I honestly feel for Boudreau. People act like it's all his fault. But I understand GMGM's decision too.
Edit: Boucher is now the longest serving coach in the SE:
Old man Boucher.
Why I remember back in my day, Atlanta had an NHL team and Florida played in what the league still considered an 'indoor' arena.
We had such creative nicknames for guys back then. 'Jonesy' for someone named Jones. 'Soupy' for anyone named Campbell. 'Smitty' for someone named Smith, and 'Ace' for all the Baileys of the world.
Former Bolt Ian Herbers was named head coach of the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals.
Milwaukee seems to be a bit of a coaching factory, starting in 88-89, fading for a bit in the first Solar Bear era, and then coming back strong when they affiliated with Nashville.
Rick Ley, Marc Crawford, Ron Wilson, Mike Murphy, Curt Fraser, Jack McIlhargey, Pete Horachek, Todd Richards, Claude Noel, Kirk Muller, etc.
Random prospect, but Geordie Wudrick. LA's 3rd round pick in 2008 made a college commitment to the University of New Brunswick. He's been playing with Starbulls Rosenheim in Germany2.
Also, you guys remember Jim Johnson? He was hired under Lawton to be hc for Norfolk, then Lawton being the silly GM he was, dumped Walz in favor of JJ and the whole season fell apart?
Hired to be an assistant coach in Washington for Kirk Muller.
Last edited by Felonious Python: 11-30-2011 at 06:40 AM.
Got to wonder about Phoenix's fate, if they should move, and where, what will change.
I got to admit, I kind of like the radical alignment. From left to right, the division names would probably be:
Atlantic, Northeast|Central, Pacific
A few notes about rivalries though. Philly/Pittsburgh gets split up (both in the east still), and BOS/NYR stay split (who cares about that rivalry nowadays?)
DET-CHI seems pretty important to those teams and fans, but it looks like Detroit is the one who gets to decide whether to break that or not.
I think the league may be trying to incentivize the Wings to stay in the central. As they'd go into a NE with Pittsburgh and Boston.
The central looks tame by comparison. It's the central they're used to winning, but now with the scary old Winnipeg Thrashers and Dallas Stars added.
Travel advantage to the Northeast though.
Last edited by Felonious Python: 12-02-2011 at 02:35 PM.
Maybe it's just me, but from what I saw last time I was in Chicago and from friends up there that are Hawks fans, it seems like the Blackhawks/Red Wings rivalry is pretty much dead. Seems like that hatred has turned towards Vancouver.
The division the Florida teams find themselves in is an attempt to 'even out' the greater number of miles traveled by western teams. The specific teams in our divisional grouping also being a boon to Florida (and I guess TB) home game attendance, although I don't think it's the best thing for the sport to encourage fans to keep an old favorite, when they move into another team's territory.
I mean, think with me here. Imagine the time when New York City saw it's massive flood of immigrants from Italy, especially Sicily. Now imagine that the New York team played the Sicilian team on a regular basis. It's good for gate revenue, but it adds nothing to the substance or identity of New York.
Every divisional alignment proposal should be geared toward creating Tampa Bay Lightning fans.
Just Lightning fans.
Last edited by Felonious Python: 12-04-2011 at 01:15 PM.
That aligning is awful. Essentially 4 Canadian teams and Boston. We and the Cats get shafted in terms of travel.
I don't get all this major realigning anyway. Just move Nashville or St. Louis here and put Winnipeg in the Northwest, move Minnesota into the Central. Seems pretty simple to me.
That aligning is awful. Essentially 4 Canadian teams and Boston. We and the Cats get shafted in terms of travel.
I don't get all this major realigning anyway. Just move Nashville or St. Louis here and put Winnipeg in the Northwest, move Minnesota into the Central. Seems pretty simple to me.
The travel distances for Tampa and Florida make it 'equal' (to the western conference situation) but not fair, and I think that's a distinction that needs to be made.
Detroit seems to be the troublemaker.
It would all be so much simpler if Detroit would just accept that they are geographically in the western half of the league.
Somebody's gonna get shafted with any realignment where Detroit goes east. In the one above, they don't, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of league realignment.
I think, secretly, the league wants to expand, or they wouldn't even consider uneven divisions.
Last edited by Felonious Python: 12-04-2011 at 02:32 PM.
