Not that my opinion matters to the NHL, but I've got mixed feelings about realignment. Looks like non-division conference and non-conference games will only be home & home. I liked having 4 games against teams like Philly, NJ, Rangers, and Pens. Now we only get 2 games against those teams. I personally don't care much about seeing Western Conference teams, and the fact that we have to play home & home against all Western teams dilutes the number of more intensive and interesting Eastern Conference games against teams we hate like Philly and Pens. Also, why is Boston in the Central division and Pitt in Atlantic? Doesn't make as much sense geographically - maybe to keep traditional rivalries, though I wouldn't mind seeing 6 games/year against Pens - Buffalo vs Pittsburgh would be an awesome rivalry, given geographic proximity.

Also not too thrilled about playoff inequity - 8 of 14 in West and 8 of 16 in East.



Thoughts?

For the teams in 7-team divisions it looks like the numbers work out well.
6 other teams in division at 6 games each = 36
23 other non-division teams times twice each = 46
36+46 = 82.

But with 8-team divisions it's not so clean.
7 other teams in division at 6 games each = 42
22 other non-division teams times twice each = 44
Anyone know how they will resolve this?

As for playoff inequity, the 2 8-team divisions are the western ones, not the eastern ones
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=75862
I don't think they have decided the playoff format yet.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

100% that link is wrong. The 7's are out west, the 8's out east.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=6590 ... l:topheads

Mckenzie and the rest of the NHL team on tsn said that there talking about making each divisions top 3 guaranteed playoff spots and the other 2 wild card. I honestly do not like that idea at all. It should be first 2 are locks and rest are all up for grabs. They were also saying that division will play against own division throughout the whole playoffs and in the conference finals each of the divisions in there conferences will meet in the East Conference and Western Conference finals.

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"If you want to know what I've been doing lately, I've been driving around from Tim Horton's to Tim Horton's, rolling up the rim. Haven't won anything yet. Thanks." - Lindy Ruff

I think the original idea was 4 independent divisions, top 4 in each division get in, and 1st 2 rounds of playoffs always would be within the division. Then before rounds 3 and 4, reseeding would take place so that division champs played based upon seed number - hypothetically eastern team vs western team in semifinals, and hypothetically an east vs east or west vs west finals.

However, now with the wildcard situation, I'm guessing they necessarily would have interdivision play (within same conference, similar to how it is now) during playoffs depending on seeding, and the finals will be east champ vs west champ. So basically, we're still looking at conference playoff format, only with 4 divisions instead of 6.

That's too bad. I like my link much better! I don't want Detroit in our division, and I think they should have stayed with Chicago, St. Louis and Minn. anyway.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

It's as follows.

- Top 3 in each DIVISION are in.
- Out of the rest of each CONFERENCE, top 2 records get in as wild cards.
- First round of the playoffs:

Division Winner #1 (most points) vs. Wild card #2 (lowest points of the wild cards)
Division Winner #2 vs Wild card #1
Division 1 #2 vs Division 1 #3
Division 2 #2 vs Division 2 #3

Although I can't find the reference, I did read they were likely to reseed in round 2 and beyond like they do now.

strange, I don't understand why they wouldn't just seed #1 - #8 in each conference like they do now, with # 7 and 8 being the wildcards.

Because they want to emphasize the divisional playoff format, although it still never guarantee more than 2 divisional matchups.

I remember back in the old Adams Division days when they seeded teams 1-4 by division for the 1st and 2nd rounds, and the Sabres seemed to play Boston in the 1st round every year. That got old quick. Of course they rarely got out of the 1st round.

Yeah, it sucks when you can't get past a divisional opponent, but it does really pump up the rivalries for the regular season meetings when you get bounced in the playoffs.

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-o ... ext-season

highlights: only 4 or 5 games against divisional oponents, and 3 against each conference foe. Round 1 playoff strucure is as described by Squanto above. Round 2 stays in division and round 3 stays in conference.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

blechh

I don't like the fact that by default east coast teams are less likely to make the playoffs because they got more teams.
50% of east coast teams and 57% of west coast teams get into the playoffs. Seems a bit unfair that if you're a fan of a west coast team it is more likely to watch playoff hockey.

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I couldn't agree more.

You can't divide 30 by 4. You can divide it by 2 and have 15 teams in each conference then just switch Winnipeg into the West and Columbus into the east. Or you could even go for 3 ten-team divisions and take the top 3 teams in all divisions with 4 wildcards (or top 5 teams in all divisions and one wildcard). What they've decided to do seems stupider than all those options I just listed.

I wonder if it was intentionally done this way in order to create more interest for fans out west.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

You can do 4 divisions and still make it fair. Just make sure there are 15 teams in each conference (1 7-team-division & 1 8-team-division).
Bettman stated, that it doesn't make a difference if there is a 8th team in a division because it's not decided by statistics (not a quote).
Which is complete bullshit, you have to beat one more team for a playoff team and one more team competes for a wildcard. You will probably see it next season. Likely, there will be 1 east coast team that would have made the playoffs if Detroit would have stayed west. Tell these fans the numbers don't matter.

TL,DR: Bettman is an idiot

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it does not seem fair. top 3 from each division guranteed a playoff birth but only 2 wild cards? our conference will have more teams. fighting with an extra 2 teams to contend with for a spot in the playoffs in the east.

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"If you want to know what I've been doing lately, I've been driving around from Tim Horton's to Tim Horton's, rolling up the rim. Haven't won anything yet. Thanks." - Lindy Ruff

Per the link above:

The division winner with the most points in the conference will be matched against the wild-card team with the lowest number of points; the division winner with the second-most points in the conference will play the wild-card team with the second fewest points. The teams finishing second and third in each division will play in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of each series will play for the divisional championship.

Based on this format, after the 1st round, there could be 3 teams left from 1 division, and only 1 team from the other division. So how can you have divisional championship series (2nd round) if there aren't 2 teams from each division?

Im going to use colours to explain how it works
lets say these teams make the playoffs
Sabres 120 points
Leafs
Red Wings
Habs


Isles 110 points
Rags
Pens

These three teams from each division will stay, regardless of what happens with the Wild Card
Bruins 79 points
Panthers 78 points
The Panthers, because they have the least number of points, would play the Sabres in the first round, and the Bruins would become the Bruins

So the playoffs would be
Sabres v Panthers G1
Leafs v Red Wings G2
WG1vWG2 G5
and
Isles v Bruins G3
Rags v Pens G4
WG3 v WG4 G6

and the confrence champions be winners G5 v WG5

So basically, the lowest wildcard becomes a member of the division with the highest ranked division winner, and the same for the high wildcard and low division winner.

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.