This one from June of 2008 just before the NHL Awards….let’s have a cup of realignment….shall we?
The NHL Awards will be handed out tonight. Now for those of you who do not have a TIVO, DVR, or access to watch the network. Leave it to Sean Leahy from Going Five Hole to have a bloggers’ vote of sorts. Twenty-three bloggers cast their votes and not all that surprisingly their predictions were similar to ours for the most part. This was rather nice to see…even if we didn’t even come close on the Vezina. Yeah Nabokov in a landslide….I’ll take the “X” and respectfully disagree at the door on that one.
The folks at On Frozen Blog decided to take on realignment in a way that is rather interesting to say the least. Though I don’t think it is very feasible. I had to admit the prospects of seeing an “Original 6” division was very appetizing. Hell, we had to wipe up the drool off my face. That and the old Patrick Division….oooh…those bring back some awfully fine memories of the day gone by. After that, the idea seemed to get muddled and almost hinged on potential expansion which is something I can’t see this league doing for awhile unless it really really wants to shoot itself in the foot yet again.
Going through the six principles that OFB laid out….I know expansion is inevitable but why not wait five years or a little longer than that even? Thirty teams may still seem a bit much right now with several teams sustaining heavy losses this season….particularly Phoenix who lost nearly 30 million dollars. Ideally contraction would not be a bad idea but the timing right now would likely be a public relations nightmare. Since Gary Bettman tries to avoid those kinds 0f situations (insert sarcasm here)….I came up with something that may work….ALTHOUGH…there will be much quibbling I am sure. There always is with these things.
Simply I will just list the divisions….and the 30 teams.
Wales Conference:
Patrick: New Jersey, New York Islanders, Washington, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers
Adams: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal
Clancy: Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Tampa
Campbell Conference:
Norris: Chicago, Ottawa, Minnesota, Columbus, St. Louis, Nashville
Smythe: Calgary, Dallas, Colorado, Edmonton, Vancouver
Gretzky: Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Los Angeles
Now schedule wise this may seem a little imbalanced but hey, if there is going to be 30 teams for awhile….might as well roll with what the NHL has got right at this moment. Playoff format would still be able to be kept intact. Rivals would still get to play each other and the intensity would be there. Yes, there would be no Original 6 division that would just have some fans drooling but then what would become of the rest of the teams. Expansion to 32 teams would just water down the talent pool too much. If there is to be an alignment of sorts…ever…this may just work.
The only flaw may be the 6-5-4 aspect. If baseball can make it work unbalanced then I can’t see why hockey could not as well. Every team would play each team in their division 4 times still. They would also play every team three times each in the conference. Games for each division at this point would total the following…..
Patrick: 47
Adams: 46
Clancy: 45
Norris: 47
Smythe: 46
Gretzky: 45
Now the balancing act of every team gets to play the opposite conferences’ teams twice each…brings the totals up to the following…..
Patrick: 77
Adams: 76
Clancy: 75
Norris: 77
Smythe: 76
Clancy: 75
Onward to the wildcard part…..the divisions with six teams get to play five more games that would be rivalry based even geocentric with the five team divisions getting six games and the four team divisions getting seven games. Original six teams would get to play one other original six member one more time. An Anaheim would get to play Dallas an extra time just for example as well. Toronto and Ottawa would get to play one more time.
Now to implement all this…you would need at least two years to get everyone to agree on everything. Who says they will? Maybe they won’t but by the 2010-11 season at the latest, this would be ready to go. You wind up with enough rivals and also with wildcards can create newer rivalries which is part of what hockey needs not just those old tussles but something new to get the casual fan more a part of the game we all love.
The funny thing is…..if it only were this easy…….The NHL Awards are much easier than realignment would ever be….PERIOD!
