NHL Realignment

[jcdc]

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=604852

What are everyone's thoughts? Personally I think they need to call it what it is, and just say they're cutting it down to four divisions, instead of expanding it from two conferences.

[TC]

as far as the realignment to four conferences, i'm fine with that. we keep our two biggest rivals and have fewer games that start at 9-930 local time. great.

what i'm not clear on is how the playoffs/seeding is going to work, or how the all-star game is going to work. all-star is much less important than playoff seeding, but i need some clarity there before forming a complete opinion.

[jcdc]

The top four teams from each conference each make the playoffs. Seed 1 will play seed 4, and seeds 2 & 3 will play each other. The winners of those series play each other, and then the winner of that series will play another conference's winner, up until the stanley cup finals. and as far as the all star game goes, I think they're sticking to that stupid fantasy sports draft thing, or even NA vs the World bullshit.

One positive about this, they are clearly making an effort to get the coyotes out of phoenix. Quebec is already promising to build an 18,000 seat arena, so it looks like we'll see the return of the Nordiques soon. Now if only we could get a team back in Hartford...

[TC]

so that's what i've heard about the first two rounds, then re-seeding after two so anyone plays anyone. i'm only sort-of ok with this. that means only one team from each conference moves on. that sucks. i want the ability to see a blues/hawks Cup final, or a pens/caps final, or <insert match up here>. i dunno, just seems like the best games are going to be in the first two rounds. take conference D for example, using this year. so NYR, PHI, PIT, WSH - only one of those teams will be in the third round? wow. at least we get to keep our DET & CHI rivalries.