cusimano_brothers 1,655 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Who exactly is Bettman reinventing the wheel for? Besides, he should wait until his Coyotes move. 1 F.Michael reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
xtrememachine1 795 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 The problem is the statement that each conference would have one division with 8 teams & one with 7. I would assume that the East & South divisions would be in the Eastern Conference and Midwest & Pacific in the Western. If that's the case & both Detroit & Columbus move to the Eastern, that means moving an existing Eastern team over in addtion to Winnipeg. To do that, you would have to move a team futher east than either Detroit or Columbus over. I don't see that happening. The NHL was unbalanced in the 1980's with its conference alignment where there was one extra team in the East, so I don't think that's a deal breaker. These eastern time zone teams NEED to move out of the West. Maybe it wasn't such a huge deal when the Wings moved out West in the 80's with teams like Chicago, Minnesota, Toronto, St Louis all nearby but there are a lot more teams on the west coast now (Anaheim, SJ, Dallas, Phoenix) which makes this flying across the continent over and over again ridiculous. Its time for a change. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ogreslayer 1,069 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Who exactly is Bettman reinventing the wheel for? Besides, he should wait until his Coyotes move. Or maybe the long awaited move of the Islanders to Kansas City. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeverForgetMac25 483 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 I love the idea of Detroit being East, but I hate the idea of unbalanced divisions. I'm down with this proposal though *if and only if* they scrap the idea of the top 4 teams in each division making the playoffs. It's the same garbage in the MLB with the Brewers division having 6 teams while an AL division only has 4. When the top team automatically makes the playoffs, it makes it a hell of a lot easier having less teams to get ahead of. So, the division with 7 teams will have it easy while the group of 8 will have to claw harder year-in and year-out. I love the idea of 4 divisions, playing each team to atleast a home-and-home and most importantly the Wings moving East. The only thing I would change would be making the two division winners the top seeds with the bottom six in either division rounding out the group. For the most part though, \that Bettman did very well with this one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cusimano_brothers 1,655 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Or maybe the long awaited move of the Islanders to Kansas City. Maybe not: TSN . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ogreslayer 1,069 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Maybe not: TSN . The key piece being if the voters approve. If not, Kansas City here I come... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jersey Wing 1,521 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 LOVE the idea that the first round would be divisional matchups. The reseeding is fine but that kind of was happening anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Travis 576 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Maybe not: TSN . It's cool. The Islanders will move anyway. In the future a team that's fledgling in its location will then move to Long Island to occupy the vacant arena. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
A.T.Hun 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) I like the concept. I really don't like it that currently the Wings only get to play the Leafs once in the blue moon. I don't think they should go back to the names (Norris, Prince of Wales, et al). After all, those were only in use from 1974-93 out of the NHL's 94 year history. Plus, hearing the "Norris" division always reminded me of how the Norris family drove the Red Wings into the ground and the "Adams" division always reminded me of how Jack Adams traded Terrible Ted to the Blackhawks. I also think that they should rename the Adams Trophy the William "Scotty" Bowman Trophy. Edited June 23, 2011 by A.T.Hun Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hockey13Playa 240 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Wow, very interesting. I like the idea of this. I am all for the wings moving east due to time zone differences but I actually like playing the west coast teams and the "sort of rivalries" that have built up in the past few years. However I think being back in the east with the orginal 6 teams the NHL could once again gain some great rivalries and interesting matchups. Can't wait to here more on this and to see how it exactly looks on paper once its 100% ironed out. Side note: Gary Bettman is still a little ***** though! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lookalive07 251 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 There's still a possibility of a Northern/Southern Conference setup. Adopting the 6 division setup, most of the divisions remain intact while some get a swap of a few teams. Both conferences travel from coast to coast. Northern Conference: Northwest: Vancouver Calgary Edmonton Winnipeg Minnesota Midwest: Chicago Detroit Toronto Ottawa Montreal Northeast: Buffalo Boston New York Rangers New York Islanders New Jersey Southern Conference: Southwest: San Jose Anaheim Los Angeles Phoenix Colorado Southeast: Dallas Florida Tampa Bay St. Louis Nashville Atlantic: Carolina Washington Columbus Pittsburgh Philadelphia My favorite part about this setup is that all of the Original Six teams are in one conference. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bannedforlife 403 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 The travel will never be equal in between conferences, because there's always going to be less travel in the East. I'm almost inclined to say that there should be two Conferences, no divisions, 15 teams per conference, with the top 8 making the playoffs in each Conference. The Wings would move East, while Winnipeg would move West. That seems simple enough, and the Western teams would all do equal travel amongst themselves, with there being no divisional format. That's not true, they could do it like baseball's American and National leagues. Then all teams would have to travel a ton. Or they could do a North-South Conference. I guess the only way to make it equal is to make it so everyone has to travel more, not less. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bannedforlife 403 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 There's still a possibility of a Northern/Southern Conference setup. Adopting the 6 division setup, most of the divisions remain intact while some get a swap of a few teams. Both conferences travel from coast to coast. Northern Conference: Northwest: Vancouver Calgary Edmonton Winnipeg Minnesota Midwest: Chicago Detroit Toronto Ottawa Montreal Northeast: Buffalo Boston New York Rangers New York Islanders New Jersey Southern Conference: Southwest: San Jose Anaheim Los Angeles Phoenix Colorado Southeast: Dallas Florida Tampa Bay St. Louis Nashville Atlantic: Carolina Washington Columbus Pittsburgh Philadelphia My favorite part about this setup is that all of the Original Six teams are in one conference. I like this the most. Balanced travel for everyone and it doesn't change the current playoff format. Too much change too fast, not good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lookalive07 251 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Yeah, there's no way really to make everything completely 100% fair, but the North/South format at least keeps most of what was the West intact (keeping two out of the three divisions completely intact and placing one each in the North/South conferences) where those teams have to travel much further for interdivision play than teams in the East ever have to. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sleepwalker 512 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 You guys realize the only reason Bettman is putting the possibility of Detroit moving east in a couple seasons out there is because he knows (just like we all do) that in December 2012 the ancient Mayans will return from the seventh dimension and team up with the Reptilian aliens from Nibiru to destroy the earth and enslave humanity. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GMRwings1983 8,793 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 That's not true, they could do it like baseball's American and National leagues. Then all teams would have to travel a ton. Or they could do a North-South Conference. I guess the only way to make it equal is to make it so everyone has to travel more, not less. That's what I hinted at in the part below what you quoted. Just have an Eastern and Western Conference, with no divisions and 8 playoff teams in each Conference. Don't know if they'll ever do away with the divisions altogether, but it's a thought. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IllinoisRedWingsFan 49 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Not a fan of it. My question is what if Phoenix moves to Quebec City next year? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
evilmrt 636 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 Sounds interesting enough, re-alignment is way overdue. I'm not sure about the divisional matchups in the first round...although that could lead to some good playoff rivalries. It could get old after 3 or 4 seasons though. As far as Phoenix moving to QC the season after next?...then more whining ensues lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hooon 1,089 Report post Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) There's still a possibility of a Northern/Southern Conference setup. Adopting the 6 division setup, most of the divisions remain intact while some get a swap of a few teams. Both conferences travel from coast to coast. Northern Conference: Northwest: Vancouver Calgary Edmonton Winnipeg Minnesota Midwest: Chicago Detroit Toronto Ottawa Montreal Northeast: Buffalo Boston New York Rangers New York Islanders New Jersey Southern Conference: Southwest: San Jose Anaheim Los Angeles Phoenix Colorado Southeast: Dallas Florida Tampa Bay St. Louis Nashville Atlantic: Carolina Washington Columbus Pittsburgh Philadelphia My favorite part about this setup is that all of the Original Six teams are in one conference. Not bad but switching Buffalo and Montreal makes much more sense geographically based on those divisions. Also I'd change the name to Central instead of Midwest since very few of those cities are actually in the midwest. Edited June 23, 2011 by hooon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lookalive07 251 Report post Posted June 24, 2011 Good points. I felt a little weird putting Montreal in that division, but it felt fun to have 4 O6 teams in one division Although 3 and 3 looks better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RedFX 48 Report post Posted June 24, 2011 Not a fan of the "top 4 making playoffs" idea.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pjgj13 30 Report post Posted June 24, 2011 Realign if they MUST but DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT make the playoffs a "top 4 in each division". There could be the chance that the last place team in one division COULD be better than the 2nd place team in the other division and that would be BS!! I have always said get rid of the conference affiliations!! Either make the division 5-6 team divisions or 6-5 team divisions. How about having 1 team from each region in each division?? Something like this -- PHI, MON, CAR, STL, EDM SJ, PIT, BUF, WIN, COL VAN, ANA, NYR, TOR, FLA DET, CAL, PHO, NJ, OTT WAS, NAS, MIN, LA, NYI BOS, TB, CHI, COL, DAL That way, there would be no short travel road dates for the east and no long west coast trips for the west. NO AUTOMATIC QUALIFIER for winning the division!!!!!!! Seed the entire playoffs like the NCAA tourney!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Manoir 70 Report post Posted June 24, 2011 I think NO divisions and just a straight 1-30 seeding is the way to go. Every team gets an equal amount of travel and it protects against teams moving and throwing the conferences out of whack (if PHX moves to Quebec city for example). Playoffs would be top 16 which would not guarantee that the Eastern teams would not have to travel as much. The only issue would be to protect rivalries, but most of those are geaographically based anyways so you'd adopt a formula where a team plays another team that is within a certain amount of miles away x number of times. 1 GMRwings1983 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Buppy 1,720 Report post Posted June 24, 2011 Bettman's just teasing us. He can say he's moving us East to gain our trust, then he'll reveal the rest of his plan: Move all the other West teams to the East, and all the East teams to the West, then relocate the Prime Meridian to Central Asia, thus placing all of the US west of Pittsburgh in the Eastern hemisphere, to give some logic to the whole thing. 4 Travis, 55fan, lookalive07 and 1 other reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Majsheppard 203 Report post Posted June 24, 2011 Not a fan, I like the way it is set up now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
