Doubt this gets approved.
Much easier for Western teams to get a PO spot. More than half the league will have it tougher to qualify, so I'm not sure how this gets approved.
I like it. Who cares about the slightly lesser chance to make the playoffs, good teams will still make it.
And the Habs can still meet the Pens in the first round, if any of those 2 teams is the Wild Card team.
And I love the possibility of playing Detroit more often. Now, what I would do however, is once the winner of every division is decided, I would forget about the divisions, and have the 1st teams vs the 4th team, and the 2nd vs the 3rd team. This would enable the possibility of a Stanley Cup Final of Boston vs Montreal, or Vancouver vs Chicago.
but Seattle is in United States, which puts them ahead of Québec (for Bettman)
I love people who claim Bettman hated Canada.
They seem to forget that Bettman saved Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa from leaving the NHL when all three teams were going into bankruptcy. The Canadian dollar hated Canadian teams, not Bettman.
Bettman also sold one of the strongest US hockey territories up the river when he allowed Minnesota to be moved to Dallas and didn't flinch to move Hartford to Carolina. He has since allowed Atlanta to move to Winnipeg without much complaint. But he hates Canada.
Just because Canadian GMs are not smart enough to put together Stanley Cup winning teams anymore doesn't mean the league has some hate on for the country. Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary all got close to the Cup. They just couldn't pull the trigger. Not Bettman's fault.
Nothing except maybe winnipeg and detroit being in wrong place but other than that...nothing.
This is just a ploy to force rivalries, reduce travel times and increase the revenues and reduce expenses for the owners. Sure, it's a business and it makes perfect business sense but I'd rather not someone sell it to me like it's good for the fans. I don't like it. We will never get to play crosby, malkin, ovechkin and others unless we make the 3rd round and they do too, ridiculous to me.
FWIW, I can deal with 4 divisions, it's no big deal. Being forcefed playoff rivalries is very annoying to me.
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..
The reason for conferences is that changing time zones is extremely tough on the players.
I don't like a massive realignment like the one proposed one bit, especially when a couple franchises could move as soon as next year.
I also don't like the ridiculous idea of having unbalanced conferences (14-16), what gives? Unless the NHL expands to 2 western cities, it's utterly stupid.
I don't like the wild card idea either... In fact, the only thing I like about this scenario is seeing Detroit in our division, the rest is donkey balls.
Nothing except maybe winnipeg and detroit being in wrong place but other than that...nothing.
This is just a ploy to force rivalries, reduce travel times and increase the revenues and reduce expenses for the owners. Sure, it's a business and it makes perfect business sense but I'd rather not someone sell it to me like it's good for the fans. I don't like it. We will never get to play crosby, malkin, ovechkin and others unless we make the 3rd round and they do too, ridiculous to me.
FWIW, I can deal with 4 divisions, it's no big deal. Being forcefed playoff rivalries is very annoying to me.
We will see them in the regular season, and possibly with the wild card seating as well. I like the idea of always having to face a rival to advance past the 1st round.
