Home › NHL Realignment Project
NHL Realignment Project Week 36: Going Canadian
Only a day late this week. So this week we are not quite as farcical as in the past few weeks, but have not completely re-entered the world of reality-based realignment either.
Going Canadian
This week's theme is all about going Canadian. By relocating some teams and re-jiggering the divisional alignments, we have been able to get at least one Canadian team in each division.
Gretzky, Orr and Border Landmarks
We are going with the current two conferences of three divisions each format. The conferences are named for Gretzky and Orr while the division names are a little more fun. They are named for landmarks found at the borders, more or less where one might cross to visit the Canadian team or teams in your division, well, if the boys were not crossing tens of thousands of feet overhead in first-class luxury. This includes border straddling bridges, airports, monuments and so on. Obviously this would never fly, but whatever. It is fun.
Equality
Every team has to travel to Canada for divisional games, and Las Vegas, Colorado and Utah need to do it a little more often. I was not about to break up the Alberta rivalry. Every division is stretched vertically, the two easternmost a little less, but still somewhat stretchy, so that is reasonably equal as well.
All this means that nobody can whine about "our travel leaves us at a massive disadvantage". Even previously all alone Colorado gets a fairly near neighbor in the new Salt Lake City franchise.
Travel
North-south is the way. Divisional games may necessitate long trips, but again, staying within one time zone makes all the difference for player fatigue and for TV ratings.
Rivalries
Though we lose CHI/DET, we do get TOR/DET. Not bad. The NYR/NJD, the Alberta teams, Pennsylvania teams, and BOS/MTL all stay together too, so check that off your list. All apologies to fans who live for the BUF/TOR games, but somebody has to sacrifice for the good of the league, right?
The 78-Game Schedule
| Slice | Games |
|---|---|
| Divisional, three home and three away against four teams | 24 |
| Non-divisional, one home and one away against 25 teams | 50 |
| Extra home-and-away series against a conference opponent from each of the two divisions not your own | 4 |
| Total | 78 |
The extra two series work on a five-year cycle that rotates through the conference. Total: 78 games, with the bonus that we get to the playoffs quicker.
Do not forget to share our lil' project with your hockey fan friends. And, as always, thanks for reading. Until next Sunday.
Read next
What Realignment Means for a League and Its Fans
Moving teams between conferences and divisions looks like a map exercise, but the promise and the cost land on rivalries, travel and the playoff path.
Conferences and Divisions: How They Shape a Season
Grouping decides the schedule, the playoff path and how often rivals meet. What conferences and divisions actually control, and why fans argue about them.
Travel, Time Zones and the NHL Schedule Debate
Distance is the easy part. Time zones change the body clock, which is why a genuinely fair schedule is harder to build than it looks on a map.