New Re-Alignment Proposal

[ssags11]

Apparantly a lot of teams arn't happy with this. Similar to my thinking the chances and odds of teams in the Eastern Conferences making the playoffs is a lot lower then the west. A lot of southeast teams arn't happy being grouped with big money teams either.

I don't understand the southwest part of your comment. The only teams moving are Detroit, Columbus and Colorado. Those are the only true changes, everyone else is still the same.

 

[ssags11]

Tampa and FLA are suited best in the Central with the likes of all the "snowbird" team. Lots of New Englanders, Upstate New Yorkers and I understand alot of eastern Canadians live in FLA now. It's the best teams to be grouped with when you take attendance into consideration. Why wouldn't FLA and Tampa want to be grouped with 4 O6 teams??? Pretty much all the O6 teams sell out everywhere they go, it's an owners wet dream to be stuck with the likes of 4 of the 6 most popular NHL teams in one division.

 

[ssags11]

Breaking it down further, The old Patrick division is back together. Washington/Lenonis has to be excited to be back in with their old rivals. Cap fans (as far as I know) have been angry they were taken away from playing the Flyers, Rags, Pens and Isles, those teams are their enemies. I have heard it equated to when the Seachickens were put in the NFC West and away from Denver, Oakland and San Diego. All the Cap fans I know skip the Southleast games and mostly go to the games against the old Patrick. So to me the Eastern Conference 1 is perfect.

On the West, it's really good too, especially for Dallas who is back with more centrally located teams that is better suited for regional rivalries. It makes more sense for Dallas to be playing those teams instead of the California teams. Then Conference 4 is perfect with all the west coast teams grouped in. Maybe Edmonton and Calgary have a complaint but where else can they go but with the western seaboard teams especially with the amount of teams centrally located.

I just don't see a better alignment, it's pretty much geographically perfect and keeps most of the rivalries together. The only one lost is Col/Det but that has been for years and it was really only for a few years, it's not a long historical one.

 

[Ravin]

I don't understand the southwest part of your comment. The only teams moving are Detroit, Columbus and Colorado. Those are the only true changes, everyone else is still the same.

If you look at the current southeast division they are some of the lowest payroll teams in the league or teams on a budget. Florida is now going to have to compete with Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Boston and Buffalo, five teams who can spend as much as they want, when they want. That is why the southeast likes staying together, because no one is spending crazy amounts of money.

Yes, those games should get more fans to them, but it doesn't change to much when you think about it in cap terms. It is going to take a couple of seasons for Florida to feel confident enough that they can spend up to the cap without being in trouble. Tampa is the same way, though they have a few big contracts on their team that helps drive their cap space up.

Conference 1 on the other hand, its biggest money maker is New York, and then after that it drops to like Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Not a lot of sway in terms of cap in that division at all. All the teams except the Islanders who are use to being on a budget, will spend up to the cap and whatever.

It does put teams like Florida at a disadvantage because when a player in free agency is looking at the team and the division they are now in, they know Florida is going to have a hard time competing against teams who can spend a bunch of money. In the old 3 division system, they only had to beat out teams who also had low cap hits, now they have to go against the biggest hockey markets in the league for three playoff spots, and 9 other teams for 2 wild cards.

 

[ssags11]

If you look at the current southeast division they are some of the lowest payroll teams in the league or teams on a budget. Florida is now going to have to compete with Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Boston and Buffalo, five teams who can spend as much as they want, when they want. That is why the southeast likes staying together, because no one is spending crazy amounts of money.

Yes, those games should get more fans to them, but it doesn't change to much when you think about it in cap terms. It is going to take a couple of seasons for Florida to feel confident enough that they can spend up to the cap without being in trouble. Tampa is the same way, though they have a few big contracts on their team that helps drive their cap space up.

Conference 1 on the other hand, its biggest money maker is New York, and then after that it drops to like Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Not a lot of sway in terms of cap in that division at all. All the teams except the Islanders who are use to being on a budget, will spend up to the cap and whatever.

It does put teams like Florida at a disadvantage because when a player in free agency is looking at the team and the division they are now in, they know Florida is going to have a hard time competing against teams who can spend a bunch of money. In the old 3 division system, they only had to beat out teams who also had low cap hits, now they have to go against the biggest hockey markets in the league for three playoff spots, and 9 other teams for 2 wild cards.

Good points. Angle I didn't think of.

However, I really think having the snowbird teams and 4 -O6 teams will have an immediate financial impact. They will be better off in the long run being against those fan bases. Then again, more argument that those FLA teams should be moved which I have advocated for 20 years. If putting them in with the 4 most popular teams in the NHL doesn't help, nothing will help them.

 

[Ravin]

Its funny when you watch Florida games against the Leafs because there is a good sea of blue, but also the seats right behind the benches are empty.

That is because they jack the prices up for those seats and so people just go sit in other places. Everything else is full except for those seats.

 

[sraczk2011]

Its funny when you watch Florida games against the Leafs because there is a good sea of blue, but also the seats right behind the benches are empty.

That is because they jack the prices up for those seats and so people just go sit in other places. Everything else is full except for those seats.

And it's unthinkably stupid that they chose those sections to fuck around with because it makes the place look horribly empty every single game, no matter how full the other sections are. I'm sure there's a massive overlap between people who want to go to Rhianna concerts and people who want to watch Southeast division hockey.

 

[Fappin Raptor]

Its funny when you watch Florida games against the Leafs because there is a good sea of blue, but also the seats right behind the benches are empty.

That is because they jack the prices up for those seats and so people just go sit in other places. Everything else is full except for those seats.

I've been tuning in to some Panther games lately and have noticed that empty black hole right in center ice. It looks terrible. The seats you should want to sell are the seats that appear on TV.

 

[Apocalypse]

 

[leaffan]

Sweet setup NHL I'm sure all the eastern conference teams are just thrilled there's two more teams then the other conference.

Still hate this btw.

 

[Boss AZ]

NHL, One step forward. Two steps back.

 

[wr50l]

Well ... switching Winnipeg and Detroit would have been a pretty shitty band-aid so they had to do something.

 

[1ke]

Fro strictly the Blackhawks point of view. I don't mind this too much.

 

[leaffan]

The pluses are basically everyone is in their right time zones which means good things for teams like dallas, chicago and peg. Dallas especially found that when games were played 1 hour later their viewership ratings dropped almost as high as 60% so their happy.

Florida and Tampa will gain more revenue based on the fact they will have the most popular fan bases with them in the NE division. On the flip side they are forced to either start spending money or get smarter (moneypuck) players to compete with the big spenders. Dunno if the gains they'll get will be enough.

Everyone will play in another teams arena at least once a season. Meaning the crobsy show can hit every market every year. Also means I have the chance to troll every fan base on hfboards every year now :troll:


Minuses include the florida/tampa spending issue.
16 teams trying to make 8 spots while 14 teams go for the same number in the other conference hardly seems fair. Could be a disadvantage at Free Agency time and also revenue.

 

[Ravin]

Am I the only one who doesn't see the playoff system a big deal and I think teams are making a big deal of it. At the end of the day only 8 teams make the playoffs on each side, and it doesn't matter if there is 14 teams or 140 teams, it is still the top 8. So what if one division has one less and one division has one more.

I can see where people will say "well what if one team in the east could have made the playoffs had they been in the west". You have to go back to 2010-11 where Dallas had 95 points and Calgary had 94 points and would have made the playoffs over 8th seed New York with 93 points. But that is on the west side coming east, so no issue there.

I just don't see it being that big of a deal to be honest. In order to make all the teams happy, this is how it had to be. It will only last a season anyway till people figure out a new system.

 

[wr50l]

Surely though the most rational solution was for Dallas to move South East, Colorado into the Pacific, and Winnipeg into the North West, then just lighten up the playoff schedule tempo so that the more Eastern-based Western Conference teams didn't have to play on such road-weary legs?