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2012/2013 realignment

I don't mind this at all.  The one glaring thing is obviously the 8/8/7/7 conference split as mentinoed.  This may all balance out though if the Coyotes move and they are put into one of the Eastern conferences. 

I personally love the intra-conference playoff series.  Some heated rivalries are going to be born again.  Leafs vs. Montreal on a consistent basis?  Detroit vs. Chicago?  Calgary vs. Edmonton?  Philly vs. Pittsburgh?  NYR vs. NJ?  This has the potential to create some great hockey over the years. 

I also think the whole issue of the 5th team in a conference being better than the 4th team in another is being blown out of proportion.  The only way this issue would ever be resolved is if the league ranked teams 1 to 30, balanced the schedule out completely, and then did the playoffs as 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc. 

It's been pointed out that the Kings would have not made the playoffs under this format while Dallas would have.  Well, Dallas and Calgary missed the playoffs last year when they each had more points than NYR.  It happens, but that's what will make the intra-conference matchups that much more meaningful.   

The possibility of, for example, a Boston vs. Pittsburgh/Philly Stanley Cup matchup is quite intriguing as well. 

Overall, it seems like a pretty good resolution for the majority of the teams. 
 
McPwnage said:
so 4 from the 8 teams make it and 4 from the 7 huh, man the 8 team confrences really get shafted
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... and if/when Phoenix moves to Markham or Quebec City, we could be one of 'em.
 
The NHL will have to create new Trophies for the Conference Champs. The Wales and Campbell Trophies were given to the Eastern and Western Conference Champions.  Now we will have A, B, C, and D Conferences.

I wonder what the names of these new trophies will be?  And, also the names of the Conferences?
 
Spider said:
The NHL will have to create new Trophies for the Conference Champs. The Wales and Campbell Trophies were given to the Eastern and Western Conference Champions.  Now we will have A, B, C, and D Conferences.

I wonder what the names of these new trophies will be?  And, also the names of the Conferences?
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Too many trophies if you ask me
 
princedpw said:
groundskeeper willie said:
princedpw said:
I don't see why the florida teams are in the leafs division vs. Pitt and Philly.
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Are you complaining? Would you really want the Leafs in a conference with those two and Boston right now? They are arguably the three best teams in the league.
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I'm just wondering why.
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The NHL wouldn't break up the Atlantic-division rivalries. And I'm sure Florida and Tampa would rather play in the Northeast considering the Leafs sell out their buildings every game.
 
McPwnage said:
so 4 from the 8 teams make it and 4 from the 7 huh, man the 8 team confrences really get shafted
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It's odd. The AHL has the same breakdown but they also have a crossover rule. If the 5th place team in an 8-team division/conference has more points than the 4th place team in a corresponding 7-team division/conference then that 5th place team will make the playoffs instead of the 4th place team. I figured the NHL would have adopted that.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
It's odd. The AHL has the same breakdown but they also have a crossover rule. If the 5th place team in an 8-team division/conference has more points than the 4th place team in a corresponding 7-team division/conference then that 5th place team will make the playoffs instead of the 4th place team. I figured the NHL would have adopted that.
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They don't anymore, as the AHL has adopted the NHL's current 3 division per conference format, but, even when they did, they maintained a 2 conference structure, which, the NHL is completely abandoning. None of the new "conferences" will be linked to any of the others in the same way, eliminating the whole crossover thing - or, at least, making it too arbitrary for the league to go with.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
McPwnage said:
so 4 from the 8 teams make it and 4 from the 7 huh, man the 8 team confrences really get shafted
Click to expand...

It's odd. The AHL has the same breakdown but they also have a crossover rule. If the 5th place team in an 8-team division/conference has more points than the 4th place team in a corresponding 7-team division/conference then that 5th place team will make the playoffs instead of the 4th place team. I figured the NHL would have adopted that.
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I hope they do. I think it might keep a team or two in the hunt longer and the team higher in the standings gets in.

I fear a season where an 85 pt team gets in and a 95 pt team doesn't.
 
Busta Reims said:
CarltonTheBear said:
It's odd. The AHL has the same breakdown but they also have a crossover rule. If the 5th place team in an 8-team division/conference has more points than the 4th place team in a corresponding 7-team division/conference then that 5th place team will make the playoffs instead of the 4th place team. I figured the NHL would have adopted that.
Click to expand...

They don't anymore, as the AHL has adopted the NHL's current 3 division per conference format, but, even when they did, they maintained a 2 conference structure, which, the NHL is completely abandoning. None of the new "conferences" will be linked to any of the others in the same way, eliminating the whole crossover thing - or, at least, making it too arbitrary for the league to go with.
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Ah yeah they must have just changed that this season. And yeah, they would have had to keep some sort of East/West division to make it work. Which of course would have meant that one of the East conferences would have had to take a West team.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Ah yeah they must have just changed that this season. And yeah, they would have had to keep some sort of East/West division to make it work. Which of course would have meant that one of the East conferences would have had to take a West team.
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Which, of course, would have essentially defeated the purpose of this whole radical realignment. I'm not a fan of the incoming system, but, I do sort of understand where they were coming from and how they've designed it. I just think it was a terrible choice and more complicated than it needed to be, when, really, swapping Nashville for Winnipeg and fiddling with the divisions in the West would have been so much simpler.
 
Peter D. said:
I don't mind this at all.  The one glaring thing is obviously the 8/8/7/7 conference split as mentinoed.  This may all balance out though if the Coyotes move and they are put into one of the Eastern conferences. 
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But there is no need for balancing it out as there's no east and west conferences. There's just conference 1, 2, 3, & 4.
 
Additionally, the "don't worry about the 7 team conferences" quote suggests to me that they may already have two other teams in mind. These things just don't happen on a whim.
 
Bullfrog said:
But there is no need for balancing it out as there's no east and west conferences. There's just conference 1, 2, 3, & 4.
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I know.  It's just that the perception is the "western" teams got the short end of the stick as both those conferences have the 8 teams.  So if, hypothetically, the Coyotes move to Quebec, they flip Quebec into the conference including the Leafs/Habs, and thus the split would be even between "west" and "east".

I do agree with your additional comment.  The league is leaving itself open to expansion.  Contracting to 28 teams is a possibility, but I highly doubt it happens.
 
Difficult to single out the 4 most worthy Surnames in all of hockey history I think. Probably easiest to go with 4 boring name of geographical significance as opposed to historical...
 
Sarge said:
Difficult to single out the 4 most worthy Surnames in all of hockey history I think.
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Not really. Gretzky, Orr, Howe, Lemieux. There that was pretty easy if that's the route they want to take with this.
 
RedLeaf said:
Sarge said:
Difficult to single out the 4 most worthy Surnames in all of hockey history I think.
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Not really. Gretzky, Orr, Howe, Lemieux. There that was pretty easy if that's the route they want to take with this.
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I think you just proved my point.  :-\
 
Sarge said:
Difficult to single out the 4 most worthy Surnames in all of hockey history I think. Probably easiest to go with 4 boring name of geographical significance as opposed to historical...
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The easy thing to do would be to go back to the old division names - Patrick, Smythe, Norris and Adams.
 
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