The Fail of the NHL Realignment

At the general managers meeting and NHL Board of Governors meetings they have come up with what they have deemed, a good set up for how they want the conferences to be. Instead of two conferences, there are now 4, two of eight, and two of seven. However, they have failed to really balance out what is out there and trying to make it best situation possible for all teams.

Here is how the conferences will break down, they have not been named yet.

Conference A

Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver

Conference B

Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg

Conference C

Boston
Buffalo
Florida
Montreal
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Conference D

Carolina
New Jersey
NY Islanders
NY Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

Along with this, the first two rounds would go back to when we had the Prince of Wales and Campbell Conference as they will have 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 in these new conferences and then when they reach the final 4 they would play another conference.

Also, the teams of seven would play each other 6 times 3 home and 3 away in inter-conference play making up 36 games of their schedule, the rest would be played against teams in the other conferences for a total of 46 and will face every team that is not in their division, twice (one home, one away). The conferences of 8 will play each other 5 or 6 times on a seasonal rotation to a total of 38 and will play games against other conferences 44 times playing every team twice (one home, one away).

While I am a fan that every team gets to play every other team twice a year, once in front of their home crowds. Some of it left me going "Really, that is the best you can do?".

My main beef in this comes from the fact that there was obviously a pull from the Eastern Conference teams to keep Detroit out of their conference, I am pretty sure they would have welcomed Columbus with open arms (both Detroit and Columbus are in the Eastern Time Zone).

The other major con I find with this is the playoff format. They are going back to the Smythe, Norris, Adams, Patrick set up of 1 v 4 and 2 v 3 then having the winners take on each other then the winners of these four conferences face off, in some fashion yet to be determined and the winners of those go to play in the Stanley Cup Finals. I say having the Top 16 just play against each other regardless of division or conference and let them play for the cup.

Now finally, we now how boring being named after a geological location division sounds, so there is the chance they are going to be renamed after legends in the sport. My personal preference would be to go back to Smythe, Norris, Patrick and Adams. However, there is some talk about naming them after some other legends with them being named after Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, and Mario Lemieux. However, what I think would be funny would be to name them after hot NHL girlfriends and wives. There could be the Hilary Duff, Kelly Kelly, Elisha Cuthbert and Rachel Hunter conferences.

That is all I have for now, until next time keep your stick on the ice.