The dumbest system I've seen so far.
What I'd do is cancel all Conferences and Divisions. I'd make a league where each team would face all other teams once at home and once away which makes it 29*2=58 game only. Then the 3rd game between both teams will be drawn (its location). At the end we'll have 87 games per team per season. TOP 16 teams make the playoffs when 1vs16, 2vs15 etc..
__________________ Sens players beat up 5'8" Habs players, they are praised. Subban beats up a small Sens player, he's a coward, he's spot picking, he's this, he's that, he's too NBA, he's too NFL, cocky, classless, etc, etc, etc.... You guys are too much.
Does it mean that IF there is an expansion or relocation, two new teams will be out west (Seattle, KC ???) ? No Quebec City with 16 teams in the East.
At first glance i like the Habs division from excitement standpoint.
At second glance it looks like it just got harder for the Habs to make the playoffs by comparison to west teams.
should be a conference-wide playoffs from the first round.
and don't like that we're stuck with 16 teams to compete with for 8 playoff spots, whereas the western conference gets 8 spots from 14 teams... wild card spots should be league wide, not 2 from each conference.
Does it mean that IF there is an expansion or relocation, two new teams will be out west (Seattle, KC ???) ? No Quebec City with 16 teams in the East.
There were two proposals one had West 14 teams, East 16 or West 16 teams, East 14 teams and the second had 15 teams in each leaving option to add one team to each or two teams to one or the other depending on where the new teams will be located they could use any other the three options.
The dumbest system I've seen so far.
What I'd do is cancel all Conferences and Divisions. I'd make a league where each team would face all other teams once at home and once away which makes it 29*2=58 game only. Then the 3rd game between both teams will be drawn (its location). At the end we'll have 87 games per team per season. TOP 16 teams make the playoffs when 1vs16, 2vs15 etc..
wut.
you are proposing is more games and more flight distance?
Not a fan of the divisional playoff format proposed at all. Keep it a conference playoff format where #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7, etc.. I like that there's a chance the Habs could play teams like the Flyers, Pens, Rangers in round 1. Why can't the NHL just leave well enough alone and keep the current playoff format as is.
I wouldn't even mind if they changed it to a 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15 type format which could see east vs west teams in round 1. Just imagine a Habs vs Bruins or Habs vs Leafs Stanley Cup final. With the divisional or conference playoff format that can never happen.
So dumb. Boston, Miami and Tampa are much closer to The Atlantic ocean than Pittsburgh or Columbus.
Like someone else suggested, put Nashville in the Southeast, Winnipeg in the Central - DONE DEAL!
This is not simply a Winnipeg issue. Teams like Detroit have been asking for realignment for quite some time. The travel for teams in the mid-west is quite horrific. Plus a lot of their games are played at 9:00 pm local time which isn't great for viewership.
This would be great. Detroit in the same division would be a lot of fun. BOS, TOR, DET, MTL makes for great rivalries. Terrific fanbases, and the bar is set high in this division with DET there.
Also a big fan of divisional playoffs. That's how rivalries are made. The two most entertaining rivalries of the past couple of decades have been: DET-COL (and, by extension, with DAL, and to a lesser extent STL), and MTL-BOS. Those all came about through rivalry.
And, sure, in the late '90s, DET, COL, DAL, STL and NJ probably formed the best 5 in the league. 4 of those 5 came from the West, so it meant each year those 4 would be battling it out. Now, STL was always a step below the others, but they were a decent thorn in the side of DET. It meant that those four clubs would battle it out and would never see each other in the Finals. But this doesn't matter: it ensured high quality, heated hockey from early on in the playoffs. It was beautiful to watch. That only comes with repeated playoff appearances against the same clubs.
The six division format is the only one that makes sense. They could actually make pretty good divisions if they went horizontally OR stopped trying to create a feud between Vancouver and the Alberta teams.
Don't like the playoff format. Seems too messed up.
So, for examples' sake, our division would have us, bruins, sens, leafs and Wings in the playoffs. We'd basically have to play more games in order to reach to the conference finals? Or does one of the wild cards get sent to another division? If so, that means an "intruder" team from another division could win the division title? Seems too messed up... Makes no sense.
Or maybe, the idea would be, if there's 5 teams in the division going into the playoffs. It would 2nd vs 5th, 3rd vs 4th, and 1st waits? No doesn't work, still ends up with odd number teams. Or do we send 3rd to another division for the playoffs?? Ugh...
