NHL Realignment Project – Week 41
Whale of a Tweak
These week’s entry is only five days late. Which is slightly different than last week’s six days late. In that spirit, this week’s NHL Realignment Scenario is only slightly different than last week’s… nooch!
I know the economic viability is a question, but everyone loves the idea of the Whalers (and their AWESOME uniforms) coming back into the league. for some reason we all have a soft spot for ’em.
In order to accommodate this and keep last week’s structure, our league is gonna have to lose a team that few (especially Jeff Carter) have any kind of soft spot for… Columbus.
Let’s see the result (Those readers who are extra keen will notice a whole lot of copy/paste from last week… shhhhh!).
NHL Realignment Map – Week 41
The Breakdown:
Two relocations plus two expansions equals a 32-team league. Our breakdown this week yields yet another four-conference alignment. Each conference is made up of 8-teams that are reasonably geographically clustered.
| Pacific Conference | ||
| Anaheim Ducks | Phoenix Coyotes | |
| Calgary Flames | San Jose Sharks | |
| Edmonton Oilers | Seattle Metros* | |
| Los Angeles Kings | Vancouver Canucks | |
| Central Conference | ||
| Chicago Blackhawks | Minnesota Wild | |
| Colorado Avalanche | Nashville Predators | |
| Dallas Stars | St. Louis Blues | |
| Kansas City Scouts | Winnipeg Jets | |
| Northeast Conference | ||
| Boston Bruins | Montreal Canadiens | |
| Buffalo Sabres | Ottawa Senators | |
| Detroit Red Wings | Quebec Tempest* | |
| Hartford Whalers | Toronto Maple Leafs | |
| Atlantic Conference | ||
| Carolina Hurricanes | Philadelphia Flyers | |
| Florida Panthers | Pittsburgh Penguins | |
| New Jersey Devils | Tampa Bay Lightning | |
| New York Rangers | Washington Capitals | |
*Bonus fun—This week, the new teams in Seattle and Quebec City get there names and logos from concepts put forth in the excellent blog, Icethetics. There is a concept page for the the Seattle Metros and the Quebec Tempest (or Tempête). Thought it would be fun to mix it up and give a shout out to a great blog and some amazing work by some of their readers.
Gained Teams:
Seattle, Quebec City, Kansas City, Hartford
Lost Teams:
Long Island, Columbus
The Benefits:
• The Whale — C’mon! It’s the whale. Even Brodie from Mallrats knows what’s up.
• Geography/Travel — No division is made up of more than two time-zones. No Eastern Time Zone teams are located in the Western half of the breakdown.
• All-inclusive — Every team visits every other team’s building. The fact that this hasn’t been league policy for so long is a travesty.
• Rivalries — Other than CHI/DET, all major rivalries are preserved. And as Philly fan and reader of the blog noted this week, many Flyer fans would be more broken up about losing the Rangers and Devils as rivals than the Pens. Many would argue this statement and many would support it… so I made everyone happy and kept all four teams together.
Scheduling:
Conference Games: 2 home & 2 away vs. 7 teams = 28 games
Inter-Conference Games: 1 home & 1 away vs. 24 teams = 48 games
An additional Home-and-Away versus a single opponent in each of the conferences not your own (to rotate through the league every 8 years): 1 home & 1 away vs. 3 teams = 6 games
TOTAL = 82 games
Playoffs:
Top four in each conference qualify. First two rounds determine Conference Champions. Third round is the semi-finals (with the team with the best regular season record choosing his opponent). Fourth round is the Stanley Cup Finals.
(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
Make sure to check out the entire NHL Realignment Project ».