NHL Realignment Project – Week 43: Five Divisions of Three

Week 42 spent its time on a very unlikely scenario, contraction. Week 43 went with a slightly more probable occurrence, one where no teams move, no teams are added and no teams are lost. In short, realignment in its truest form: just realigning the existing clubs into a different divisional breakdown.

Two conferences, five divisions each

The 30 teams stayed in two conferences, but each conference was broken into five divisions instead of three. The tight geography of the breakdown is its strength, and the author admitted borrowing liberally from week 33. If some of it seemed eerily familiar, readers were not going crazy.

A bigger map for the last ten weeks

As a bonus for the final ten weeks of the project, the map was redrawn much bigger and nicer than the first 42. It was based on the free wallpaper of the current NHL and measured 1280 by 800 pixels.

The two conferences kept Gary Bettman's favourite names, Eastern and Western. The five divisions in each are a mix of directional names, geographic features and historical nicknames, and the post invited readers to toss ideas into the comments because the names could be whatever folks wanted them to be.

The scheduling fix

The non-divisional games would be played in three-game road trips to a single division and three-game homestands against a single division, with the rotating in-conference pairings completing a two-year cycle.

What the schedule actually solves

It does not completely keep Columbus from making long in-conference road trips, but the trips are shorter in duration and more logistically sensible. As far as non-Eastern Time Zone road trips go, the Jackets would only have two more of those than Eastern Time Zone trips. The Ducks, Kings and Sharks no longer have a divisional opponent two time zones away, and the only Stars and Coyotes two-hour difference comes in the few weeks when Arizona does not spring forward for Daylight Savings while Dallas does.

Playoffs: five winners and three wild cards

• Five division winners from each conference qualify, seeded first through fifth by record.
• The three best records among non-division winners take the wild-card spots, seeded sixth through eighth.
• Round one is 1 versus 8, 2 versus 7, 3 versus 6 and 4 versus 5, and round two reseeds highest against lowest.
• Every series is best-of-seven in the 2-2-1-1-1 format, with the higher seed holding home ice.

Why divisions should matter

The regular season is better when divisions mean a ton and conferences are less important, and the post offered the NFL as exhibit A and the NBA as exhibit B. It makes more sense for teams to identify with their own division and fight division-mates for a playoff place than to think of themselves as one of 14 clubs chasing one of eight spots.

In short, better to have teams claw and scratch for five division crowns with three consolation prizes than to meander through a season in search of one of eight prizes, three of which come with a small bonus attached.