NHL Realignment

    The NHL recently unveiled in new league alignment, made necessary because the Atlanta Thrashers of the Southeast Division moved to Winnipeg, in Canada. The change is radical-instead of a 2-conference, 6 division set-up, league officials decided on a 4 conference alignment. Two of the conferences would contain 8 teams, and two would have 7. Each team will play the others in its conference 5 or 6 times, while playing the teams in the other 3 conferences twice each. As far as the postseason goes, the top 4 in each conference will square off over two rounds to produce a conference winner, and then the four conference winners will play over two more rounds to determine the Stanley Cup Champion.

     The reaction has been mixed, but there hasn't been any real protest. Some preferred the current arrangement, which is similar to the other three major sports. Others are on board with the new idea. As for me, so far I like it. I don't think that the other sports should adopt it, but for hockey I think it will work. It's a unique idea that helps the NHL stand out. I think fans will ultimately be happy with the changes. I probably would have changed a few of the teams around, though. A look at each new conference:

Conference 'A' (basically the Western Conference): Calgary,Edmonton,Vancouver,Anaheim,Los Angeles,San Jose,Phoenix, and Colorado. Perfect. Nothing wrong with this one. (Although Phoenix might end up losing its team.)

Conference 'B' (pretty much the Central Conference): Winnipeg,Minnesota,Chicago,Detroit,Columbus,St.Louis,Nashville, and Dallas. Pretty good, although I would probably move Nashville. There's really not much else you can do with Dallas.

Conference 'C' (I would call this the Northeast Conference: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Tampa Bay

Conference 'D' (the Eastern or Mid-Atlantic Conference): New York Islanders, New York Rangers, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Carolina.

I could probably live with these last two (and it seems I'll have to anyway), but I would have changed them around a little bit. I would have switched the two Florida teams and the two New York teams.  I would have also moved New Jersey to Conference C and Nashville to Conference D. The NHL wanted to keep the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York teams together, but I would have drawn a line on the map between them. To me it would have made more sense for things to look like this:

Conference C: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and New Jersey.

Conference D: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Nashville, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay.

Either way, it's a pretty interesting change, and I think it will pay off for the NHL. Now if only more people watched the games......