The West has lots of 100+ point totals at the top of the rankings, while the East has, well...one.

Also, who woulda thunk that the 8th, 7th and even 6th place East team may not make it out of the 80s?

Did the West really steal that many points from the East this season?

The West gets to play against Edmonton 4 to 6 times.

Nuff said.

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The East gets to play against Toronto 4 to 6 times.

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Toronto isn't as bad as Edmonton is.

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Toronto only has three more wins than Edmonton. The other six points they have on Edmonton come from overtime losses.They're both pretty bad teams is what I'm getting at.

The East also has Tampa and Florida. Hell, the Blue Jackets are 14th in the West and have just as many points as teams that were only eliminated from the playoff race in the last few weeks.

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The East is also normally much closer for playoff races, the disparity in the East is almost non existent as most teams from 6-12 can still make the playoffs., In the West more of the better teams dominate and stay there, and the disparity is greater in the West. It always seems like there is only ever one or two western teams battling for the 8th playoff spot, and the East seems like it always has 4 or 5 teams.

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The East has the Southeast division which shouldn't even exist. Enough said.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Except for the fact that the SE division has 2 cup winners in the last 5 years AND may be the home of the champ this year. How ironic: Possibly THREE cups in 6 seasons! No other division can make that claim in the past 15 years.

And I know the Caps goaltending is suspect, but man, those bastards can score! NO lead is ever safe. And I do mean NO lead.

Scary to play aginst that, I don't care who you are.

Remember how terrible the eastern conference was against the west? Earlier in the season, the Sabres were the only eastern conference team to have a winning record against the West.

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Wheelhouse

And 4/5 of that division is perennially awful. It doesn't matter if one team wins the cup, the other four teams sucking will drag the division down regardless.

Plus the Lightning won in 03-04, so that was 6 years ago, and 05-06 was actually year two of the lockout, so there was no cup champion, so I don't know where your second team is coming from.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

A numbers perspective.
Counting this year and assuming the Rangers are out, since 01-02, 64 teams have made the playoffs (8*8) and 56 have missed (7*8).

Of those 56 teams that have missed the playoffs
50% were from the Southeast.
27% were from the Northeast
23% were from the Atlantic.

That division is an abomination.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

In the last eight years here are the average finishes for each team in the eastern conference

1). New Jersey - 3.5
2). Ottawa - 5.1
3). Philadelphia - 5.9
4). Boston - 6.5
5). Montreal - 7.1
6). Buffalo - 7.4
7). Washington - 7.8
8). NYR - 8.3
9). Carolina - 8.6
10). Pittsburgh - 8.8
11). Toronto - 8.8
12). Tampa Bay - 9.3
13). NYI - 9.9
14). Atlanta - 10.8
15). Florida - 12.0

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

West teams have that advantage of being used to heavy travel as opposed to the Eastern ones.

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

They still won, as bitter as you are against the South East, they have the best team in the league, have won two cups in 6 years, and exist, if you keep hockey in the north no one will watch hockey in 30 years because everyone up north will leave for the south.

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1). that's bullshit.
2). It's still, as a whole, the shittiest division in the conference.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

How many Northern Cities are growing?

And for number 2 I agree. But I think Tampa will be a serious contender when they have solid goaltending and better defense.

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Yes, I think every team will be a better team when their entire team minus three players doesn't suck.

New York City
Columbus
Anchorage
Madison
Seattle
Salem
Portland
Plymouth
Hoboken
Fargo
Dublin
Sioux Falls
Burlington

All among the fastest growing cities in the country.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

http://www.housingbubblebust.com/PopHsg ... nties.html

I counted 10 basically in a top 100 list.

I'm never going to say hockey in the south won't work, because it has in some and not in others, but with an influx of Northern hockey fans moving to the south, it will only get bigger.

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Oh here we go again...People leaving the North for the South, blah blah blah

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

I don't want to seem argumentative, but that's Bettman's argument, and it doesn't work.

People have been moving down south from northern, traditional hockey rich markets for years. You know what? Those southern markets STILL don't really care about the southern hockey teams. Those teams have managed to win championships, sure, but even THAT hasn't given the teams any appreciable bump.

The Lightning have been playing a shell game with their finances for years, and it's been coming back to haunt them more recently. As CV has mentioned (frequently :p ) , the Hurricanes had attendance problems throughout the playoffs the year they won, and all throughout the next season. If you can't sell tickets after winning the most difficult championship in pro sports.... what else can you do?

The Capitals weren't exactly a huge draw either until they got Ovie. Even last year that building was half empty on a lot of regular season nights, only filling up towards the start of the playoffs. If you have the best player in the league and can't sell tickets, what can you do?

Atlanta had one player who drew fans, Kovie, and they couldn't keep him there even with a disgustingly huge contract. Why would any fan pay to see them now?

Nashville's ownership has been a total mess, although from what my cousin down there tells me they do pretty well now. They're still not making any money in general, and attendance isn't that great.

I like the south. It's fun to visit, and if life took me there I wouldn't mind living there. However, from a hockey perspective, that region of the country is NEVER going to morph into a good hockey area.