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.
also, a lot of leaf and hab fans from the west travel to florida to watch their teams play because it's more difficult to get tickets in toronto and montreal. I know a group from winnipeg that tries to do the habs florida and/or phoenix games.
wouldn't it make more sense for the two other new york teams to join the northeast division. and have the southern teams like Tampa join the atlantic?
There's absolutely no way they would split the tri-state area. There's nothing logical to it. Both Florida teams will return to the Atlantic once Québec comes back and Detroit will jump to our division.
We are dam lucky they are not in our division. As much as I would love the hockey our chances would be very slim
Again, I will repeat what I said a page ago. Our chances would be very slim... for a while. It's all about perspective guys. You have to understand the bigger picture and not only what will happen next year, and the year after next. Teams get better, teams get worse. What seems like the worse conference right now could be the best in five years.
So maybe if we had Chicago or Detroit in our conference, we'd be hard pressed to make the playoffs for a few years. We'd get good draft picks and hopefully come back strong while Chicago and Detroit could possibly falter.
Perspective guys, perspective. It's not all about the present, to me it's about the possible matchups and I'd much rather have them against teams like Chicago and Detroit than against Tampa Bay and Florida.
A team that's in 5th place in one conference who won't make the playoffs could have more points than a 4th place team in another conference that does make the playoffs. Makes no sense.
Give us no conferences, but keep the new schedule format. The top 16 teams move on, and that's that. Think of the possibilites. A Habs/Leafs final, or a Vancouver/Chicago final.
maybe we are going more the way of baseball, maybe only three team in each new conference will lock a playoff spot and they could open up the possibility of 4 wild cards?
It's going to make the regular season more intense. Conference games are going to be HUGE and almost like playoff games themselves. Since teams in conference teams are guaranteed to face each other in the playoffs as well rivalries are going to increase. I'm kinda excited to see how this will work out in practice.
Again, I will repeat what I said a page ago. Our chances would be very slim... for a while. It's all about perspective guys. You have to understand the bigger picture and not only what will happen next year, and the year after next. Teams get better, teams get worse. What seems like the worse conference right now could be the best in five years.
So maybe if we had Chicago or Detroit in our conference, we'd be hard pressed to make the playoffs for a few years. We'd get good draft picks and hopefully come back strong while Chicago and Detroit could possibly falter.
Perspective guys, perspective. It's not all about the present.
Eaxctly, plus that would bring back old rivalries. Not saying we couldn't create new ones with the southern teams, just old rivalries getting renewed, something that was long overdue. I'd rather fight for a playoff spot for years aving amazing passionate hockey than winning snoozerfests against Florida teams.
Now there is even more odds that we will meet Boston in the first round every year.
Hahahahaha, oh god.
You're actually excited about this? I'm growing incredibly bored by Mtl-Bos games. The idea of facing the Bruins again in the playoffs only makes me yawn with indifference.
Yeah, there's no way the split up Rangers/Flyers(after the winter classic based on their rivalry), or keep Crosby away from NY.
So names then?
Pacific
Midwest
East
Atlantic
Also, does a change in the point system possibly come with this? Three points for a regulation win, considering more than half the points come from inter-conference play now.
wouldn't it make more sense for the two other new york teams to join the northeast division. and have the southern teams like Tampa join the atlantic?
It would make sense geografically but not financially.
I like new innovative ideas so I welcome this change with open arms. Whatever the divisions teams they would have decided I'm sure people would have complained anyway.
Just a couple of comments from a Western Conference / Columbus fan's perspective...
For Columbus this is better than the current arrangement. A move to the East would have been better than what we ended up with, but we'll take what we can get. Why you ask?
1. Only one trip per season to Western Canada and a separate trip to California. (Now the current Eastern Conference teams get to completely share that pain).
2. All new conference games will be EST or CST starts - no more Pacific or Mountain time - and this would be why Winnipeg is in with the new Central and Colorado is in the new Pacific (or whatever they end up calling them).
3. While being in the East would have been better, now every team from the current East will play in Nationwide once per season. Those are the games that are more likely to sell out.
Looking at the big picture - this really helps out the eastern most teams in the Western Conference - Dallas and Minnesota (and Winnipeg) in particular.
I think Detroit and Columbus both stayed in the Western half for three reasons:
1. The BOG wouldn't have to decide which one to move (if only one would have)
2. It leaves "space" in the Eastern half in case Phoenix ends up in Quebec City
3. Now this one is purely speculation - but throwing a bone to the Eastern teams in order for them to agree to the new alignment by making it easier for them to make the playoffs since they each only have 7 teams per conference.
Also, does a change in the point system possibly come with this? Three points for a regulation win, considering more than half the points come from inter-conference play now.
I can handle divisions but strongly dislike playoff seeding. 5th best in one division may 3rd in another and won't make it. First 1-2 teams from each division on top of conference last 4 fight for remaining spots. Keep it 1 vs 8 and not division champ crap
the only real problem i have is with the playoff format...
should be a conference cross over format, silly that first two rounds are within conference, good for rivalries, bad for ensuring top teams advance.
for us, it's not a great situation.
imo,
Boston is perhaps best stacked team in the league in terms of established & up and coming talent.
Chiarelli has proven to be a schrewd manager.
Toronto seems to finally be on the up. As much as I doubt they are "this good" yet, if Reimer continues to show he's the real deal, they have a pretty solid stable of talent assembled, will always be a cap spending team, and Burke has shown capable of assembling contending rosters.
Ottawa & Florida are stacked with top-quality young talent, their management is dubious, but if they don't screw up over the next 2-3 seasons, they should become much better teams.
Buffalo is now a cap spending team, remains to be seen how effective Reiger is managing that, but he was one of the best at fielding competitive teams on a budget.
Tampa is perhaps the most likely team to struggle to remain a top team year after year, but with Boucher/Yzerman in place, and with Stamkos/St-Louis/Hedman/Lecavalier as their core, as long as management doesn't restrict budget too much, they should be continually improving as well.
all in all, as much as recent history would suggest a "good" conference to be in (given Ott/Toronto/Fla/TB struggles and buffalo being a budget team), but looking at the make up of those 5 organizations, their current prospect pools, and their current leadership, and I'm concerned we may quickly end up playing in the toughest conference in the league...
habs NEED to make sure we have a strong plan in place & a management team capable of executing on it, or else in no time we could find ourselves stuck in the 5-6-7 spot on a regular basis
