The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7321214/nhl-approves-radical-four-conference-alignment-plan

Instead of 6 divisions there will be 4 conferences

Conference "A"
Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

Conference "B"
Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg

Conference "C"
Boston
Buffalo
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Conference "D"
Carolina
New Jersey
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

I like what they did with the playoff structure - with a 4-seed conference tournament at the end of the season, and then a conference champion tournament. 

Not much different, really but I like the no more "east" and "west" thing. 

Rough conference for the Panthers, but it makes geography sense.

^^^ Try being an Isles fan. I like what I have seen of the plan so far.

I think this is pretty cool.  How many teams make the playoffs?  16?

It always bothered me that Dallas was in the same division as San Jose and the Kings.  No more staying up late to see the end of a divisional away game.

It looks much better than the traditional East/West approach.

I don’t have that much of an issue with Division/Conference A and B. It’s basically what the West wanted (other than for Detroit to go to the East) so their players can tell the Players Union that they agree to the new alignment (provided they don’t lock-out next year as the current CBA expires when the last game for this year’s Stanley Cup is played).  As a follower of the Panthers, I’d have to say they and Tampa got screwed. Out of all 30 teams now, Florida and Tampa have the longest distances to travel for their “local”/”regional” conference/divisional games. Carolina should have been in Conference C and one of the Canadian teams could have been moved to Conference D (pick one, there is 3 to choose from).  ::)

I would not be shocked if the “new North East” division/conference ends up winning next year’s cup simply on the basis of the ease of travel. Considering that NJ, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington all are within a connected boarder state of each other (the odd man out being the Carolina Hurricanes) they should play 82 games back to back; they will have plenty of time to rest and have no jet lag at all.  :D Too bad it will never happen.  :(

I expect this (division/conference) to be the toughest division to be the top 4 in because of the locality of the teams. To me, this is a joke disguised as a “convenience to the West Conference” players. Even they have to (for the most part) travel further than division/conference D and everyone in their division/conference is in the same time zone. TV controlled most of this decision since the GM’s couldn’t agree over the Summer break how to re-align the league. Not surprised.  ::)

This almost reeks of the NHL brass wanting to “ease” Florida hockey teams out of the NHL for good.

Think I’m nuts?  ???  ???

Google the US map and identify all 30 team cities……I can wait……………

(twiddling thumbs)
(checking e-mail on phone)
(trying to figure out what’s taking so long…)  :P






Ok, I can’t wait any longer.

Look where the largest cluster of cities/teams is on the map and then look in Florida’s area. It looks pretty empty, doesen’t it?

People are hinting at the idea of another 2 teams expanding the NHL thus making it an even 8 teams in every division/conference; I’m thinking this is the NHL’s non-forceable way of contracting 2 really good franchises (Tampa was and is still trying to make a good name for themselves and Florida digging themselves out of a 10 year hole) that they seriously do not care for and other than the NY brass and everyone North of the 49th (now pretty much North of the Carolinas), no one seems to have that much of an issue about it.

I do like the idea of playoff teams playing to win their division/conference but I’m not currently comfortable with the “re-seeding” the teams for the 3rd round of the playoffs. Maybe it will grow on me but it seems like 2 eastern teams (or 2 Western teams) would play each other for the Cup in this format.

Nothing new about how many teams make the cut; there is still 16 teams but this is supposed to drive up the local rivalries by playing each other a minimum of 6 times. Don’t think they do that in the NBA (someone please correct/verify me on this).

Have you noticed I don’t like calling this “conferences” but rather “divisions” like it was before? Either way, there will be 4 new trophies that players won’t touch because they believe it will wreck their chances of winning the Cup.  ::) ::)

Thoughts?

It's VASTLY different, actually...

^^ Is it though?

The conferences in the proposal are almost the same as the "East" and "west" teams, and they're still taking 8 teams from each pair.  Only difference is that now they're divided, and playoff races will be different because you'll be competing with 8 teams instead of 14 or whatever.

Its similar, but playoff structure-wise, its similar enough to not be revolutionary.  I like it better, either way.

Saw this a couple of days ago. No one posted it so I will on a separate topic but just giving a heads up that the alignment will need to be changed again or the league will be on strike/lockout  :'(