Sucks for fans in the central having both Minny and Arizona in their division.
Crap I thought Detroit was on CST, stupid Central America
First of all, the NHL will NEVER separate the Bruins and Canadiens. Otherwise, the divisions look good.
I like the playoff selection, too. The only change I would make to scheduling would be rotating the 6-game division slate. Every three years you’ll have six games against a divisional opponent, and four games against that same opponent the other two.
People will disagree with me, likely very adamantly so, but my honest gut feeling is that rather than moving Arizona to the Central, they'll instead move Colorado back to the Pacific and Edmonton and Calgary over the Central. Barring relocations, of course. That being said, I don't think either would get more than four or five teams opposed regardless, so it'll be whatever Bettman wants, probably.
Second for all the Edmonton and Calgary to the central, Colorado to the pacific people, the NHL stated last alignment that they wanted the western Canadian teams which includes Vancouver to stay together. Why would they change their mind 3 years later? Not to mention this scenario involves 3 teams changing divisions which is way more complex than 1 team moving. NHL also stated they want to promote rivalries. Colorado has already started some nice rivalries with Nashville and Minnesota. Doubt the NHL wants to just throw that away. Why make Colorado throw those away and start fresh, when Edmonton and Calgary already have their rivalry set it doesn't matter what division they play in.
Yes I do remember winning many Pacific division titles.3 years ago the NHL had no clue that Seattle would get an arena built. They could change their minds real quick. The Canucks will have a new rival in Seattle and the Flames and Oilers will join the Jets in the Central.
Colorado has already been a member of the Pacific division and has won Pacific divisions, don’t you remember? Not to mention the Coyotes have been playing in the Pacific for over 20 years and now, finally, have a team close to them without a rival, i.e. Vegas. Why would the NHL want to lose all that over the Avs being in the Central for 3 years. Not sure why that’s hard to understand either.
OK just spitballing.
4 “Conferences”/Divisions, w.e.
Atlantic
CAR, FLA, NJ, NYI, NYR, PHI, TB, WSH
Northern
BOS, BUF, CLM, DET, MTL, OTT, PIT, TOR
Central
ARZ, COL, CHI, DAL, MIN, NSH, STL, WPG
Pacific
ANA, CGY, EDM, LGK, LA, SJ, SEA, VAN
2 games against each other conference for 48. Leaves you with 34 in conference, 5 against each of 6 opponents, 4 against the 7th team that would rotate annually.
Each conference would have top 4 teams play then the remaining 4 would be reseeded 1-4. If baseball can have long distance travel in the playoffs hockey can too!
Not my ideal outcome, i prefer 2 conferences 8 divisions for the “clean” scheduling and formatting, but it would be cool to see a TB/BOS final, or a WPG/PIT semi for example.
Move Ottawa too amirite.All that is left is to move Flordia to Quebec and finding a new home for Arizona somewhere in the west. If another team is really struggling in the East then hopefully Toronto will get a second team
Agreed. I did the math and overall Colorado is closer to Central division teams. Interestingly, the two closest NHL cities to Denver are Las Vegas (749 miles) and Glendale AZ (786 miles), both Pacific teams. But that's negated by how far away San Jose, Seattle and Vancouver are. Also goes to show how terrible the Avs travel is compared to other teams...they are truly isolated
AZ will draw the short straw and move divisions simply because they haven’t secured heir long term future in AZ. Don’t want to be in Glendale but can’t get into Phoenix/Scottsdale. Kind of in limbo.Yep, it sucks. Central makes more sense but we're pretty far away from most teams either way.
AZ will draw the short straw and move divisions simply because they haven’t secured heir long term future in AZ. Don’t want to be in Glendale but can’t get into Phoenix/Scottsdale. Kind of in limbo.
So, not going to be messing with other teams until they settle their future.
Honestly, if AZ were locked in for a long time in AZ, as a Vancouver fan, I would have them in the pacific which means they have to swap Colorado in too. And that’s only because AZ is pacific time come playoffs and I think that matters.
Yeah. I mean i think ARZ makes the most sense cos you have to bone team(s), might as well minimize that as much as possible. The tough thing w the West is you have 10 teams out of CST, and 6 in it. Actually, let me spitball one more time.I agree with this, except that I would swap COL/AZ with EDM/CGY for the reasons that others have laid out here...chiefly the AZ time zone situation and that Arizona is struggling as a franchise, and would suffer more with this move to the Central.
Yeah definitely doesn’t appeal to the ocd side of me that wants symmetry, and the scheduling becomes a little muddy. The biggest issue w the West is the 10/6 split on PST and CST. With a MST thrown in just to make it that much harder haha.MDM,
I like your idea in a way.....
You address the reality that the East and West are 2 different animals. In a perfect world, you would get, in my opinion, something like this:
East: As is. Schedule...4 in division. 2 vs West (that makes 60). Versus other East division: 3 games except 2 games with 2 of the teams on a rotate basis. Playoffs: (Since the schedule is fairly even)..Top8.
West: the big problem is that you have 3 1/2 teams in the MTZ, 6 1/2 teams in PTZ, and 6 teams in Central. Really, to me, the best is to add Seattle to the Pacific, and move Edm and Cgy to the Central and go with an 8/8 split. But, the schedule would be a 5/4 - 2, and the playoffs would be 2 rounds in division.
I would not be opposed to 3 divisions in the West. However, it's hard to figure out the right way, because you have to keep Van/Cgy/Edm together (if you split them up, you would be better off doing the 8-8 I proposed above). So, with the 3 Western Canadian teams together, and then you add Seattle to that (because of Vancouver), then you have to either add Colorado (as you did), or possibly San Jose. And, it just doesn't come out as clean. And, the schedule doesn't separate as well, either, in my opinion.