NHL Realignment: Nashville Predators to retain rivalry with current Central teams

still 82 game season?

I like the teams in our conference, good rivalries. I don’t like the whole structure of number of games and could care less about the home-and-home with every team in the league.

Great work as always!

Perhaps Shinnyhan was waiting to see if we were going to be in Buffalo’s conference before the Toots ruling?

I can live with the conference set ups, but the PO format SUCKS! You can have teams with more pts miss the playoffs by gtd top 4 of the conf. I can also go along with 1-4 meeting in the 1st round, but they should reseed for the 2nd round. I like playing new teams in the PO’s and NOT playing the same team(s) every year for the PO’s. We’re going to see the top teams in the league playing each other in the 2nd round almost every year with this format. I think they already know Phx is relocating and if they go to QC that will balance out the 2 of the Conf. Then we might see the top 8 in the East/West seeded. They Player Asso also expressed the same concerns and I hope they tweek this a little more after Bettmean meets with them.

"As far as for the Predators, we’re very happy," General Manager David Poile said. "It accomplishes everything we thought would be good for us.

Josh Cooper’s Tennessean article here

yahoo has been cranking out great articles leading up to and including the realignment agreement. props to those guys over there.

Divisional playoffs are at the same time awesome and problematic. The notion that we can have the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins battle every year in the quarters or the semifinals is awesome. Ditto the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames or the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers and so on. The playoffs fuel hatred. Hatred sells. The first two rounds are going to be dramatic, blood-soaked affairs every postseason.

But as we wrote this morning: The divisional playoff setup can also lead to redundant, predictable matchups; and to inequity, as teams with higher point totals are squeezed out of the postseason because they play in tougher divisions. (Under this format, the Los Angeles Kings would have missed the playoffs last season despite having more points than the Blackhawks and the Stars.)

The glorious mathematical chaos of the last weekends of the season will give way to something more straightforward. The days of the No. 8 seed rising up to take out the President’s Trophy winner in the first round are done.

full story

I think this is terrific stuff. The divisions are going to be tougher, but it’s also going to be a lot more fun seeing everybody play during the regular season. I can’t tell you how meh it’s been watching fricking Anaheim 12 times during the season. There are only so many times you can call Corey Perry a fugly hayseed and throw bologna at Ryan Getzlaf before it starts to get stale.

So, Thank You, BOG. And extra thank you to the Carmel Valley Winegrowers’ Association for GETTING THIS B**CH DONE. The 2008 Heller Estate Pinot convinced Burkie that it was a capital idea, mmmm yessss. Nothing like a mouthful of “tart berry and cocoa powder fade” to convince an old codger that parity really does pay off…

2 things make this a huge win for most teams.

As of now, we will play 5 or 6 times each year against 6 or 7 other teams and then see every other team in the league once each year. I love this. I would much rather be guaranteed to see Philly, Montreal, Toronto, Pittsburgh, etc twice a year than double up on games with L.A., S.J., Colorado, Phoenix, etc.

The other things is the rivalry effect. Now, you have 7 or 8 teams that have to fight with each other just to make the playoffs as opposed to 15. Then 4 of those have to fight to the death in the first 2 rounds to crown 4 conference champions before moving to 2 rounds of league finals. While winning the Cup will always be second to none, the idea of fighting for the “Norris” conference championship through two rounds of playoffs will make for a very exciting postseason all around and is a lot better way to earn a championship banner than just rocketing through the regular season.

1. Stop calling people who disagree with you “morons” or saying that defending your point of view is obnoxious. It’s a public forum—everyone gets a chance to talk. And if you can’t defend your assertions, expect to be challenged on them. I do.

2. Tampa is NOT in favor of this format. They do NOT get a ‘snowbird boost" (an assertion that would p*ss off a whole lot of Preds fans if it were made about this town) and they have no trouble selling out games under the current format. (Neither does Florida right now.) You’re talking about gaining 5 home games against far away teams and losing 4 home games against closer teams. How many games do you travel to Canada for? Tampa and Florida also have nearly double the amount of travel as other teams in their “conference.” That’s not something the Florida teams could possibly be expected to approve of.

3. The NHLPA is concerned about this because it’s structurally easier for players in the 7-team divisions to get into the playoffs than those in the 8-team divisions. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s very difficult to win a Stanley Cup without making the playoffs. It’s also very hard to get your playoff bonuses when you don’t get into the playoffs. They do in fact have a vote on the matter, but they may not be united in their dislike of the scheme or willing to fight over it. On that we shall see.

and now back to your regularly scheduled beating up on each other.