NHL Realignment Project – Week 34
The Breakdown:
Just what the NHL/PA have decided we’re gonna be stuck with for a while—two conferences of three divisions each.
| The Wayne Douglas Gretzky Conference | ||
| Northwest Division | Southwest Division | Central Division |
| Calgary Flames | Anaheim Ducks | Chicago Blackhawks |
| Edmonton Oilers | Colorado Avalanche | Dallas Stars |
| Portland Eagles | Los Angeles Kings | Minnesota Wild |
| Seattle Metropolitans | Phoenix Coyotes | St. Louis Blues |
| Vancouver Canucks | San Jose Sharks | Winnipeg Jets |
| The Robert Gordon Orr Conference | ||
| Great Lakes Division | Northeast Division | Southeast Division |
| Buffalo Sabres | Boston Bruins | Carolina Hurricanes |
| Detroit Red Wings | Montreal Canadiens | Nashville Predators |
| Hamilton Tigers | New Jersey Devils | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Ottawa Senators | New York Islanders | Philadelphia Flyers |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | New York Rangers | Washington Capitals |
Gained teams:
Seattle, Portland, Hamilton
Lost teams:
Florida, Tampa Bay, Columbus
The Benefits:
• Travel — It’s not perfect, but at least there are no crazy “Dallas and Minnesota traveling two time zones for a divisional game” scenarios. Divisions are pretty much as compact as they can been given the realities of geography. Obviously the 15 western-most teams have to travel more, compared to what some of them currently do, I’m sure many would say this is pretty damn good.
• The Detroit Problem — Detroit finally gets their wish of moving East. Columbus did too… unfortunately for CBJ fans, they moved East AND North… to Hamilton.
• Cohesive Northwest — Moving the Florida teams to the Pacific Northwest instantly makes the Northwest Division infinitely more interesting and sensible… Seattle and Portland is far more likely to become what we hoped Tampa/Miami would become they they actually did become (at least the Lightning won a Cup, though).
• Rivalries — Though we lose CHI/DET, we do get TOR/DET… not bad. The NYC-area teams, the Alberta teams, Pennsylvania teams, and BOS/MTL all stay together too, so check that off your list.
Not even gonna bother with scheduling or playoffs this week. I like my solution from last week so much, I’m just gonna bask in that glory for a while longer.
(H/T to oilersnation.com for the original map)
Don’t forget to share our lil’ project with your hockey fan friends. And, as always, thanks for reading. Until next Sunday!
— TF