KHL Conferences More Balanced than NHL

[Faterson]

Funny how situation got reversed compared to last season.

Last season, there was imbalance in the KHL due to 14 teams in the West, only 12 teams in the East. The fight for play-off spots was boring in the East, whereas it was exciting to the last day in the West. This year, we have a healthy balance of 14:14 in the KHL.

The NHL used to have that balance until this season, when they had 15:15. But look what they did now:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm?season=20132014&type=WC#&navid=nav-stn-conf

It's 16 in the East versus 14 in the West. No matter how you look at it, it's now a lot easier to make the play-offs in the West than in the East. Especially because they moved the "eternal" play-off team, Detroit, from West to East. (They also swapped Columbus and Winnipeg, but that's irrelevant.) Due to moving Detroit to the east, it now feels like "there is 1 more play-off spot available in the West", and that "there is 1 fewer play-off spot available in the East".

I don't see how such a conferences setup can remain permanent in the NHL. It's just too imbalanced. Yes, there have been rumours about expansion NHL teams in Seattle or Las Vegas, but likewise about second NHL teams from Quebec and Ontario.

Maintaining balance between East and West will also be a challenge for the KHL, because they intend to expand especially to the West.

Maybe it's time to forget about conferences altogether? Just make divisions of 6 to 7 teams, why not... But then the play-offs should be "global", so to say, not artificially separating "east" from "west", because I don't think such an artificial separation can be sustained for the long term.

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[brec7]

I think the idea of scrapping conferences was heavily discussed, actually. There were plenty of rumours that the NHL was going to have just 4 divisions and not bother with conferences (the difference being they would be called conferences anyway). Of course, there would still be an imbalance.

The NHL's geography is really inconvenient at the moment. There are so many different options that would have things be even- 3 conferences of 10, 5 divisions of 6, 6 divisions of 5... yet it seems every single case would have some team not fitting geographically.

 

[Salavat Yulaev]

I don't think that number of teams played a key role in the last season. IMO in 2012-2013 two strong teams appeared Lev and Slovan. Plus CSKA got Radulov, Datsyuk, Grigorenko and other good players. This made high competition on the west.

I think that this season the races will be again more intersting on the West cause there is Medvescak now and nothing happena in the East conference except the fall of Avangard and Torpedo's transfer.

 

[Faterson]

The NHL's geography is really inconvenient at the moment. There are so many different options that would have things be even- 3 conferences of 10, 5 divisions of 6, 6 divisions of 5... yet it seems every single case would have some team not fitting geographically.

To me, it's not so much about the regular season setup, but when it's made easier for one set of teams to make the play-offs than for another set of teams, that's hardly fair.

It's undeniably easier for a Western Conference NHL team to make the play-offs now than for an Eastern Conference team. Not just numerically, because it's 14 versus 16, but because a very strong, perennial play-off team like Detroit has been removed from among the contenders in the West.

It was similar last year in the East with the KHL. Torpedo moving East has helped a lot, because it's definitely a play-off contender.

I can't imagine what will happen next year with Helsinki joining, though. The "West" would immediately get a lot more difficult, in terms of making the play-offs.

I like the new NHL rule that it's the division tables, no longer conference tables, that determine which teams move on to the play-offs. The top 3 teams in each division move on.

What I dislike is that the current NHL "wild card" rule only applies to a conference instead of the entire league. That's exactly what makes the West easier than the East in the NHL currently. If the "wild card" was given to the top 4 teams from across the NHL, regardless of whether it's an Eastern or a Western team, then the chances for making the play-offs would be more or less equal on both sides.

I believe this is the only reasonable way for the KHL to move forward in future: forget about conferences, because balance between West and East is just impossible. I think it's an American concept, anyway, because they traditionally think in terms of "East Coast" and "West Coast" there. Nothing like that exists in Europe -- or if it does, it's in terms of "Western Europe" and "former East Block", which cannot be applied to the KHL at all.

Here is what I think might be reasonable for the KHL next season:

• Make 5 divisions of (mostly) 6 teams each.
• The top 3 teams from every division make the play-offs (same as in the NHL this season).
• Give a play-off wild-card to the best 4th-placed team, regardless of whether it's "east" or "west" (as opposed to the NHL).
• Forget about "Western" or "Eastern" champion -- just doesn't make sense in the KHL. Simply play the play-offs with the 16 teams, based on a draw or on points won in the regular season.

 

[Faterson]

I believe this is the only reasonable way for the KHL to move forward in future: forget about conferences, because balance between West and East is just impossible. I think it's an American concept, anyway, because they traditionally think in terms of "East Coast" and "West Coast" there. Nothing like that exists in Europe -- or if it does, it's in terms of "Western Europe" and "former East Block", which cannot be applied to the KHL at all.

Another way to "rescue" a hypothetical "West" versus "East" concept in the KHL would be to have, say, 16-18 "Russian" (East) teams versus 16-18 "non-Russian" teams (West).

That would require some heavy KHL expansion towards the West, though, which doesn't seem realistic. Even if we assigned Dinamo Riga & Minsk and Donbass to "West" rather than "East", that's still only 7 teams in total (with Slovan, Lev, MedveÅ¡čak and Jokerit). At least 9 more European non-Russian teams would need to join the KHL to create some sort of balance against Russian teams + Astana.

 

[Salavat Yulaev]

Another way to "rescue" a hypothetical "West" versus "East" concept in the KHL would be to have, say, 16-18 "Russian" (East) teams versus 16-18 "non-Russian" teams (West).

That would require some heavy KHL expansion towards the West, though, which doesn't seem realistic. Even if we assigned Dinamo Riga & Minsk and Donbass to "West" rather than "East", that's still only 7 teams in total (with Slovan, Lev, MedveÅ¡čak and Jokerit). At least 9 more European non-Russian teams would need to join the KHL to create some sort of balance against Russian teams + Astana.

I like this idea. But I would change the format of the playoff:
1st West vs. 8th East
2nd West vs. 7th East
and so on

 

[Sucro]

I like this idea. But I would change the format of the playoff:
1st West vs. 8th East
2nd West vs. 7th East
and so on

That means even more flights, not gonna happen

 

[Faterson]

I think the west vs. west and east vs. east play-off format is largely preferred to minimise costs / travel issues, which I can understand. Can you imagine if, say, Lev Prague and Admiral Vladivostok were to play against each other in the play-offs? The incessant flying back and forth around half the globe (if it was a 7-game series) might ruin the clubs both metabolically and financially.

I also remember how Detroit fans used to complain that whenever the Red Wings played on the road against their Western Conference peers in previous seasons (including the play-offs), it was too late for regular folks to watch the game on TV. How many people will watch if a game starts at 10 pm and it's not the weekend? For fans in Vladivostok, games in Europe start in the middle of the night, and games in Vladivostok/Khabarovsk start at 10 am or 11 am for us here in Central Europe..

So I'm not saying trying to minimise travel/time shift issues in the play-offs is a bad idea, but such efforts should not result in an imbalance such as that in the current NHL, where it seems a lot easier to make the play-offs if you happen to be a Western Conference team.

There could be the effort to keep the teams geograpically close together for the play-offs, which is why in the NHL, the 2nd- and 3rd-ranked teams in the divisions will face each other in the 1st play-off round... But if the wild card goes to a team completely elsewhere... so be it. It's then ironic that the division winner might get "punished" by travelling to a remote opponent. The NHL has accepted that necessary sacrifice -- although I'd like them to go even further, by giving the 4 wild cards to the 4 teams with the highest points totals, regardless of east or west.