TheRealPepman
Registered User
- Jul 8, 2018
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What if: Chicago Blackhawks and/or Nashville Predators moving to the Eastern Conference
- Thread starter TheRealPepman
- Start date
Cant really compare it with another league as the NBA has teams in Utah and Oregon, and 3 teams in Texas alone, which the NHL doesn't have.
HisIceness
This is Hurricanes Hockey
I mean, unless the NHL going to start expanding into Kansas City, Houston, San Diego, Austin, etc. after Seattle, I don't see how this happens. Detroit and Columbus are not moving West again.
The fact is, Nashville is just in an odd position when it comes to being a Western conference team. It's in the CTZ but just barely and it's much closer to Raleigh, DC, Columbus, Pittsburgh etc. than some teams in their own division. Nothing they can do about that, but at this point they have established budding rivalries with the Blues, Hawks, and Jets. I don't think it makes sense to move them to the East for the sake of creating geographical balance.
Ditto Chicago, and the Bulls at one time were a Western Conference team too.
The fact is, Nashville is just in an odd position when it comes to being a Western conference team. It's in the CTZ but just barely and it's much closer to Raleigh, DC, Columbus, Pittsburgh etc. than some teams in their own division. Nothing they can do about that, but at this point they have established budding rivalries with the Blues, Hawks, and Jets. I don't think it makes sense to move them to the East for the sake of creating geographical balance.
Ditto Chicago, and the Bulls at one time were a Western Conference team too.
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Even when the NHL adds Seattle the NBA will have more PST/MST/CST teams than the NHL. Chicago might go to the East in a 36 team league but it's not until a 38 team league that Nashville would have a chance to move East.
Why would two eastern time zone teams switch places with two central time zone teams? After they both just moved out of the west fairly recently?
Rich Nixon
No Prior Knowledge of "Flyers"
Islanders and Panthers to the West, Kings and new Seattle team to the East.
A more interesting thought I've had is of making the two sides not bound by geography. The MLB and NFL both formed as a merger of two different leagues, and thus their split is more based on history than anything. Now, naturally, the divisions are grouped by general proximity (well, the AFC East and NFC East both have a distant outlier) but it makes for some unique rivalries. Hockey plays more games than football, so it's a bit easier travel wise, but the MLB does long road trips and "series" which could be fun. Think a team from the East goes out, plays 2 in 3 nights against the same California team, one against another, then 2 against Arizona and works its way back through the Midwest...would take clever scheduling and would never happen, but a neat idea.
A more interesting thought I've had is of making the two sides not bound by geography. The MLB and NFL both formed as a merger of two different leagues, and thus their split is more based on history than anything. Now, naturally, the divisions are grouped by general proximity (well, the AFC East and NFC East both have a distant outlier) but it makes for some unique rivalries. Hockey plays more games than football, so it's a bit easier travel wise, but the MLB does long road trips and "series" which could be fun. Think a team from the East goes out, plays 2 in 3 nights against the same California team, one against another, then 2 against Arizona and works its way back through the Midwest...would take clever scheduling and would never happen, but a neat idea.
Suntouchable13
Registered User
Toronto is never moving to the West again. How would that make sense? It never made sense in the first place. Same for Columbus and Detroit.
maacoshark
Registered User
- Jul 22, 2017
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In 21 team league with 13 EST teams someone had to be in the West. Ditto a 30 team league with 17 EST teams.
Prairie Habs
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- Oct 3, 2010
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Agreed, give us that preds/Panthers rivalry we've all been waiting for. It's not like Toronto or Detroit have any history or rivalries in the east worth saving...
HisIceness
This is Hurricanes Hockey
Rich Nixon
No Prior Knowledge of "Flyers"
So did Winnipeg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Colorado, the Bay Area, and Ottawa, prior to the arrival of their current franchises.
KingsFan7824
Registered User
It made sense because what we call the West wasn't the West back then. With far fewer teams that far over on the left side of the map, there were a lot more games closer to Toronto too. It was only in the 3rd round where the Norris and Smythe teams would play come playoff time. Then after some expansion, and a change in the playoff format, it became a bigger issue. Ottawa gets a team. A couple spots open up with the relocations of the Nordiques and Whalers.
One thing you might think is Columbus, as an expansion team, could've easily fit into the new NE division, instead of the financial powerhouse Leafs, with generations of fans, who had already been in the West. The Jackets started off the worst way. Non-Vegas expansion rules, no cap, and in the West, with many road games starting later. But that's an overall issue with the NHL's geography. As was said, there aren't 3 teams in Texas. There is one way up in Edmonton though. More teams in the ETZ than not, and most of those are all bunched into the northeast corridor, which makes it difficult to pry anyone away from anyone else. The thing with the West is that anything west of the ETZ isn't necessarily west, but Nashville still gets lumped in with Vancouver.
Crazy idea if you want Chicago and Nashville in an eastern conference. Take the ETZ and CTZ teams, make that one large conference, and MTZ and PTZ into the other. The eastern conference gets 12 playoff spots, and the western gets 4. You got 1-12 and 1-4 for the 1st and 2nd rounds, 3rd round gets re-seeded, and damn near any two teams could play in the Final. Like I said though, way out of the box.
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pvr
Leather Skates
- Jan 22, 2008
- 4,707
- 2,107
The NHL has never organized conferences the way the NBA, NFL, or MLB does. All of those sports have teams from all time zones playing in each conference. That’s much more equitable regarding spreading team travel across all time zones during the year. Currently, northeastern teams have a decidedly unfair travel advantage compared to almost every other team. Trickle down advantage to sleep, practice, jet lag, etc... accumulates over the season.
AD Skinner
Registered User
This would be interesting... maybe something around the WHA and 67 expansion? And once there's 32 making 8 divisions of 4 instead of 4 of 8 might be worth exploring (though I think something like that was proposed and got shut down in the last round of labor talks)... but I think the east coast rivalries are too important to the league to mess with, correctly or incorrectly
ScaredStreit
Registered User
The problem is with Nashville and Chicago both being in the Central Time Zone. With that said though somebody's gotta move East.
I'm not sure the conferences are going to be as significant after Seattle starts play. I'm expecting them to go with pods of 4 teams instead of the current 2 divisions per conference. Who knows how the schedule balance will work out, but East vs West may not mean then what it means today.
But I don't think anyone is going to be too thrilled about a scenario that leads to imbalanced conference numbers again, so no to the OP. And moving Eastern time zone teams to the West is a bad idea.
But I don't think anyone is going to be too thrilled about a scenario that leads to imbalanced conference numbers again, so no to the OP. And moving Eastern time zone teams to the West is a bad idea.
HolyJumpin
Registered User
- Sep 30, 2016
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ScaredStreit
Registered User
The whole point of the thread is a hypothetical if Chicago and/or Nashville were to move East. In order for that scenario to happen you would have to move one of them..............
Bear of Bad News
Your Third or Fourth Favorite HFBoards Admin
- Sep 27, 2005
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I changed your thread title.
In the future, please don't post "what if" thread titles that read as if events are actually happening.
StoneHands
Registered User
- Feb 26, 2013
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This is a great idea. Let's move Chicago and Nashville, neither of which are in the Eastern Time Zone to the Eastern Conference and move two of Detroit, Columbus, or Toronto who are all further East than Chicago and Nashville to the Western Conference.
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They should divide the conferences by North and South, that way everybody has sucky travel schedules
valeriammm
Beers/Bikes/Bums
- Sep 21, 2018
- 996
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Preds/panthers?? Can we get someone worth forming a rivalry over? I dont even know if Florida holds enough fans to create a fun rivalry
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