people say Montreal has an easy division. Thats debatable. Including Montreal, that new alignment would include 4 of the 8 playoff teams from the east last year.
As it stands today, Montreal wouldnt be making it in this alignment.
no matter what, its going to be tough to make the playoffs. The parity in this league will make it tough whether you have an 7 or 8 team division
Agreed. Boston is arguably the most complete team in the NHL. Buffalo is very much improved. Toronto seems to want to be taken seriously. Florida, under Dale Tallon, is on a serious climb. Give Tampa a goalie who's not afraid to stop the pucks and you're dealing with a darn good team. The Habs could very well be on the outside looking in.
If the two Florida teams requested to be included in this new division they must realize they'll have to travel the greatest distances to play their rivals. If the immediate effect of the opposition on the Habs looks daunting, there will be an ebb and flow in the relative strengths of teams over time. They won't always have to face Tim Thomas or Zdeno Chara or Sidney Crosby or Evgeny Malkin or Steven Stamkos. Nor will there always be a Scott Gomez.
At first glance I like it although Tampa Bay and Florida seem a tad bit misplaced. LOL Are those franchises on the move down the road? One to Quebec City and the other to Hamilton?
Admittedly watching the Habs play in Tampa and Florida does rock though.
I don't understand the "this conference is tough, that conference is weak" talk. It's like people think that teams are never going to improve or worsen.
Anyways, I LOVE everything about this. Except maybe the Florida teams in the Habs division but I understand it. In the 7 team divisions, the teams you are battling for playoff spots with have EXACTLY the same schedule you do and in the 8 team divisions, it's pretty close. You sure can't say that under the current format. Look at those years when Carolina or Tampa would win their division playing 8 games a year against 4 other awful teams.
Also, I love the fact that the playoffs are divisional or conferential or whatever. I remember those series as a kid where it would always be Montreal-Boston or Montreal-Quebec or Montreal-Hartford and they were always wars.
Lastly I love the fact that the Habs will be playing every year in Minnesota and Winnipeg increasing my chance to go to games. I like watching the Habs play western teams.
I don't like 6 games a year against Florida cause the Habs traditionally suck against them but 2 less games against Jersey helps that
I wish the NHL would have the sack to bring back Norris, Adams, Smythe and Patrick, but other than that I think this is fantastic.
Some people seem to have lost this bit of info: there are no more divisions. Stop thinking East/West. That doesn't exist anymore.
This is how it works (from what I understand):
Let's pretend that these are the final standings:
Conference A:
1) Detroit (110pts)
2) Nashville (102 pts)
3) Chicago (98 pts)
4) St-Louis (95 pts)
Conference B
1) Dallas (99 pts)
2) Vancouver (98 pts)
3) Edmonton (94 pts)
4) Anaheim (93 pts)
Conference C
1) Montreal (150 pts)
2) Buffalo (102 pts)
3) Tampa (97 pts)
4) Florida (95 pts)
Conference D
1) Pittsburgh (109 pts)
2) Washington (100 pts)
3) Philly (99 pts)
4) New Jersey (97 pts)
1st round of the playoffs is intra-conference, so we get:
Conference A:
1) Detroit
vs
4) St-Louis
and
2) Nashville
vs
3) Chicago
And so forth.
Let's say these teams win: Detroit, Nashville, Dallas, Edmonton, Montreal, Florida, Pitts and Philly.
They then play an intra-conference final in the 2nd round.
So you get Detroit VS Nashville, Dallas vs Edmonton, Montreal VS Florida and Pitts VS Philly.
Finally, once that round is over, those teams are re-seeded and the semi-finals begin.
Let's say the following teams won:
-Montreal (150pts)
-Nashville (102pts)
-Dallas (99 pts)
-Pittsburgh (109 pts)
Montreal (most pts) plays Dallas (least pts). The two "middle" team play each other. Then, obviously, the winners face each other in the SCF.
I'm not sure how I feel about it. Having the Florida teams in the same conference as Mtl and Tor makes sense, not geographically, of course, but at the very least, business-wise.
That said, the conference-format playoffs might get old after a few years. We'll see. I like playing home-and-home against every non-conference teams. Not sure I like playing TB and FLA more times though... Kinda wish they had put Det in our conference. I don't know if QC will get a team, or if it will be Hamilton, Hartford, etc. But PHX situation is getting worse by the minute. They won't make it past this season.
Some people seem to have lost this bit of info: there are no more divisions. Stop thinking East/West. That doesn't exist anymore.
This is how it works (from what I understand):
Your description of how the playoffs would play out is right on.
I think the main reason why people (me included) have referred to divisions is because the first couple rounds of the playoffs are very similar to the old Adams/Norris/Smyth/Patrick divisional playoff set-up. The only difference from the way things worked in the early 90's is there's more teams and (this is a big one) the semi finals are re-seeded.
This system kinda sucks for the 8 team conferences... they have one more team in the way of a PO spot.
We don't have to deal with that, but to those teams, this is complete BS.
Unless they plan giving the top 1 or 2 of each conference a spot and then taking the remaining teams with most points league wide, then it would make sense.
Why would they give us the Florida teams, we should have got the NY teams, doesn't make much sense geographically.
Obviously this has to do with finances, but Montreal shouldn't really give two craps about that.
You have to keep the Florida teams together & there are 3 NYC team that also had to stay together, Penn teams also had to stay & like their Wash & NYC Rivalries.
Adding the Florida teams is the only logical choice?
Besides people from Montreal & Toronto spend a ton of time in Florida, my snowbird neighbors live in Florida all winter & there are thousands that do the same. Florida has always been referred to as the 11th Province anyway.
Dreger mentioned last night that the "final four" playoff format has not yet been approved or voted on and won't until March of next year.
Something to keep in mind.
It would be ludicrous not to have it set up that way, though.
What are the alternatives? If you don't reseed after the 2nd round then you just have the same format as now except it limits your possible opponents and with more teams in the "West". It would also have to arbitrarily pair conferences that have zero connections with one another anymore for the 3rd round.
New rivalries will grow versus the Florida teams... interesting.
Surprisingly we have a better record versus Tampa than Florida.
Tampa: 34-27-8
Florida: 31-29-8
As for the ''old eastern'' teams are concerned the biggest losers are the Canes and the biggest winners are the Bruins who should reach the Final 4 quite often in the next few years IMO since they won't have to go through Washington, Pitts or Philly until then.
You have to keep the Florida teams together & there are 3 NYC team that also had to stay together, Penn teams also had to stay & like their Wash & NYC Rivalries.
Why do the NYC teams have to stay together?
The "rivalries" in the Atlantic are completely overblown, what exactly even constitutes these teams being rivals? Nothing.
Florida teams should be where they belong, with the other Atlantic teams. Not completely separated from their division teams.
Quote:
Adding the Florida teams is the only logical choice?
There is absolutely nothing logical about it. The only thing this move was about is money.
Quote:
Besides people from Montreal & Toronto spend a ton of time in Florida, my snowbird neighbors live in Florida all winter & there are thousands that do the same. Florida has always been referred to as the 11th Province anyway.
I don't know if you noticed, but people from all over the place go to live in Florida during the winter.
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It is clear who got pretty ****ed over in this situation. Winnipeg doesn't get a single Canadian team in their division? What a joke, Colorado should have been moved to the central, while Winnipeg should be in the West. Florida teams should be in Atlantic, now each team up in the NE has to go down to Florida 3-6 times a year? It is stupid.
We should have gotten the two New York teams, we already have Buffalo, so that would make 3 NY teams in one division. Or we could have gotten the Penn teams, or Detriot or Chicago and NJ...blah blah blah, geographically this makes little sense.
