per game in gate revenue, how much are we talking for two games in contrast to what their average attendance is? $100,000?

Add in the factors like travel costs that will change with an alignment that is geographically based and isn't the difference negligible per team?

Losing Detroit would hurt teams a little, but I think if Phoenix were in the same division as Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver that would be made up for in a hurry.

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I guess maybe the counter to that is that Nashville could build a rivalry with a similar type opponent in Dallas... and now that Chicago is hot, there's hope they can sustain and become the 'new Detroit', the successful O6 franchise out West steeped in tradition and history.

totally agree - Nashville/Dallas or Nashvile/St.Louis makes perfect sense (although it's unfortunate Nashville & Atlanta never could get a rivalry going, since there already exists a natural rivalry between those cities)

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totally agree - Nashville/Dallas or Nashvile/St.Louis makes perfect sense (although it's unfortunate Nashville & Atlanta never could get a rivalry going, since there already exists a natural rivalry between those cities)

Sounds like a lot of Thrashers fans will be becoming Predators fans from conversations I've had. That is, the ones that aren't completely anti-NHL as a result of what happened.

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