What do you think of the realignment plan?
January 23, 2013 in mortgage by jedwan
It will be presented this week. Four conferences. Major changes. I doubt this will happen, but you like it?
by jedwan
January 23, 2013 in mortgage by jedwan
It will be presented this week. Four conferences. Major changes. I doubt this will happen, but you like it?
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I assume you are talking about this: http://mit.zenfs.com/206/2011/10/REALIGNNNNNNN.jpg
I am not a fan. I think they are making it much harder than it needs to be. Send Nashville to the Southeast, Winnipeg to the Northwest, Colorado to the Pacific, and Dallas to the Central. It would make things much simpler for the NHL.
I see no reason in four divisions when six have been working for years and have caused no trouble. If the NHL wants to mix it up I want to see something similar to what the NFL and MLB do. You have two conferences with an Orr East, Orr Central, and Orr West with a Gretzky East, Gretzky Central, and Gretzky West (names are just to use as an example). I think in doing this is satisfies the fan base in seeing more teams than the same ones they are used to. Teams out west who still stay up late to see games on the Pacific Coast will be factored in more early games but the down side of this is more late games for the East teams but I believe they can get over that.
When Atlanta moved to Winnipeg there was an imbalance in the league. The big problem is Time Zone differential.
There are 4 teams in the Pacific Time Zone.
Four in the Mountain time zone
Six in the Central and sixteen in the eastern time zone.
The two teams in the western conference in the eastern time zone are at a disadvantage. All of their away games are out of prime time for home viewers. How can Columbus and Detroit build up a fan base if all their away games are on TV late at night.
Solution 2 seven team and 2 eight team divisions with first and/or second round playoffs restricted to a division. The third round of the playoffs would be bets record against poorest record of the survivors and other two. Simplest division is the 16 Eastern time zone teams become two divisions. Colorado join the Central teams for a seven team division and the other teams form a seven team division.
My suggestion
The Gretzky Division
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Phoenix.
The Hull Division
Winnipeg, Minnesota, Chicago, Colorado, St. Louis, Nashville, and Dallas.
The Orr Division
Detroit, Toronto, Buffalo, Montreal, Boston, Rangers, and the Islanders.
The Clarke Division
Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Washington, Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Florida.
How to create a season Each team play home and home outside their division. 46 games for the seven team division and 44 for the eight team divisions. For the seven team divisions there will be six games against other teams in the division for 36 games plus the previous 46 for 82.
In the eight team divisions five games against each of the other teams plus three picked at random. making 82 total.
I am going on this one because if Phoenix moves to the east, it will cause move reailgnment havoc on the NHL, so I don’t think NHL will have Phoenix to the east. They will stay put in the west,so it does cause havoc. If another eastern team such as Columbus, Islanders, or New Jersey moves west, Detroit can then move to the East. I don’t think it makes sense for Detroit to go East, when Columbus is more east than it. The owners of the East Conference would oppose that move because you added a playoff contender team to a conference and reducing one in the West. Colmbus is a fair trade to Winnipeg and more realistic than Detroit.
Pacific:
VAN
SAN
LAK
ANA
PHO
Rocky Plains:
CAL
EDM
COL
WIN
MIN
Central:
CHI
DET
NAS
STL
DAL
Northeast:
BOS
MON
TOR
OTT
CLB
Atlantic:
NYR
NYI
BUF
PHI
PIT
Southeast:
NYD
WAS
CAR
TBL
FLP
The odd thing in this is that NJD is in the Southeast, CLB is in the Northeast, and BUF is in the Atlantic.
I did this so that it keeps all the rivalries, but if we do a more accurate geographical alignment, Pittsburgh would have to change divisions and seperate from Phiadelphia or BOS would have to move away from MON.
My thoughts are they will present 3 different plans which wont be voted on for several months while they sort out what will happen in Phoenix and possibly Florida. Not a chance any team leaving their current city would dream of announcing that move before seasons end so if there are to be changes they wont be announced until that team plays their final game.
Which means that any plan currently being considered wont be discussed to the public until they sort out who stays and who goes. And given the lack of a stomach to make changes only to turn around and possibly need to make more changes in a year or two I cant see any decision being announced until the season ends or at least until the playoffs start. The owners have been pretty clear that they are tired of paying the bills for the Coyotes and no real ownership group has stepped up so there is one other move that must be addressed(unless anyone really thinks the other owners will leverage a purchase for Reinsdorf….if they were willing to allow a heavily leveraged with their money owner he would already own them).
I guess i dont believe we are hearing the truth as to any proposed realignment plans because of the financially troubled teams and the NHL’s reluctance to make in season announcements about any potential move (see: Atlanta….who actually thought they werent leaving yet the NHL denied until their season was over). The owners will favor whatever plan they think will make them the most money in their upcoming tv contract talks (everyone forgets about that angle…money talks with rich guys more than anything else) so a more balanced schedule seems like the only reasonably obvious part of the realignment that will happen whether it be a massive realignment or just a switch of Winnipeg and Detroit/Columbus/Nashville. Personally I dont care if the Wings stay in the west or move to the east if they do the balanced schedule and we get to see teams like the Bruins, Caps, Pens, Rangers. Leafs, Canadiens more than once every couple seasons.
If they absolutely feel it’s necessary to go to four divisions, which it’s not, they should do this…
Original Six-ish Division
Toronto
Detroit
Chicago
NY Rangers
Montreal
Boston
Ottawa
Winnipeg
East-ish Division
Washington
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
NY Islanders
New Jersey
Tampa Bay
Florida
Buffalo
Midwest-ish Division
Dallas
Columbus
Minnesota
St. Louis
Nashville
Carolina
Colorado
West-ish Division
Los Angeles
San Jose
Anaheim
Vancouver
Calgary
Edmonton
Phoenix