Let's Go Blues

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/n ... 52420178/1

The NHL announced Friday that it won't go ahead with realignment in 2012-13 because it says the players association won't agree to the changes.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the players association "unreasonably refused" to go along with the plan.

The change to a four-conference setup was approved 23-7 in December by the NHL's board of governors. Under the plan, the top four teams in each conference would make the playoffs and the first two rounds of the playoffs would be played within the conference.

The league said it will stick to its current format — six divisions, with the top eight teams in the Eastern and Western conferences making the playoffs — for next season.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly issued the following statement:

"It is unfortunate that the NHLPA has unreasonably refused to approve a plan that an overwhelming majority of our clubs voted to support, and that has received such widespread support from our fans and other members of the hockey community, including players.

"We have now spent the better part of four weeks attempting to satisfy the NHLPA's purported concerns with the plan with no success. Because we have already been forced to delay and, as a result, are already late in beginning the process of preparing next season's schedule, we have no choice but to abandon our intention to implement the realignment plan and modified playoff format for next season.

"We believe the union acted unreasonably in violation of the league's rights. We intend to evaluate all of our available legal options and to pursue adequate remedies, as appropriate."

The realignment plan was viewed as more advantageous to the Western Conference teams because it set up conferences based on time zones, thus cutting back on travel.

Because it required that every team play a home-and-home with at least every other team in the league, that meant more travel and wear-and-tear, especially for teams in the Eastern Conference.

"It is incorrect (and) inaccurate to report that the NHLPA 'rejected' the NHL's realignment plan," agent Allan Walsh said on Twitter. "Never happened. League imposed deadline of (today)."

The league and NHLPA will being negotiating a collective-bargaining agreement after the All-Star break. The current agreement runs out on Sept. 15.

Terrible news.
I was really looking forward to this...would have really created and renewed some rivalries.

If they can do equal 'conferences' I could see it..

Good, now they can do something more balanced, perhaps...

I would still love to see a return to the traditional named conferences and divisions though I'm sure they won't do that because Bettman is a total jackass.

I was no great fan of the realignment, but it would have been better than Winnipeg remaining in the Southeast Division for another year.

gaijin wrote:I was no great fan of the realignment, but it would have been better than Winnipeg remaining in the Southeast Division for another year.

Yeah...well we will see who goes to the East, my vote is for Nashville. :dietootoo:

I really liked the reallignment idea because of the playoffs. 2 divisional rounds would be more awesome than 7 & 8 team conferences is unfair IMO. Maybe they could come up with some sort of wild card system. Match up a 7 team and an 8 team conference, have the top 3 teams from each make it in automatically. Then, have 2 wild card teams. If they are both from the same conference, the one with the lower point total plays in the other conferences divisional playoffs.

I don't know how well that could work, but it balances it a little.

This is complete bullshit. The whole idea of the realignment was awesome, minus having Tampa and Florida in a division with Montreal and Toronto.

I have a feeling the league will fix it to allow, perhaps, the 4th playoff slot in each conference to be a wild card of sorts. The conferences would have to remain "paired" in a East-West fashion for this to work simply, such that if the 5th best team in any conference is better than the 4th best team in the paired conference, they would slot over for the playoffs and only 3 teams native to that conference would make it.

philco_3 wrote:This is complete bullshit. The whole idea of the realignment was awesome, minus having Tampa and Florida in a division with Montreal and Toronto.

That's probably at least part of the reason people were against it.

ViPeRx007 wrote:

philco_3 wrote:This is complete bullshit. The whole idea of the realignment was awesome, minus having Tampa and Florida in a division with Montreal and Toronto.

That's probably at least part of the reason people were against it.

I expected that the NHL thought that Tampa and Florida would move to one of Hamilton or Markham, ON, or Quebec City

It makes you wonder if the league didn't approve of this stupid realignment just to provoke this response of the NHLPA, so they can call them unreasonable and use that against them in the next CBA.

Ron Finger wrote:It makes you wonder if the league didn't approve of this stupid realignment just to provoke this response of the NHLPA, so they can call them unreasonable and use that against them in the next CBA.

I respectfully disagree with that notion. I don't think that they would set out to do that from the outset. However now that the NHLPA did reject this I am sure you are correct in saying that they will use it as PR ammo depending on how talks go.

thedoc wrote:

Ron Finger wrote:It makes you wonder if the league didn't approve of this stupid realignment just to provoke this response of the NHLPA, so they can call them unreasonable and use that against them in the next CBA.

I respectfully disagree with that notion. I don't think that they would set out to do that from the outset. However now that the NHLPA did reject this I am sure you are correct in saying that they will use it as PR ammo depending on how talks go.

It's all political tactics. Damn election year.

gaijin wrote:

thedoc wrote:

Ron Finger wrote:It makes you wonder if the league didn't approve of this stupid realignment just to provoke this response of the NHLPA, so they can call them unreasonable and use that against them in the next CBA.

I respectfully disagree with that notion. I don't think that they would set out to do that from the outset. However now that the NHLPA did reject this I am sure you are correct in saying that they will use it as PR ammo depending on how talks go.

It's all political tactics. Damn election year.

Be careful what you say about it being an election year, we might wake Goon.

What I am hearing is that the NHLPA didn't reject it, but the NHL deadline expired...

sseagle wrote:What I am hearing is that the NHLPA didn't reject it, but the NHL deadline expired...

This is what I heard as well.

Stupid.
The realignment is a good thing...not perfect, but much better than it is now.

cprice12 wrote:

sseagle wrote:What I am hearing is that the NHLPA didn't reject it, but the NHL deadline expired...

This is what I heard as well.

Stupid.
The realignment is a good thing...not perfect, but much better than it is now.

Yeah, that's what I've been hearing now too. I know they need to prepare for next year and whatnot, but a January 6 deadline seems pointless.

I also don't think the NHL created the realignment idea to make the NHLPA look bad rejecting it. That kind of thing happens for sure (e.g. NFL owners ratifying a CBA that they knew the PA wouldn't pass), but this wasn't one of them. The NHL wanted this, and will still get it.

cardsfan04 wrote:

cprice12 wrote:

sseagle wrote:What I am hearing is that the NHLPA didn't reject it, but the NHL deadline expired...

This is what I heard as well.

Stupid.
The realignment is a good thing...not perfect, but much better than it is now.

Yeah, that's what I've been hearing now too. I know they need to prepare for next year and whatnot, but a January 6 deadline seems pointless.

I also don't think the NHL created the realignment idea to make the NHLPA look bad rejecting it. That kind of thing happens for sure (e.g. NFL owners ratifying a CBA that they knew the PA wouldn't pass), but this wasn't one of them. The NHL wanted this, and will still get it.

What I don't get:
1) Bettman knew the NHLPA had to approve the re-alignment. He even said so on NHL Radio when making the announcement.
2) The 2 things the NHLPA are concerned about shouldn't be that hard to address and should have been addressed simply by sitting down and talking about it. (Travel and playoff implications as it impacts players with unbalanced conferences)
3) The NHL, based on what I have read and heard, never even bothered to offer to sit down to discuss it.

So how is this bad on the NHLPA's part? It looks to me like Bettman dropped the ball.

That thing about travel - I'm wondering if they figured out the re-alignment overall increases travel for the league, when they touted re-alignment reducing travel - ignoring that it only reduced travel for Winnipeg and the current Western conference teams.