Re: Realignment plan
Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:12 am
agreed, I laughed.PGABluesFan wrote:Brilliant point results for STL amd Detroit in that example.
Discuss the St. Louis Blues, the NHL, or whatever.
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agreed, I laughed.PGABluesFan wrote:Brilliant point results for STL amd Detroit in that example.
The "unfairness" of the playoffs bothers me a little, but playoff rivalries will probably be more intense from year to year because of carryover from playing the same teams in the playoffs each year. So, I think that balances that part out a bit. And baseball is a good comparison in that regard.dmiles2186 wrote:I'm torn. I like the fact that playoff rivalries will be a bit more intense and I also like that it forces the Eastern-based teams to actually travel West for games, since you play each team outside of your conference twice, once home and once away.
But I also know that there will be a 5th place team with a high point total that won't make it, and a 4th place team in another conference will have a lower point total and sneak in.
But it's like that in baseball with division winners and I don't really have too many complaints about that.
Overall, I'm glad they kept Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit together and I like that we're going to have Minnesota and Winnipeg in our conference/division now. I'm hoping the rivalries spark back up.
I had a few people that are close - I was kind of close to it (except I made a "Great Lakes" Division to put some of those teams together), and I had STL in with the southern teams.STLADOGG wrote:Makes the games against the conference teams a lot more important...btw ProngerBlues44 did you have any scenario exactly like this on your website?
Your reference to it as a "fix" just proved my point. If it's a problem, why start out that way? And it's not the Brewers' fault that the MLB didn't re-structure immediately at the birth of a 6 team division!F Keenan wrote:Baseball has fixed it with Houston joining the American League in 2013. Keep in mind, your beloved Brewers caused that mess.WaukeeBlues wrote:I'll be honest: I DO hate it.
First off and most importantly: Why do the "Western" two conferences have 16 teams and the East has 14? Yea that's fair. It's like in the MLB National Central with 6 teams when a Division out West has 4. So the Blues (and everyone in the West) has essentially two more teams to beat out to make the playoffs than the Eastern teams do? Any way you slice it, two conferences have an extra team than everyone else. I f*cking hate it in baseball and I hate it here. That's a crock of sh*t. You have an even number of teams. Make it fair. Sorry for the language but that just burns me.
Even assuming that's true (which I would doubt), that doesn't fix anything: you'd still have two conferences with two more teams than the other two. Fundamental problem doesn't change, just moves.F Keenan wrote:The whole point of leaving the conferences lopsided is so that when the Coyotes leave, and they most likely will (Either Quebec City or Toronto), they can join Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, Buffalo, Florida, and Tampa Bay in the same conference.WaukeeBlues wrote: All in all I don't know they should even be making this drastic of a change with Phoenix still on the ropes. So what happens if Phoenix packs up and moves to (just an example to demonstrate my point) Quebec next season? We get to do this all over again? That's fantastic. Sweet. Good job NHL. Shoulda just swapped Nashville for Winnipeg, Winnipeg for Minnesota and called it a day
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No, I think they did it that way so that the NHL didn't have to split the Eastern Seaboard. Any ACTUAL geographical alignment for the East would mean a North and a South. Inevitably, the dividing point would be around the NY teams, NJ, Pitt, Philly, etc.cardsfan04 wrote:I would have made that conference exactly the same as they did. If you're doing realignment into 7-8 team conferences, it makes sense to put 7 teams that are that close together geographically in the same conference. Sure, it makes the Florida teams go way north which is unfortunate. But, I think that makes more sense than splitting up the teams that are all real close geographically.WaukeeBlues wrote: Second: What's with the alignments in the east? It's some disgusting hybrid of the Southeast Division + Atlantic and SE/NE for the two conferences. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Why even bother aligning geographically? F*ck it, let's put LA in the same conference against Florida to encourage cross-country rivalries. It's the same thing putting Tampa and Ottawa in the same conference. This is BLATANT NHL favoritism to their pretty-boy teams and rivalries that they want to develop: Philly, Pitt, NY and Washington. Only way they could make sure Pitt and Washington got in the same conference was to have it make no sense. Well, congratulations Bettman, mission accomplished. I'm shocked they didn't throw Detroit in there. I really am. Detroit, Pitt AND Washington in the same conference? That's like Bettman's wet dream. I'm just thrilled that I'm going to be force-fed the Washington/Pittsburgh rivalry for the remaining careers of Crosby and Ovechkin. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=604852NHL.com wrote:Bettman said the discussion on realignment lasted only about an hour.
I mean, that's a big downside, and I get why those teams could feel upset over it. But, it allows for that regional rivalry to really take off. It would be nice if they take travel into account for those teams too. Like, 2 days off in between games when they fly from North Canada to Florida, or something like that.WaukeeBlues wrote:No, I think they did it that way so that the NHL didn't have to split the Eastern Seaboard. Any ACTUAL geographical alignment for the East would mean a North and a South. Inevitably, the dividing point would be around the NY teams, NJ, Pitt, Philly, etc.cardsfan04 wrote:I would have made that conference exactly the same as they did. If you're doing realignment into 7-8 team conferences, it makes sense to put 7 teams that are that close together geographically in the same conference. Sure, it makes the Florida teams go way north which is unfortunate. But, I think that makes more sense than splitting up the teams that are all real close geographically.WaukeeBlues wrote: Second: What's with the alignments in the east? It's some disgusting hybrid of the Southeast Division + Atlantic and SE/NE for the two conferences. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Why even bother aligning geographically? F*ck it, let's put LA in the same conference against Florida to encourage cross-country rivalries. It's the same thing putting Tampa and Ottawa in the same conference. This is BLATANT NHL favoritism to their pretty-boy teams and rivalries that they want to develop: Philly, Pitt, NY and Washington. Only way they could make sure Pitt and Washington got in the same conference was to have it make no sense. Well, congratulations Bettman, mission accomplished. I'm shocked they didn't throw Detroit in there. I really am. Detroit, Pitt AND Washington in the same conference? That's like Bettman's wet dream. I'm just thrilled that I'm going to be force-fed the Washington/Pittsburgh rivalry for the remaining careers of Crosby and Ovechkin. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.
That's a completely intolerable scenario for the NHL, as this alignment shows. So, they threw a big "f*ck you" to Tampa and Florida by forcing them (and the Canadian teams in their conference) to fly across half a hemisphere so that they could keep their precious favored franchises together in the same conference (NY, Pitt, Philly, Washington). That's why they did it. I'd bet money on it.
Also: assuming you're right, how is that fair? You keep the 7 teams that are within a bus ride of eachother together and then split the remainder across two countries and thousands of miles? We've talked frequently on this board and in general that lengthy travel schedules CAN BE detrimental to a team. With this alignment, Conference D is at a distinct advantage with their travel schedule than the entire rest of the NHL.
Now I understand teams like Vancouver, etc, will always face that problem (and as last season showed, can play through it successfully) but why highlight it or make travel worse by purposefully splitting the conferences like they did? I think it's BS.
Man, seeing it laid out like that makes me roll my eyes a bit. They said 26 voted yes for this, voted no. My guess on the no's were Detroit, Columbus, TB, and Florida. I'm going off nothing other than Detroit and Columbus' wish to face more Eastern teams and the absurdity of TB and Florida being so split off from their conference-mates.gaijin wrote:
That ridiculous patch of green is appropriately colored. Money (by marketing PIT/WAS/NYR/PHI) is the only reason for putting TB and FLA in with the northern teams.
Yeah, that makes sense.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=604852NHL.com wrote:"Frankly it's not the seventh and eighth teams that are competing for a playoff spot,"
Well thats a little queer. They could fix that easily. Take Tampa and Florida out of that 'Northeast' conference and replace them with both new york teams.dmiles2186 wrote:Man, seeing it laid out like that makes me roll my eyes a bit. They said 26 voted yes for this, voted no. My guess on the no's were Detroit, Columbus, TB, and Florida. I'm going off nothing other than Detroit and Columbus' wish to face more Eastern teams and the absurdity of TB and Florida being so split off from their conference-mates.gaijin wrote:
That ridiculous patch of green is appropriately colored. Money (by marketing PIT/WAS/NYR/PHI) is the only reason for putting TB and FLA in with the northern teams.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Living in Cincinnati, I know that Howson (Columbus GM) was pretty happy about the alignment. I heard Detroit say that they were happy as well. I think the Rangers were one team that voted against it, not sure about the other three.dmiles2186 wrote:Man, seeing it laid out like that makes me roll my eyes a bit. They said 26 voted yes for this, voted no. My guess on the no's were Detroit, Columbus, TB, and Florida. I'm going off nothing other than Detroit and Columbus' wish to face more Eastern teams and the absurdity of TB and Florida being so split off from their conference-mates.gaijin wrote:
That ridiculous patch of green is appropriately colored. Money (by marketing PIT/WAS/NYR/PHI) is the only reason for putting TB and FLA in with the northern teams.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Which is exactly why it won't be allowed to happen.Ruutu15 wrote:Why couldn't they just make 4 divisions under a 2 conference banner like they used to? Would have been perfect.