7, 2 is a terribly unfair idea. Hockey is a conference sport, not a divisional sport. In hockey, the eight best teams from each conference make the playoffs, the divisions only serve to ensure at least one team from each division gets in the playoffs and the winners get the three top seeds. Baseball is a divisional sport, the three division winners make the first round of the playoffs and one wild card team joins them (now a second wild card gets in only to play the first wild card team for the right to join the division winners in the divisional round).
So in hockey, in essence you compete with the other 14 teams in your conference for a playoff spot, how does it make any sense at all to play 28 of your 48 games against just four of those teams? So many divisional games, pretty much ensures at least two teams from each division makes the playoffs. So a team like New Jersey may miss the playoffs because they have to play 21 of their 48 games against the Rangers, Penguins and Flyers and Ottawa gets in playing 21 of their 48 against the Habs, Leafs and Sabres. You need more conference games to determine who's better between Ottawa and New Jersey (this is just an example) and not just the team who plays in the weaker division. One of the four in the Atlantic pretty much has to miss the playoffs in your system because there just isn't enough points to go around in the division.
The three weak divisions (Northeast, Southeast and Northwest) would love such a heavy divisional schedule, but it's so not fair to the three strong divisions. We've already compromised the integrity of the season enough losing so many games, don't compromise it further with so many divisional games. I feel for the season ticket holders who lose a game against the Habs, that sucks, but the lockout sucks. We missed 34 games, some have to get cut. The NHL didn't drop the ball on this one, for such a short schedule it's as good and as fair as you can expect. I sense a lot of blood lust for Bruins-Habs in this thread which leads to these too heavy divisional formats, still get to play the Habs four or five out of just 48.
