86 replies to this topic

[Heaten]

I'll be extremely disappointing if Wings move to the eastern conference. They needs to stay in the West where they belong.

[F.Michael]

I'll be extremely disappointing if Wings move to the eastern conference. They needs to stay in the West where they belong.

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

Do you attend games out west when the Wings are in town?

As much as I want the Red Wings to move I'm thinking it won't happen since too many Western Conference rivals rely heavily upon Detroit to help fill out the arena.

[Ally]

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

[hillbillywingsfan]

I'll be extremely disappointing if Wings move to the eastern conference. They needs to stay in the West where they belong.

Explain why you think the wings "BELONG" in the west going against what even the wings organization has said as to why they need to move east.

[wings1110]

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.

[Barrie]

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.

[LeftWinger]

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!

[dobbles]

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?

[PredsFanTheBayouState]

I'll be extremely disappointing if Wings move to the eastern conference. They needs to stay in the West where they belong.

i will be sad if the wings move to eastern conference,it would not be the same western conference without the red wings.

[GMRwings1983]

We could relocate the team to the Eastern time zone.......oh wait nevermind.

[Majsheppard]

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.

[Nhurdi]

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.

[F.Michael]

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.

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.

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.

Hard to say as well.

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

[zombi]

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.

[xtrememachine1]

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.

Edited by xtrememachine1, 23 September 2011 - 12:51 PM.

[Nhurdi]

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.

[Nhurdi]

I was reading this article about the movement and decided to whip up a quick graphic of where they state teams will be placed.

Article - http://www.thefourth...ossi110625.html
Image - http://imageshack.us...ionalchairs.jpg

[Seraph]

I think East or West has its pros and cons. I also don't think anything we do will affect the decision. It's kind of a contradiction to be such a diehard fan of team that you would boycott going to their games. That wouldn't make you a fan at all, actually. It's also kind of an empty threat seeing as if the team does stay West, the league knows people would eventually go back to the games if they just wait it out and do nothing.

Let's just see what happens. It would definitely be an interesting spin to see us going East.

[Z Winged Dangler]

i thought after this season the jets will move to the west where they should be and the wings will move east?

[T-Ruff]

I personally love the late games that I get to watch, but I know that it's a major advantage especially in the playoffs for the team to not have to travel outside of their timezone. I think a major contribution to the 2008 Cup win and their near flawless play was the fact they never went further than the Central time zone in all 3 rounds (NSH, COL, DAL)

Edited by T-Ruff, 25 September 2011 - 04:57 PM.