NHL Realignment Project – Week 47
2012/10/19 7 Comments
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La Key en Rose
Hello again, everyone. After a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long hiatus, I’m back with another reshaping of the NHL.
First, all apologies for going dark for so many months. Business is picking up over in the real world, so unlike the NHL and the PA, I’m working a lot these days. Another reason I’ve placed my attention elsewhere is the fact that Mrs. Fulery and I are expecting our first child soon and that really takes over your life… so far in a very good way.
Besides, not much has happened in hockey since I went away anyways, right? 😛
This week we look at a scenario that involves two cities losing their teams (one unlikely and the other definitely possible) to two cities that are in the Pacific Northwest. Both have arenas that can hold hockey (one well (The Rose Garden) and one not well at all (Key Arena)). While we’re much more likely to see teams in Quebec City or Markham before Portland, this would be a fun scenario for this WHL-centric part of the world.
The Map
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NHL Realignment Map – Week 47
The Breakdown:
This week’s re-imagined league brings back one of my favorite breakdowns — two conferences, each made up of five divisions of three teams.
| WESTERN CONFERENCE |
| Northwest Division |
| Portland Coyotes |
| Seattle Metros |
| Vancouver Canucks |
| Southwest Division |
| Anaheim Ducks |
| Los Angeles Kings |
| San Jose Sharks |
| Mountain Division |
| Calgary Flames |
| Colorado Avalanche |
| Edmonton Oilers |
| Lakes Division |
| Chicago Blackhawks |
| Minnesota Wild |
| Winnipeg Jets |
| Central Division |
| Dallas Stars |
| Nashville Predators |
| St. Louis Blues |
| EASTERN CONFERENCE |
| Niagra Division |
| Buffalo Sabres |
| Detroit Red Wings |
| Toronto Maple Leafs |
| Liberty Division |
| Philadelphia Flyers |
| Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Washington Capitals |
| Southeast Division |
| Carolina Hurricanes |
| Florida Panthers |
| Tampa Bay Lightning |
| Northeast Division |
| Boston Bruins |
| Montreal Canadiens |
| Ottawa Senators |
| Empire Division |
| New Jersey Devils |
| New York Islanders |
| New York Rangers |
Gained teams:
Lost teams:
Phoenix, Columbus
• Focus — With more divisions, the main focus of an NHL team’s season is to win its division to guarantee it’s spot in the playoffs. Beat the other two teams in your division and your in. If you don’t, you still have three wildcard slots to shoot for, so its not an “all or nothing” situation, but its a lot closer… and hopefully more exciting.
• Rivalries — As an addendum to the last point, the other two teams in your division will become such hated rivals, that all games against them will be insanely great. Even when you team is in a bit of a slight swoon, you still have something to play for… just beat the two main rivals a lot and a playoff chance is a good bet.
• Travel — With Detroit now in the Eastern Conference, and Dallas and Winnipeg playing in divisions that actually make sense for their geographic locations, travel will be the last thing teams can complain about… not that that will stop ’em.
Scheduling:
Each team plays:
– against its two division-mates four times at home and four times on the road each:
8 games x 2 teams = 16 games
– against the teams in the other divisions within the conference once at home and once on the road:
2 games x 12 teams = 24 games
– an additional home-and-home series agains the teams of two of the divisions within the conference (flips to the the other two divisions within conference each year):
2 games x 6 teams = 12 games
2 games x 15 teams = 30 games
Playoffs:
• Top team from each division qualifies (Seeded 1-5 based on overall record)
• Three best records amongst non-division winners qualify as wildcards (Seeded 6-8 based on overall record).
• Pairings/home-ice reset to match seedings after each round
• All best-of-seven series (I don’t want sixteenwins.com to have to change their name)
Acknowledgements:
Again, I can’t imagine Portland would skip ahead of some of the other oft-mentioned cities for NHL franchises (Quebec City and Markham particularly), but it would create such an amazing crucible of hate in the Portland-Seattle-Vancouver corridor, I wouldn’t argue against it. If the NHL expands to 32 teams in the future (most think that is the ultimate goal) it would be great if the Pacific Northwest was a part of it… and it would be a far less-risky enterprise than Gary’s 90s push for sunbelt hockey.
As always, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to use the sharing buttons to spread the word and wish me luck on my impending fatherhood in February.
—Tom
