NHL Realignment Project, Week 52: Rivalry Pods

Things look bleak right about now for us fans of the NHL. The lockout has moved from meeting rooms to courtrooms. The players (and their leader) have decided that what the NHL has to offer is just not good enough (and honestly, I can't blame them), and they are willing to fight to the end for something a little more fair. I'm not gonna get too into the woods on the issues causing the lockout, other than to say two of the problems (and they go hand-in-hand) are there are a few too many teams in places where the game, as it is currently set up, just isn't sustainable AND the more successful teams think too much in terms of "me, me, me" and not in terms of a healthy league top to bottom creating a rising tide that lifts all boats.

The Last Official Entry in the Project

Whether we get a super short season in the beginning of 2013 or not, the earliest we'll see realignment is for the 2013-14 season. For the record, I think that the league will do so, and will either but something similar to what they proposed last December back on the table (and the foreshadowing of expansion that comes with it), or they will opt for a short term fix that is just a tweaking of the current system. With that in mind, I present the last official entry of the NHL Realignment Project.

While I had flirted with the idea of going into another elaborate description of expansion and crazy scheduling pods and special rivalry games, I thought... let's just get back to basics and get something doable and sensible done (are you listening to me, Gary and Donald?).

Rivalry Pods, the Idea That Made This One Different

Other than a few slight changes to the map, the main thing this week's scenario introduces is something I call "Rivalry Pods."

I've always tried to keep as many of the league's rivalries intact during my realignment scenarios, but you can't get them all neatly into divisions no matter how you break 'em up. But now, with rivalry pods, you get to add a few additional games versus rivals each year. The rivalries in the NHL don't all line up perfectly, but this allows for teams like DET and TOR to have an extra home-and-home each season, or DAL and SJS... even thought they are actually in different divisions. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, first we've got to look at the divisions...

The Map: Winnipeg and Dallas Finally Move

The main changes we see are moving Winnipeg out of the Southeast and Dallas out of the Pacific. To most outside observers, these are the most glaring anomalies in the league's current alignment. While Minnesota and Winnipeg still have to travel two time zones over for games in the arenas of three of the division-mates, unlike what Dallas had, they at least have each other as near-ish neighbors... not to mention those two cities have no problems retaining eyeballs on TV sets for late starting hockey games. Hockey is king in Manitoba, is and arguably so in Minnesota too, so the Pacific Time Zone is less of an issue.

It'll be interesting to have a division with four Canadian teams in it to kinda counter-balance the three that are US-only. While Detroit doesn't get it's long-standing wish to move to the Eastern Conference, I think it's time we all admit the NHL just isn't going to do that. They'll go to the four-conference option first, rendering that argument null. Since this is short-term plan, there is no need to introduce that upheaval now.

Rivalry Pods in Practice

Granted, not all teams within pods are rivals of all other teams in the pod (that's just not possible to align), but there is plenty of historical bad-blood, and/or geographical proximity amongst the teams to make most of these games extra-interesting. DET/TOR, DET/COL, CHI/VAN, DAL/SJS, DAL/MIN, oh my! Coupled with divisional rivalries, we get more of what makes the NHL great, rivalry games, without overdoing it with just playing more and more games against your division-mates. I think this'd be the perfect balance, and really good for the game.

A Schedule That Adds Up to 82, and the Playoffs

• Against each divisional opponent, 3 home and 3 away: 6 games x 4 teams = 24 games
• Against each non-divisional conference opponent, 1 home and 1 away: 2 games x 10 teams = 20 games
• Against each non-conference opponent, 1 home and 1 away: 2 games x 15 teams = 30 games
• Against each pod rival, an additional home-and-home series: 2 games x 4 teams = 8 games
• Add it up: 24 + 20 + 30 + 8 = an 82-game season

Playoffs remain unchanged from current format of 8 qualifying teams from each conference playing in a four-round (all best-of-seven) knock-out tournament. Three division champs from each conference are seeded 1-3 and the next five best records round out the 8 conference qualifiers.

Round 1, Conference Quarter-finals: 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5

Round 2, Conference Semi-finals (teams reseeded after first round): 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3

Round 3, Conference Finals: Two surviving teams vie for Conference Championship

Round 4, Stanley Cup Finals: Eastern Conference Champion vs Western Conference Champion

A Year of Scenarios, and a Thank You

Okay guys. That is it. Over a year ago, I challenged myself to show the endless possibilities of realignment (and the fact that none of them will make everyone happy).

So thanks again for the patience and the participation. And here's to hoping that the fans in Seattle and Quebec City get teams soon and that the league resolves its issues, and becomes healthy enough to grow and flourish forever.