News Article: Oilers moving to the Central?

[Perfect_Drug]

Anyone else think we should just have 2 conferences, and screw the divisions?

 

[The Panther]

Anyone else think we should just have 2 conferences, and screw the divisions?

I think there should be two Leagues, like in baseball, where the West plays only the West (and East only East) in the regular season. Two MVPs, two scoring leaders, two everything.

The NHL is getting too big and unwieldy now.

 

[nexttothemoon]

I wonder if they'll keep it at an 82 game schedule... or increase it to 84 games again once Seattle enters the league?

7 teams x 4 games vs own division teams in own conference
8 teams x 3 games vs other division teams in own conference
16 teams x 2 games vs other conference teams

84 games seems the tidier way to go.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

I wonder if they'll keep it at an 82 game schedule... or increase it to 84 games again once Seattle enters the league?

7 teams x 4 games vs own division teams in own conference
8 teams x 3 games vs other division teams in own conference
16 teams x 2 games vs other conference teams

84 games seems the tidier way to go.

Those two extra games could be another week tacked on to the season. I like your breakdown of the games so the league could start the season at the end of September or make round 1 a best of 5 like it was once upon a time.

 

[rboomercat90]

Anyone else think we should just have 2 conferences, and screw the divisions?

Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them go back to this.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Those two extra games could be another week tacked on to the season. I like your breakdown of the games so the league could start the season at the end of September or make round 1 a best of 5 like it was once upon a time.

They could make the exhibition pre-season shorter by ~2 games as it's too long anyway. The 1st couple games is always filled with the players with no chance of making the roster and I'm sure the teams could sort out their opening rosters with ~6 pre-season games instead of ~8 games.

 

[LTIR]

If it means less 8:30pm starts then I'm good.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

My initial reaction was like hell no, that's stupid, you can't separate the Battle of Alberta and then actually read the article and realized Calgary would be coming with us. In the near term it probably makes our schedule a bit harder opponent wise, but I generally like playing those guys from an entertainment perspective more so than the California teams so it doesn't really bother me. I also see the upside of not having as many late games against the California teams. I'm kind of indifferent to a change in divisions if it happens as proposed, the pros and cons are close enough for me that I don't care what the final decision is.

 

[rboomercat90]

I think there should be two Leagues, like in baseball, where the West plays only the West (and East only East) in the regular season. Two MVPs, two scoring leaders, two everything.

The NHL is getting too big and unwieldy now.

This is something I could see happening too. The lockout shortened 2013 season was only conference games. Going by memory, the first three seasons after the 2004 lockout year saw teams playing only one game against non conference opponents. None of these are radical ideas as they’ve been done to some degree before.

More conference games spread evenly through out the conferences instead of divisions makes it easier for the league to change a playoff format that they’ve been getting criticized for a lot since they adopted it. As you say, the more teams in the league, the more complicated it gets. How’s a perfect time for a big change.

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

Oh hell no, no way I want to be in a division with the likes of the Jets/Preds/Blues etc.

Right? Anaheim, LA and SJ have aging cores, but sure, lets go to the other division where every team is a contender

 

[T-Funk]

Right? Anaheim, LA and SJ have aging cores, but sure, lets go to the other division where every team is a contender

Yeah we put in our time getting dummied by these cheater teams. I want a turn to be the hammer.

 

[dss97]

I doubt that extremely. They are too close to Vegas and California, and it's even a cultural connection with them.

It makes too much sense to me to put Edm and Calgary in the Central, with Colorado in the Pacific. The Oilers and Flames will NOT be separated just like Philly and Pittsburgh wont. The Alberta teams are 1 time zone away from the furthest Pacific teams, but also 1 time zone away from the furthest Central teams.

Nah.

Arizona is way closer to teams like Colorado, Nashville, and Dallas than us while being somewhat comparable in terms of distance to the others in the central. Moving both Alberta teams to the central and moving Colorado to the Pacific would create a silly amount of travel for us.

 

[Paperbagofglory]

This is a blessing. This team will never get favorable officiating playing against the California teams who are the NHL's love child and pet project galore. Teams from other divisions constantly get screwed over when playing on the west coast. We can finally be rid of the nightmare biased officiating. At least the refs seem to hate the Jets as much as the Oilers.

 

[yukoner88]

I think there should be two Leagues, like in baseball, where the West plays only the West (and East only East) in the regular season. Two MVPs, two scoring leaders, two everything.

The NHL is getting too big and unwieldy now.

I doubt that will ever happen. Every NHL city wants to have Crosby, McDavid, Ovechkin etc. Go through their buildings to boost ticket sales and / or boost ticket prices

 

[KarmaPolice]

Not gonna happen. It'll be Arizona, I'd think.

 

[Edmoiler13]

As long as they move both Alberta teams I’m good with it as I’m in the eastern time zone

 

[CycloneSweep]

You would take the teams with the worse travel schedules and make them even worse.

 

[48g90a138pts]

I don't think there's a chance the league moves Arizona to the central. They're located way too close to the Pacific teams for that.

It will be the Oilers and Flames getting moved to the central.

 

[thadd]

I'm indifferent TBH. I live in Asia so if we're playing in the central games start earlier for us and that works really well for me. Let's me catch more hockey before my lunch break is over.

The rivalry with Calgary isn't what it's made out to be anymore.
I imagine 70% of the people on this board were not watching hockey in the 80's.
That was a rivalry. We don't even want that rivalry anymore. Nobody does.
On any given night players were getting away with **** that would result in 10+ games suspensions in the modern NHL.
It was truly a compilation of violence.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I don't think there's a chance the league moves Arizona to the central. They're located way too close to the Pacific teams for that.

It will be the Oilers and Flames getting moved to the central.

They are closer to the central teams than we are.

They are also the most likely team to get moved to potentially Houston so that would make sense.

Adding all that distance to Edmonton and Calgarys travel schedules when they are already the worst makes even less sense imo

 

[Dazed and Confused]

A division that stretches from Edmonton to Nashville... Yeah I don't think that'll fly.

Easier to move the Yotes over to the central, as they're not that far from Colorado at least. Plus it keeps the 2 western divisions somewhat even in terms of travel.

 

[joestevens29]

Seems odd they'd make Vancouver the only Canadian team in that division when Alberta is so close.

I'd think you'd want to keep them with us and Calgary. You want Seattle in the same as Vancouver as well.

So I guess there's 4 teams I'd try to keep together.

 

[CycloneSweep]

A division that stretches from Edmonton to Nashville... Yeah I don't think that'll fly.

Easier to move the Yotes over to the central, as they're not that far from Colorado at least. Plus it keeps the 2 western divisions somewhat even in terms of travel.

On top of that I don't see owners agreeing to move 3 teams around to keep Arizona who doesn't really even bring in revenue in the Pacific. Moving Colorado, Calgary and Edmonton and breaking the Alberta BC rivalry just doesn't make sense.

Especially since Colorado was just moved to the central a few years ago.

 

[thadd]

Seems odd they'd make Vancouver the only Canadian team in that division when Alberta is so close.

I'd think you'd want to keep them with us and Calgary. You want Seattle in the same as Vancouver as well.

So I guess there's 4 teams I'd try to keep together.

If Edmonton and Calgary go to the central things are going to get even harder, but it'll be a ton of fun getting to watch Oilers playing the Jets and Preds more often.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I have a real disconnect with Central clubs these days. Don't give a hoot about Chicago, Detroit, STL, Preds, Minny etc. These are often dog day games to me. They offer no particular interest. At times Chicago has engaged me but mostly these clubs bore the shit out of me. Some of my worst games ever attended were STL,

Conversely I love California hockey for the most part, not sure why. maybe the Gretzky connection created the allure.

I can't see this flying. From a travel pov or general interest pov.

We're west man, its what we are. Wer'e pretty far west Geographically. To consider this as Central within the continent is a joke.