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Majsheppard

What can be done to go East?

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Yep, you should never try to do anything because it won't work out.

If the Wings had the same attitude they would have never won anything!

hyperbole ftw!

no one is saying that at all. most people just advocate the solution that makes most sense for the league.

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This says it all.

Don't go back on your word.

No doubt it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I haven't read this whole discussion so maybe some agree with me on this, but I doubt it. I'm one of the few people who doesn't like a move to the East. People justifiably worry about the wear and tear and travel time for the Wings during the regular season, but I think it actually serves them well in the playoffs when there's no way to avoid a gruelling schedule. For the Wings to be successful in the Western conference means they absolutely must be successful on the road, and that is exactly the same in the playoffs no matter what conference you're in. Over the last decade the Wings have been hockey's most successful organization, regular and post season, and I really feel like the fact that we MUST win on the road and DO win on the road is a huge part of that success. I think teams in the East are often unprepared for the gruel of the playoffs because they don't have much of a taste of it throughout the season. If I had a vote, I'd say Columbus to the East, Minnesota into the central division west.

I don't get the travel argument, these guys get first class treatment where ever they go.

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No doubt it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I don't get the travel argument, these guys get first class treatment where ever they go.

Not that they don't get treated well, but that when they go on long road trips it's a lot of miles, in a lot of cities, a long way from home. Living out of hotels and planes and buses, away from families for long(er) periods of time than they would be if they were in the East. That has traditionally been one of the arguments for going into the Eastern Conference. I wasn't saying that at the end of the analysis I agree and think the Wings should go East, but just that I understand the argument. You're right though, this is a professional sports team, they are accomodated wonderfully I'm sure.

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I don't get the travel argument, these guys get first class treatment where ever they go.

It doesn't matter how well you travel, it beats the hell out of you.

I never quite understood it, but it just takes all of your energy out of you and makes you sluggish. There are recent studies that suggest that even sitting for prolonged periods of time makes your body unhealthy.

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I know that the best way to move mountains is to get a ton of people to move small stones.

In our modern age whenever something needs to get done, it is the masses mobilizing that gets work done.

Now we have a year to make sure we are the team to go east, not Nashville or Columbus. What can we use to get that to happen?

Well the Wings can use their leverage, but that might not be enough to get this done.

The other major tool at our advantage is our fanbase is far larger. We need to use it to make sure the league knows what we can do.

I suggest we use the internet and our brains to figure out a grassroots movement to ensure that we are the team to move east.

The best idea I can come up with is to make ourselves visible in front of the Arena every home game, and every away game with signs visibly demanding a move to the east, as well as events in front of NHL league offices in Toronto and New York.

This means those among us with the means to travel, or living in those markets need to get visible and loud.

I also suggest we start an internet movement pledging to boycott away games in the West if we don't get moved, and pledging to travel to eastern teams if we do. The best goal is to make it seem like the league will lose money if we don't get moved.

Anyone have any other ideas? Does anyone have the abilities to take leadership on this? Does anyone want to see us MOVE EAST!!!!

I have started a tweet thread. #MoveDetroitEast This is the start, Atlanta leaves to go West, Detroit is the only team that deserves to go East. Join us fans!

All you twitter addicts, start tweeting using #MoveDetroitEast and let the league know!

Can anyone get a website going called www.MoveDetroitEast.org or com or whatever?

Edit update: I have established a Facebook page and a twitter movement already!

Join me and like "Move Detroit East" On Facebook!

Tweet about #MoveDetroitEast as much as possible and spread the word we deserve to go east!

Keep up the ideas and effort, remember if social media and protests in the streets can topple dictators, it can topple Bettman!!!

You left off the only 2 that would help. Burn Nashville and Cbus to the ground. The Wings are just to important financially to the west to let them go, and it would leave Chicago the only Original 6 team in the west to boot.

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You left off the only 2 that would help. Burn Nashville and Cbus to the ground. The Wings are just to important financially to the west to let them go, and it would leave Chicago the only Original 6 team in the west to boot.

Why does it seem like the solution to all the problems in the sports world is to burn Columbus to the ground... Maybe Tressel would take the job. :hehe:

Columbus is as far east as the rink I play at in metro Detroit, so that is a dumb reason.

Nashville is in the Central, so that that also shouldn't matter.

If you want the most sense, it is Detroit. I don't get why Winnipeg can't fill the void. Since they are selling tickets that are third most expensive, why can't they compete?>

In fact the league tried to make rivals out of nobodies before with the whole more division games concept. Why not let the same reasoning say that without us here, Nashville will fill our role and become Chicago's rival?

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NHL to decide in December

Does anyone have any idea how to give input to them so they don't make an awful choice that ruins the playoffs by making a weirder regular season?

I really think they should go with the simple solution, even if it means we don't go East.

Of course, we should have dibs and go east anyways...

The tone of this article isn't good. This is the Wings big chance an if doesn't happen, we are all going to be pissed.

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Keep the wings in the west, but once playoffs start seed the league from 1 to 16 with the division winners getting the top bids. Two divisions in each conference is probably best. That way any matchup is possible for the finals and the travel isnt biased during the playoffs. Wings will still be in the stronger conference during the regular season. Opens it up for some interesting SCF matchups. Just a thought.

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I know that most fans want the wings to move east but it would break my heart. I have a hard enough time catching regular season games as it is :(

not their job, they could do away with conferences all together, and just make it 1-16 make the playoffs.

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I like being in the West. I live in an Eastern market, the Toronto area, so I can see a lot of Eastern teams on TV. I like being only 3 hours away from Detroit and can see the Western Conference teams when I go to The Joe, or when I follow the Wings along online. I get a chance to follow both Conferences.

Also I think there's no chance we're moving East, as already stated many times here, we make the West to much money.

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I liked the idea Bettman was kicking around moving Winnipeg west (obvious) with Detroit AND Columbus both moving East. That would make it exactly the same as MLB. That would put 16 in the East and 14 in the West. Works fine in the MLB, it would work wonderful in the NHL. Say what you will about the West rivals "needing" Detroit in the West, in the end, it's all about money and TV ratings, and people will tune in to watch Detroit/Montreal/Toronto/Rangers/Pittsburgh/Bruins all play each other more than Detroit playing Phoenix. Besides, Chicago is the new big name in the West , so they can take on that roll of selling out the seats in the West. Vancouver is great, San Jose, Anaheim are always a good draw. There are plenty of teams in the West that are good to great, they don't 'Need" Detroit. I want to see that Detroit/Chicago Stanley Cup Finals next year, so I am all for moving East!

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I'm curious as to why you'd be upset if the Red Wings were to move to the eastern conference?

i can't speak for heaten, but for me its where they belong. other than the first few years after the original 6 era, they have been playing against western type teams. its been what, over 35 years since they first moved into the norris division? (and yes i realize it took time for it to actually become a division of midwestern teams) to me, there is just as much tradition playing in the west as there was playing against the 4 teams from the original 6 that are in the east now and we dont see as much.

and lets look at the practicality of it. why would they want to leave the hawks as the only original 6 team in the west? why would they want to move the wings out of the midwest based footprint that they do fit pretty well into? why would they want to take the wings away from the western teams that they have developed rivalries against?

to me, the only real reason to support the move is for convenience. and unfortunately because of geographic issues, half the league will travel a lot more than the other half. sure the time zone issue sucks for players and fans, but its not as if moving to the east would mean all games start at the exact same time anyways, so how much can be gained?

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I guess the people that FEEL like the Wings should stay in the West have never traveled back and forth to the West Coast. Jet Lag is a ***** and it makes you exhausted for days.

If we move east, our injuries will go down and our energy will go up. I believe it would improve our record by about five wins in a season.

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I guess the people that FEEL like the Wings should stay in the West have never traveled back and forth to the West Coast. Jet Lag is a ***** and it makes you exhausted for days.

If we move east, our injuries will go down and our energy will go up. I believe it would improve our record by about five wins in a season.

Interesting, here is one of my own thoughts based on about the same stuff you base your opinion on.

If Detroit moves East they will become weaker. We will become complacent and won't work as hard. We will easily lose 5 wins in a season due to playing in a weaker conference which breeds weaker teams.

Detroit has been doing just fine in the West I'm sure we can all agree. Just thinking from memory we have had:

6 Presidents Trophies

20 straight Playoff appearances

8 Western Conference Final Appearances

6 Stanley cup Final Appearances

4 Cups

But that jet lag is killing us.

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I guess the people that FEEL like the Wings should stay in the West have never traveled back and forth to the West Coast. Jet Lag is a ***** and it makes you exhausted for days.

If we move east, our injuries will go down and our energy will go up. I believe it would improve our record by about five wins in a season.

This, and because our team will be getting younger too.

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Its not the Red Wings job to make sure other Western teams fill out their arenas. Also, if the Wings move East, these Western teams that never make the playoffs (like Columbus, St Louis) will see their odds of getting a playoff spot increase since they won't be getting beat down by the Wings. If they make the playoffs, they get at least 2 more home games. Winning games and getting into the playoffs will increase the fanbase and generate more interest. They could have sell outs for games that don't involve the Wings. Wouldn't these franchises rather have sell outs because their team is popular, not because the visiting team is popular?

Also, if your franchise is dependent on the Wings visiting your city 2-4 times a year, then you're doing something wrong and you probably shouldn't have a franchise in the first place. I think its crap that Wings fans, in which most live in the Eastern time zone, have to stay up insane late to watch half their teams' road games because some Western franchises can't generate local interest in their hockey team. Meanwhile, we could have a lot of great original 6 rivalries get renewed if they moved East.

The Wings are great, but they won't be great forever. Someday they'll have to rebuild and they won't be the draw in other cities that they are now. A conference realignment should have nothing to do with how good a team is at that moment because that could change any year.

Okay, I'm done ranting now. :D

Edited by xtrememachine1

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I personally don't buy into that...The Red wings would be a solid team in either conference.

As for the long trips the players eventually get used to it during the reg season - although the playoffs can be rough.

Hard to say as well.

Since we fans have little to no say in this - whatever happens will happen.

My point basically was the fans shouldn't make claims regarding travel or just unsubstantiated claims like the one I did above. They are not based in any kind of fact and are mostly ones personal opinion. This decision won't come down to anything like that anyway's.

The move of the Atlanta Thrashers created some geographical problems for the NHL.

Commissioner Gary Bettman, according to one report, has a solution.

Bettman presented a proposal that would make the NHL a two-conference league with a total of four divisions, according to a report by Canadian media outlet QMI Agency.

Winnipeg will play the 2011-12 season as a member of the Southeast Division, which is where the franchise formerly competed as the Thrashers. Geographically, having a Manitoba-based team traveling to Tampa and Raleigh, N.C., on a regular basis isn't feasible.

Citing two league executives, reporter Bruce Garrioch said that Bettman's proposal, which was given at Tuesday's board of governors meeting, would establish four divisions: the Pacific, Midwest, East and South.

Each conference would have 15 teams, so there would be two eight-team divisions and two-seven team decisions under the proposal.

The NHL currently has six divisions -- the Northeast, Atlantic, Southeast, Central, Northwest and Pacific.

Also under the proposal, the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, who have been vocal about their desires to move into the Eastern Conference, would likely get their wish, according to the report.

Both of those teams play in cities located in the Eastern time zone, so a move would theoretically increase TV ratings and possibly attendance, as well help build geographic rivalries and cut down on travel costs.

Red Wings senior vice president Jim Devellano, speaking to Sporting News' Craig Custance in May, was holding out hope that an Eastern move could happen for the 2012-13 season. “Fingers crossed, toes crossed, saying prayers,” Devellano joked.

Other details of the plan: the top four teams in each division would make the playoffs and each team would play a home-and-home against teams outside their division.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nhl/feed/2011-08/nhl-realignment/story/report-gary-bettman-proposes-major-nhl-realignment-winnipeg-detroit-red-wings

Personally for me, the move to the east will suck. Living on the west coast will make it that much harder to actually watch my team.

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