By reducing division games, the NHL has reduced the rivalry excitement

[Yatzhee]

As a Sabres fan, at my age, I can remember the Nordique's rivalry, the Montreal rivalry, the Boston rivalry.
That has diminished so much since the reduction in division games for myself.
I am an industrial electrician, and traveled to 36 states over the past 30 years working, made many wonderful friends as I worked and lived in their communities. Almost all of them and myself still talk at least weekly to this day.
So, in an attempt to see if it's the same for fans across the league, I inquired. And yea, it's a small pool of 40 or so fans, roughly 18 teams, but each are fanatical as I am about hockey and our hometown teams.

What I found was 100% across the board that yes, the new type of scheduling has diluted the excitement in the rivalry area. And the additions of the new divisions and so on, these fans didn't feel remotely the same to the teams added to their home teams divisions as they did from the old system.

I concluded it is disappointing the NHL did this new division system.
My question is, do many of you feel the same? Curious as to how fans feel league wide.
Thanks in advance for responding, I sit back and read your thoughts.

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[pabst blue ribbon]

Don't know why we need to see 30+ interconference games a year

 

[Prairie Habs]

I like it. Every team plays in every city every year which is a nice change from the way it was. As far as rivalries go, you play division rivals less in the regular season, but are more likely to play them in the playoffs, which is when real rivalries happen.

 

[Schenn]

I like that every team has a home and home with each other. I also think there should be more interdivisional games. My totally lame way to fix this is to have home and homes with every team that are not in your teams division, and the rest of the games be interdivisional.

Makes the conferences less important during the regular season but keeps it similar in the playoffs. Then you play a ton against your teams within the division, and see every team in the league.

Probably a flaw in there somewhere but whatever. ha

 

[Kale Hulls]

I use to not like having a bunch of division games but it did help to make the divisions feel unique. Now it just feels like you never really get to know the teams in your division that well.

 

[mtlmonk]

It would and used to suck to only play / watch star players from certain teams once every 2 year.

 

[Rich Nixon]

I use to not like having a bunch of division games but it did help to make the divisions feel unique. Now it just feels like you never really get to know the teams in your division that well.

I don't know. I got sick of playing each team 8 times in the 5-team division setup. And with 31 teams now it's a bit difficult, so the options are kind of limited.

When we get to 32, meaning 4 8-team divisions, I think a better equation would be:

6 games x 7 teams in-division=42 games
3x8 non-division in-conference=24 games
1x16 non-division non-conference=16 games

82 total, alternating divisions out of conference home and away (Metro hosts Pacific, Central hosts Metro one year, switch it the next, etc). Same thing with the 3rd game against non-division in-conference teams.

Another thing I'd been thinking is a sort of "series" concept, a bit more like baseball does it. Obviously not 4 games straight against one team, but what's the big deal about, say, the Panthers going up and playing Boston twice in a row in Boston in 3 nights? Then do the reverse later in the season. Cuts down travel and probably makes road trips less arduous, and if you want rivalries to grow, slap a couple games back to back and let teams really get at each other. Home-and-homes already exist, but they're not feasible for teams in the same division that are far away from each other like Montreal and Tampa or Vancouver and LA.

 

[Curufinwe]

6 games against division rivals is boring and cheap. Leave that to the AHL where they travel by bus.

I like it. Every team plays in every city every year which is a nice change from the way it was. As far as rivalries go, you play division rivals less in the regular season, but are more likely to play them in the playoffs, which is when real rivalries happen.

Yup. I would much rather have an extra game against San Jose and Edmonton, than an extra game against New Jersey and Carolina. The real problem with the current divisions is the absurd "Atlantic" division that put the Florida teams with a bunch of Canadian teams.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

I don't like seeing the divisional opponents over and over. As a Sharks fan, I love being able to watch my team play against guys like Crosby or Matthews or Ovechkin. When you stack up on divisional games, you get more Sharks/Canucks or something like that and that's no fun. I'd like to see the end of divisions and just have two conferences. You can schedule geographical and historical rivalry games, but divisions feels more limited than what we could get.

 

[bluesfan94]

I think as the Sabe[color= black]rs[/color] get better, the rivalries will feel more heated.

 

[SteadyFreddie]

I think as the Sabers get better, the rivalries will feel more heated.

Absolutely, can't wait for the Sabre-Leaf rivalry.

 

[member 305909]

Does anyone know: What is the record early date that a team has lost even its theoretical chances of reaching the play-offs? My guess is well before Christmas.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Absolutely, can't wait for the Sabre-Leaf rivalry.

I think that's another reason for wanting more conference play. Rivalries are cyclical. I mean look at the Kings. They are awful this year. I don't want to see my team play the Kings 6 times. Of course you can never predict if a team will be bad or not, but I'm all in favor of a more balanced schedule. It also enhances a rivalry, considering sometimes less is more.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

As a fan of a team in the central, less games against the central please.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Less games against the Pacific for the Sharks please. More games against the Canes!
This Friday, Sharks vs Canes!

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Less games against the Pacific for the Sharks please. More games against the Canes!
This Friday, Sharks vs Canes!

I don't really know what Corsi is, but I'm looking forward to the game based on what I've heard. Goalies better bring their A-game.

 

[Silky mitts]

I’m going to see Mcdavid for the 2nd time in 2018 so that’s nice and the 1st 2 playoff rounds being in division is unique in sports so I like that set up now

 

[dkhockey]

no, it is good.... look how awful MLB is. 162 games vs the same 15 teams.... ridiculous .

clayton kershaw has never played against the red sox until this week. such crap.

NHL got it right, everyone plays everyone !

 

[jbeck5]

Aslong as they keep the home and home with every team, the rest im ok with..

We just need to make sure fans have the opportunity to see every team/superstar.

Back in the day there were some teams you wouldn't see at home, and it could be random year to year. I think i remember one team or player not having played in a city for like 4-5 years or something. We gotta try to avoid that.

 

[Mikeshane]

I love it, I strongly dislike watching the same teams over and over in the regular season.


Just recently Nash-SJ, Pitt-Edm, Tor-Win, TB-Col were they not good games?!

 

[MattMartin]

The fighting ended the rivalries, sorry to break this news to everyone.

 

[McDonald19]

Season ticket holders demand to see Crosby, Ovechkin, McDavid, etc. in their building at least once a season unfortunately.

Personally I'd rather have an extra LA-Anaheim game than Carolina-Anaheim.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Season ticket holders demand to see Crosby, Ovechkin, McDavid, etc. in their building at least once a season unfortunately.

Personally I'd rather have an extra LA-Anaheim game than Carolina-Anaheim.

This is a totally bogus myth that keeps getting repeated. Someone broke down the #s on this in a similar discussion on the BoH forum last year and the resale prices on inter-conference games are across the board LOWER than division ones in basically every market.

When you're at the games it's also pretty easy to sense the energy is much lower than the buzz on a division game.

30 boring inter-conference games are way too many. NHL needs to cut that down in half (or hell barely any, works fine in MLB and NFL) and replace them with more division games, much more interesting.

 

[MNNumbers]

Just an idea, but I would like to see this:
Seattle expansion, then the league is 4 divisions of 8 teams each and NO designated conferences. Just 4 groups.
Each group plays:
6 games against all other members of its own group (division). 42 games.
home/away with 2 other groups (divisions), or 16x2 =32 games.
1 game with the last group. = 8 games.

Rotate the groups from year to year.

Result: over time, you lose 1 home against everyone NOT in your division each 6 years, which isn't much lost. And, you have 1/2 of your games with your own division, which seems intuitively pretty good.

 

[A1LeafNation]

The alternative is Arizona seeing Matthews once every three years.