The absurdity of this system was most obvious in 2001-02, when the Carolina Hurricanes, owners of the seventh best record in the Eastern Conference, and sixteenth in the league as a whole, managed to win the Southeast Division. This allowed them to "earn" the number three seed in the Conference. They then managed to beat the sixth-seeded Devils (who earned four more points), the eighth-seeded Canadiens (with only four less points) and the fourth-seeded Leafs (who had the third best record in the league that year, yet were seeded lower than the Hurricanes.) They played Detroit in the Stanley Cup Final, where the Presidents' Trophy winners promptly crushed Carolina in five games.
Back in the '80s, and up until 1993, the NHL's playoff system was a strictly divisional setup. There were four divisions at the time, and the top four teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. Now it's true that there were some teams that made the playoffs that made you scratch your head and go, "Wha?" The 1987-88 Toronto Maple Leafs managed a grand total of 52 points, which was the second worst record in the league that year. Yet because the Minnesota North Stars, with 51 points, were in the same division, the Leafs managed to squeak into the playoffs.
But now that the League has expanded to 30 teams from the 21 of the 80s, without expanding the number of teams that qualify for the playoffs, there are very few obvious weak sisters that make it in. Indeed, at least one team from every seed has made it to the Cup Finals since the league switched to the conference based playoff system in 1993-94.
So let's go back to the four division set up. Now before I continue, I know that the league will never adopt it, for the chief reason that the Bettman Mafia will never surrender one of their precious Sun Belt teams to make the alignment work (No, it's not the Phoenix Coyotes I'm talking about.) My plan is to have two eight team divisions in the Eastern Conference, and two seven team divisions in the West. The problem is that seventeen of the thirty teams currently reside in the Eastern Time Zone, which is one too many. This problem is easily resolvable, however.
Consider the Atlanta Thrashers. They entered the NHL in 1999, and since then have played a grand total of four playoff games, losing all of them. That's right, they have never won a playoff game in their entire history. Their ownership cabal is a mess, with Steve Belkin, who is the largest stakeholder, claiming that the seven other minority shareholders have breached their contract, and said other owners insisting that they should be able to buy out Belkin's 30% stake. Earlier in the year, they traded their only star player, Ilya Kovalchuk, to avoid losing him for nothing to free agency. They are irrelevant, and they should be gone from Georgia.
Fortunately, there's a place for them to go. This is where Winnipeg comes in. They have a brand new arena that, while small in seating capacity, is guaranteed to be full every game. A 15,000 seat arena that's sold out is always better than a 18,000 seat arena that's half empty. So let's get the Thrashers out of Dixie, and let the Winnipeg Jets be reborn.
Now to the actual alignment. We'll start with the Southeast Plus New York And Philly Division.
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Florida Panthers
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- New York Rangers
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Washington Capitals
Now for the other division in the East, The Northerly, Vaguely East Division
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Detroit Red Wings
- Montreal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Toronto Maple Leafs
Now let's move to the West. Behold the Central and Colorado Because The Avs Don't Really Fit In The Pacific Division
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche
- Dallas Stars
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- Winnipeg Jets
And finally, the Pacific Slash Northwest Division
- Anaheim Ducks
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Los Angeles Kings
- Phoenix Coyotes
- San Jose Sharks
- Vancouver Canucks
There ya go. 30 teams, four divisions. Now there are two things about this setup that I have some misgivings about. In my heart of hearts, I really do believe that the Avalanche belong with the other West Coast Teams. In this setup, their closest division rival is St. Louis, which is more than 1300 km away from Denver. But that's only a two-hour flight. And besides, it's no more illogical than having Dallas in the Pacific Division, when Dallas is 1700 km from Phoenix and 2700 km from San Jose.
The other thing I don't like is having to split up Detroit and Chicago. The Wings and Hawks are longtime rivals dating back to the days of the Original Six, and I tried to keep historical and geographical rivals together where I could. It's also tough now that Chicago is a power after so many years of ineptness. But Detroit is an Eastern Time Zone city, and they've been making some small noises about getting into the Eastern Conference. I think they'd love being in a Division with Toronto, Montreal and Boston, and anyway, Toronto used to be in the West as well and was split up from Montreal before the '98 realignment.
Now we need a schedule. Perhaps surprisingly, the schedule is fairly simple to make. In the Western Conference, with its two seven team divisions, each team would play six times against each divisional rival, and twice against every other team in the league. This means 36 divisional games, and 46 other games for a total of 82, which is how many games they play right now.
The East is a little tricky, but with a small adjustment we can still make it work. Remember that the East has two eight-team divisions. So each team would play each divisional rival five times, with two games against the rest of the league. Now this makes 35 divisional games and 44 other games, which totals 79.
Making up the three extra games isn't all that difficult though. To allow the Eastern teams to play 36 divisional games, as the West does, each Eastern team would play one extra game against a divisional rival. Fortunately, every team has either a historic or a geographic rival in their division. Boston has Montreal. Toronto has Ottawa. Buffalo is fairly close to Pittsburgh. There's the Rangers and Islanders, New Jersey and Philly, etc. Probably the weakest is Washington vs. Carolina, but when you're pairing off, it's usually inevitable that you'll end up with spares.
So that takes care of the divisional discrepancy. As to the two extra games outside of the division, there's a fix for that as well. I can't really illustrate what I mean here, because I can't figure out the formatting, but it helps to think of the Eastern Conference teams in a two column table, with the teams in alphabetical order by division. Basically, if you start at the top of one column and draw a line straight across to the top of the second column, then continue the line in a zig-zag fashion, you should hit every team and end up at the bottom of the second column. When you get there, you finish the line by connecting the bottom of the second column to the top of the first column, and you are set.
So there's your realignment. Four divisions, 30 teams. The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. First plays fourth, second plays third. Divisional playoff winners playoff for the Conference Championship, two Conference champions play for the Stanley Cup. The 1980s system brought into the 21st Century.
See you early next week, with my playoff predictions.
WOW guess you had to get that off your chst lol
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