Tag Archives: Eastern Conference

May 14

NHL Playoffs: Second Round Predictions That Will No Doubt Be Proven Wrong

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No rest for the wicked, eh? A scant 24 hours after two very intriguing Game 7 implosions, we’re back at it with two first round series starting up tonight! Back to offer their thoughts are Glen, Troy and a Coin who all did surprisingly well last round!

In third place is a man who correctly predicted the Penguins, Senators, Bruins, Blackhawks, and Kings advancing, and earns an extra point for correctly calling the Hawks winning in 5, for a total of 6 points is Troy!

Troy Says: That first round was crazy! It was heartbreaking to see my Canadiens lose to an incredibly scrappy and determined Ottawa team….especially since their first goal in game 4 was EXTREMELY obviously kicked in and it completely boggles my mind as to how in the world that was actually allowed to count…..but I digress. It was a mix of fun and sad to watch the Canucks implode once again. Watching the magic that follows the Red Wings continues to amaze. They had an incredible stretch just to make the playoffs and then they defeated a loaded Anaheim team.

Back in the East watching Marc-Andre Fleury pretend to play for the Penguins while obviously being paid off by the Islanders was interesting to say the least. If the Islanders had gotten absolutely any goaltending from Nabokov they could easily be in the second round right now.

In the Boston/Toronto series my heart truly breaks for the Leafs. That was an epic and unmatched collapse. It’s all part of the learning process though. Next year will be different for the Leafs. Same with Montreal and the Islanders. They are young teams trying to get their feet wet and as they say you have to learn to lose before you can learn to win.

In second place is a man who perfectly predicted all four series in the East and called both the Blackhawks and Red Wings advancing. In addition he called the Rangers 7 game win, giving him 7 total points is Glen!

Glen Says: What an unbelievable First Round we saw! For the first time in recent memory, the Eastern Conference was more compelling and entertaining than the West.

We had the Penguins look very beatable, only to resolve things with a goalie switch. Then the Senators and Canadiens had an all-out blood war that featured some of the best quotes of the post-season. The Capitals and Leafs both gave their teams reasons to hope only to completely fall apart in different yet spectacular ways in Game 7.

The second round as a whole looks incredibly promising as we get two Original Six showdowns, a geographic battle, and of course Matt Cooke in Ottawa. Even if  most of the series end quickly like they did last year, this still should be a ton of fun.

Last year in the West, everyone was amazed that perennial contenders in Chicago, Detroit, Vancouver, and San Jose all fell in the first round and everyone called it a changing of the guard. Well guess what? A year later and three of those four teams are back in the second round and they are joined by the Stanley Cup Champion  – who coincidentally join the ’08 Red Wings and ’09 Penguins as the only champs since 2002 to win a series the next year – needless to say, what’s old is new again out West, and it’s pretty damn exciting!

And somehow or another the Coin was able to predict the Pens, Sens, Rangers, Bruins, Blackhawks, and Sharks to advance and even more astonishing – it called the Sens and Hawks in 5 and the Rangers in 7. Yeah they coin has 9 total points…kill us all.

WESTERN CONFERENCE
 
#1 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS vs #7 DETROIT RED WINGS

One more time for the last time

Troy: If you aren’t following @Eklund on Twitter…you should be. He made a point about the Red Wings that is absolutely bang on. They are by far the best coached team in the playoffs. Combine that with the fact that Chicago was not on their game in the first round and this could be a very entertaining series. I think the Wings will be a good test for the Blackhawks and I think it will be the push they need to start firing on all cylinders again. The unknown here is Howard. These teams are close enough that Howard could absolutely steal a game or two so Chicago will be able to take absolutely no short cuts. Even though Chicago wasn’t completely in their game in the first round they still took out Minny in 5 games and their captain, Jonathan Toews did not play anywhere near his capabilities. Toews won’t let that happen two series in a row.

Blackhawks in 6

Glen Says: If anyone is going to beat the Hawks this year, it won’t be the Red Wings. The Wings were lucky enough to matchup against the weakest non-Southeast Division leader in recent memory. As Troy said, the Wings are very well coached, but Babcock simply doesn’t have the horses for this race. The Hawks are just too deep and the Red Wings don’t have Lidstrom anymore. There is a reason that Ryan Sutter played a million minutes in the last round, they wanted him out there against both Kane and Toews. The Red Wings just don’t have a minute muncher anymore to do that. Thankfully there is the Original Six Factor here, because this series will be a ugly.

Blackhawks in 5.

Coin Says: Blackhawks in 5

Expect to Hear: ”How do you feel like playing a few more games?” – Ken Holland talking to his cell phone as he makes a mysterious call to Sweden.
#5 LOS ANGELES KINGS vs #6 SAN JOSE SHARKS

Gamers vs. Chokers

Troy Says: This is a series that pits two teams each having won four straight games. The Kings had a very tough start to their series but then rattled off four wins in a row against a damn good St. Louis team. San Jose however swept a disorganized and pitiful Vancouver team that completely lost themselves. That being said I think this is LA’s series to lose.

Kings in 5

Glen Says: I want to like the Sharks, really I do. I started blogging about sport in 2007, and sending e-mails to Troy for many years before that, and I picked Teal and Black to win or at least make the finals nearly every time. However, after too many disappointments, I just can’t do it. Last round I said that the winner of LA-St. Louis would make the finals, so I better stick with it. Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, and Anti Niemi will do their best to make a series of it, but the Kings have the experience. Oddly, this is the first time the Kings have had home ice in a playoff series since the first round of the 1992 playoffs. They were undefeated at home against the Blues…

Kings in 6

Coin Says: Kings in 6

Expect to Hear: “We’re part of the Battle of California too” – All 12 Ducks Fans

EASTERN CONFERENCE
#1 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS vs. #7 OTTAWA SENATORS

CSI Ottawa: Staring Eugene Caruso 

Troy Says: This is easily the series I am most looking forward to in the second round. I think Ottawa is going to be a really tough opponent for the Pens. Pittsburgh’s goaltending in the first round was horrible. They had to use Vokoun because Fleury couldn’t stop a beach ball. Now look at the other end of the rink and you’ll see Anderson. He played incredibly well against Montreal and was a huge reason why they took out my Habs in 5. Pittsburgh beat the Islanders in 6. But they did it in spite of their goaltending. Ottawa will not be that easy to overcome. Daniel Alfredsson has given his team everything and he’s proven that he still has a lot left in the tank. As Karl Eriksson gets his game back this team is only going to get better. This Ottawa team seems to have a cinderella feel to them and I think the Pens are vulnerable.

 

Senators in 6

 

Glen Says: Let’s see, one team rolled over their opponents in 5 games which included two 6-1 curb-stompings. The other had a goaltending controversy despite winning two shutouts, and survived two other overtime scares to win an incredibly close series in 6 games.

If I wrote that as a “future preview” two weeks ago you’d be expect the first sentence to be about the Pens route and the second one to be about the Sens route. Yet somehow or another, things changed and the Senators come in looking like world beaters and the Penguins come in a little shaky.

Honestly, I think that the Islanders poked the dragon here. The Penguins looked very focused in Games 6 and 7 after being tied 2-2 and going with the goalie switch. Expect Tomas Vokun to start this series but be given a short leash. The team just seems to play better in front of him. Now Evgeni Nabokov was pretty bad in the first round, I mean, not Marc-Andre Fleury bad, but pretty terrible. Expect the Penguins to have a much harder time scoring on Craig Anderson. However, Malkin, Iginla and Crosby are 2,4,5 in playoff scoring and people haven’t noticed them, so expect all three to step it up as things keep going.

This series will be fun and the games should be very close, but the Sens just can’t hang with this team that seems to be starting to click on all cylinders.

Penguins in 5 very close games

Coin Says: Senators in 5

Expect to Hear: ”It wasn’t Matt Cooke! It was Colonel Mustard in the Observatory with the Skate Blade” – Eugen Melnyk after finding the results of his forensic investigation

#4 BOSTON BRUINS vs #6 NEW YORK RANGERS

HRR Bonanza!!

Troy Says: Another Original Six matchup! I love it! This one should be very tight. Callahan has been everything for the Rangers and with Lundqvist between the pipes they are going to be extremely tough. Boston is coming off one of the biggest Game 7 comebacks in playoff history (first team to comeback from 3 goals down in the 3rd period of a game 7) so they are certainly going to be emotionally charged. The Rangers are obviously a much different team than the Leafs and they boast much more playoff experience so they will not be a pushover. i honestly don’t have a feel for which team has the advantage in this series. In a series like this is tends to come down to goaltending and New York has the advantage there.

Rangers in 6.

Glen Says: Which team should be more excited about their Game 7 win?

The Rangers looked bad in the first two games of the series but once they got going, they never looked back. Henrik Lundqvist, the best goalie in the world is coming into this series on back-to-back shutouts and they got the win despite Rick Nash and Brad Richards not showing up much on the score sheet. If those two guys can start to play to their level, and if Chris Kreider can recapture some of the playoff magic he had last year, these guys could really make some noise.
The Bruins on the other hand are a curious story. In Games 1,3, and the last few minutes of Game 7 they looked like world beaters, but the rest of the series they looked pretty average. People are, quite rightly, praising the Leafs for hanging with the Bruins, but shouldn’t they also be asking the Bruins why they played down to the Leafs level for so long? How can a team this good be down 4-1 against a team like the Leafs? The Bruins need to figure this out or they will be in trouble. Lucky for them their Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin like finally clicked in the dying minutes of Game 7, hopefully they can keep delivering when their backs aren’t against the wall.
I took the Bruins to make the Conference final at the start of the playoffs, so I better stick with it but I think that this series will be a lot closer than I initially predicted.
Bruins in 7

Coin Says: Rangers in 4

QUICK HITS
Troy Says: 
Blackhawks over Kings in 7
Senators over Rangers in 5

Blackhawks over Senators in 6 (If it goes 7, Anderson gets the Conn Smythe no question)

Glen Says:
Kings over Blackhawks in 7
Penguins over Bruins in 6

Penguins over Kings in 6

 

Coin Says:

Kings over Blackhawks in 5
Rangers over Senators in 7

Rangers over Kings in 5

Judging by the way things went in the first round we better put our money on the Rangers here…

Jan 19

Eastern Conference Predicted Standings

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…apparently there is going to be an NHL Season and soon! I’m sure this is the first time you’ve heard about it.

With the rush between the CBA being officially signed and the puck dropping tomorrow it’s hard to do a full-fledge prediction blog. As such, we here at Bladejobs of Steel going to do a very quick 15-1 Countdown of each Conference. Of course with a variety of changes to big teams, a short schedule, and other mitigating factors like travel and game shape of the players make this season much harder to predict than usual, as such it would not be a huge shock to see every single one of these end up wrong.

Before we start, just a quick general prediction: more than ever strength of the divisions will have an effect on standing. In a normal 82 game schedule teams play their four division rivals six times each for just under 30% of their games against their closest rivals. In this strange 48 game season teams play four games against two division rivals and five against the other two for just under 38% of their total games. While that may seem like a small increase, but when 7 points separated 1st in the East from 6th, this could make a hug difference in standings for teams in tough divisions like the Atlantic.

Today we’ll look at the Eastern Conference where teams like the Hurriances Sabres, and Rangers made huge changes, will they pay off? Will the clock strick 12 for the Cinderella Panthers and Senators? Will a healthy Crosby change anything?

The answers to all of these questions (and more) is…

15. Montreal Canadiens: Let’s see they were 15th last year, made no significant additions last year and their best skater has yet to report to camp. Galynchuk should put up big numbers in his rookie year, but he may end up having Nathan McKinnon on Jonathan Druin as a linemate soon enough.

14. Winnipeg Jets: Last year they had a staggering 23-13-5 record at home, but that really is not sustainable for a team that’s this bad. Pavelec and Kane both tried to play in the KHL during the lockout but could not hack it, Byufglien’s questionable fitness may hurt him in a sprint of a season, and let’s not forget the very long road trips they are forced to go on for still being in the Eastern Conference. Expect Scheifele to be in contention for the Calder as one of the few bright spots on this team. Let’s not forget, they are still very much the Atlanta Thrashers.

13. Toronto Maple Leafs: Yes, three Canadian teams will fight it out for last place in the Eastern Conference. The Leafs have yet to make any noticeable improvement since the last lockout and are the only team to not make the playoffs between Lockouts II and III, don’t expect them to change that just yet. Tyler Bozak is still not a first line centre, no matter how much they try and convince him otherwise.

12. New York Islanders: These guys are probably the hardest team in the East to figure out. Someday the young pieces will fit together and this team will be great. Tavares should build off his point-a-game season and players like Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey can’t be waiting to break through forever, can they? Sure Rick DiPietro may be the very definition of a goaltending question but Evgeni Nabokov could return to his San Jose Sharks form. Of course, everything could easily go wrong and they could end up with Seth Jones next year.

11. Florida Panthers: The strange, strange chemistry experiment paid off last year. Last year Kevin Dineen was able to get career years out of so many castaways like Kris Versteeg, Tomas Fleishcmann, and Jose Theodore. However it seems unlikely to happen again. Add in the fact that they benefitted greatly from a terrible Southeast Division last year and expect the other teams to be much better this year.

10. Tampa Bay Lightning: Lindback and Carle are interesting additions but they just can’t be the answer. Lindback has never played more than 22 games in a season and let’s not forget the Chris Mason and Dan Ellis lesson: it’s easy for a goalie to look great with Shea Weber in front of you. Sure Guy Boucher is a great coach, but it’s not quite enough to get this team back into the promised land.

9. New Jersey Devils: Wait, weren’t they just playing for the Stanley Cup a few months back? Last years great playoff run will be a distant memory soon enough. The loss of Captain Zach Parise and Assistant Coach Adam Oats will have a huge impact on this team. Add in the fact that Martin Brodeur and Patrick Elias are not getting any younger and we have a team that should certainly regress.

8. Buffalo Sabres:  Last year this team was among the best in the league in the second-half of the season after they recovered from a terrible start to the season. The additions of Steve Ott and John Scott will no doubt add to their toughness. Not really sure who will be their first line centre, but expect a good enough year from Ryan Miller to get them to the dance.

7. Ottawa Senators: Sure they may be my personal favourite team, but it’s hard not to be excited for this squad right now. They surpassed everyone’s expectations last year by making the playoffs and taking the vaunted Rangers to 7 games. All of their great young talent is a year older, and the high proportion of games against the Leafs and Canadiens will help them immensely. Lastly, with the high volume of games their goaltending platoon of Anderson, Bishop and maybe even Lehner will help them immensely.

6. Washington Capitals: If this were a full 82 game season this team could certainly win the division, but switching to a new coach in Adam Oates who is going to be the exact opposite of their old coach Dale Hunter may give them a rough start out of the gate. Add in the fact that Braden Holtby is probably less Ken Dryden and more Patrick Lalime. This team should be in the hunt to win the Southeast division down the stretch but will just fall short, which sends them all the way down to 6th.

5. Philadelphia Flyers: This is essentially the same team that finished 5th last year. They looked great in the first round of the playoffs against Pittsburgh but terrible in the second round against New Jersey. The loss of Bobrovsky does hurt them more than one may think, but hopefully Bryzgalov is able to find earth this season.

4. Pittsburgh Penguins: Here we go again, another Flyers-Penguins first round war! What more could the NHL want? If Crosby stays healthy and Fleury can rebound from his rough playoffs then this team will be scary and should be in contention for the top spot in the Conference, however playoff seedings being what they are, and they are stuck in the 4th spot.

3. Carolina Hurricanes: On paper they are the most improved team in the East and it should show in reality. Alexander Semin should be motivated with a one year contract on a new team and the Staal brothers should bring out the best in one another. Cam Ward is one of those good year-bad year goalies, and it’s his turn to have a good year. Add in the fact that they did well under Kirk Muller last year and there’s little reason to expect otherwise again.

2. New York Rangers: Here we rant on the schedule again: this team should be the best team in the East and perhaps even contend for the President’s Trophy, yet they are stuck playing a ton of games against the Flyers, Penguins and Devils which should hurt their spot in the standings. Nevertheless, there is no reason to think that they can’t win the division again. Last year they were one of the best teams in the league and then they went out and added Rick Nash while not losing too much in the process. Expectations will be very high on Broadway and for good reasons.

1. Boston Bruins: It’s Tuuka Time! Sure the loss of Tim Thomas hurts, but as long as Chara is still there then there is no need to panic. This team is essentially the same group of guys that won the Cup in 2011 and was running over the league in the first half of the season last year. Add in the fact that they benefit more from the schedule than any other team in the East and there is little reason to think that they aren’t a show-in for their division and a strong contender for top spot in the East.

 

As for the playoffs: Boston beats Buffalo in an absolute war, the Rangers make shorter work of then Sens than they did last year, the Capitals “upset” the Hurricanes and the Penguins get revenge on the Flyers. This leads us to Boston beating Washington and Pittsburgh beating the Rangers before Pittsburgh beats Boston to make it to the finals to face…

Wait until next post and find out.

May 09

NHL Realignment: A Balanced Approach

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With yesterdays news that the Phoenix Coyotes will be staying put…err there is a strong possibility that they will be staying put…or they might be staying put…errrr we have no idea what is going on with them and time is running out to move them in the near future, let’s go with that.

With yesterdays news that nobody has any idea what’s going on with the Coyotes, and we are quickly running out of time, the conversation of NHL Realignment needs to happen soon. It seems clear that the NHL did not want to move a team like Columbus or Detroit East for a year and then be forced to move them back West once we get the Hamilton or Quebec Coyotes.

In previous posts way back in January, we looked at different ways to tweak the current alignment to accommodate the relocated Coyotes and to get Winnipeg out of the Southeast Division. In this post we’ll look at ways to change things around a little bit while keeping the Coyotes were they are, as surreal as that is.

We’ll start with the Western Conference were things are far less confusing. First thing is first: one of Detroit, Nashville, or Columbus needs to move East in order to get Winnipeg in the West. For reasons outlined in previous posts, Columbus is the most logical choice. They are the Easternmost team, in the right Time Zone, struggling financially, and very close to both Pittsburgh and Buffalo, so let’s get them East. Sorry sleepy Red Wings fans.

Starting with the Pacific Division, we obviously have the Phoenix Coyotes and the three California teams. The three options for the final piece of this puzzle would be the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, and Vancouver Canucks. Sure Dallas is there already, but it really doesn’t make a ton of sense. The city is a full two Time Zones away from the Pacific Division and doesn’t belong there.

The choice between the Canucks and Avalanche depends on your view of Canadian hockey teams drawing in the United States. In the Northwest Division we will clearly have the Oilers, Flames, Jets, Wild, and one of those two teams. Reports were that none of the American teams wanted to be in a division with four Canadian teams, even though Minnesota is doing just fine for attendance. Nonetheless, this request will be honoured and we can slide Colorado in the Northwest, leaving Vancouver in the Pacific, which really makes more sense as far as Time Zones go.

The Central Division is made up then of Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, and Dallas. This division clearly makes sense geographically and traditionally. Four of the five teams are in the Central Time Zone, with Detroit being only an hour behind.

To recap our Western Conference looks like this:

Pacific Division: Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks
Northwest Division: Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets
Central Division: Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues
Easy right? Well hold tight, the East is going to get very complicated in a moment.

Distances in the East are significantly less than those in the West. Vancouver and Minneapolis, two teams that are in the same division now are over 2,800km apart, while Montreal and Miami, two teams that were almost lumped together in the failed plan last January are over 2,600km apart, which represents the biggest in-Conference distance in the East. So really, if the Canucks and Wild can play together, then any two teams in the Eastern Conference can, especially since they are all in the same Time Zone.

The problem with the Eastern Conference in its current form is the simple fact that everything is stacked. The most of the teams that get the highest attendance and TV Ratings are all in the Northeast or Atlantic Divisions. It’s no wonder that hockey did not catch on in Atlanta, they were getting the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes 3-4 times a year. One of the reasons that the Nashville Predators have been The Great Southern Success Story, has got to be the fact that they’ve shared a division with established teams like Detroit and Chicago for all of their existence. Sure, so has Columbus, so there are clearly other factors here, but it’s hard to discount the drawing power of teams like that.

According to ESPN, the six teams in our Eastern Conference with the lowest percentage attendance are the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning and our newly imported Columbus Blue Jackets. These six teams should be evenly placed in three different divisions and be supported by three stronger markets.

Clearly both Florida teams are together, same with both New York Metropolitan teams, leaving Columbus and Carolina together in the third division.

Looking at the other nine teams we can fit Toronto, Ottawa, and Buffalo as one trio. Montreal and Boston must stay together, same with Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Leaving the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals to join each of those duos. As great as the Flyers-Rangers rivalry is and has been, it makes more geographic sense to put the Rangers in with the Bruins and Habs, plus this gives us a division that includes Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, and who doesn’t love that idea right now?

The Rangers-Bruins-Canadiens trio would be a logical dance partner for the Devils-Islanders duo. Despite the proximity of Columbus and Pittsburgh, it makes the most sense to have the Penguins-Flyers-Capitals trio join up with the Florida teams for geographical reasons.

This leaves Toronto, Ottawa, and Buffalo join up with Columbus and Carolina, making a “Mostly Great Lakes” Division. While Ottawa and Raleigh are not exactly neighbours, they have approximately the same distance between them that Denver and Minneapolis do.

If you’re having trouble following along, here are the past 980 words wrapped up in a nice, neat, little map.

As you can see, the “Mostly Great Lakes” Division is without a name at the moment. We could change the Central to the Midwest and use the Central Division for this one, otherwise we’re a little at a loss for a geographic name here.

So to recap for those of you that went all the way to the bottom, we get the following set up for our six divisions:

WESTERN CONFERENCE                                                    EASTERN CONFERENCE

Pacific Division                                                                   Atlantic Division
Anaheim Ducks                                                                    Florida Panthers
Los Angeles Kings                                                                Philadelphia Flyers
Phoenix Coyotes                                                                  Pittsburgh Penguins
San Jose Sharks                                                                  Tampa Bay Lightning
Vancouver Canucks                                                              Washington Capitals

Northwest Division                                                             Northeast Division
Calgary Flames                                                                    Boston Bruins
Colorado Avalanche                                                              Montreal Canadiens
Edmonton Oilers                                                                   New Jersey Devils
Minnesota Wild                                                                     New York Islanders
Winnipeg Jets                                                                       New York Rangers

Central Division                                                                 “Mostly Great Lakes” Division
Chicago Blackhawks                                                            Buffalo Sabres
Dallas Stars                                                                        Carolina Hurricanes
Detroit Red Wings                                                                Columbus Blue Jackets
Nashville Predators                                                              Ottawa Senators
St. Louis Blues                                                                    Toronto Maple Leafs

 

Sure it’s not 100% Ideal, but it’s better than calling Winnipeg Southeast, or Tampa Northeast, isn’t it?

Apr 12

Penguins vs. Flyers and Why the NHL Won’t Change Their Playoff Seeding

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Last night we had to privilege of watching a phenomenal game of what should be a phenomenal series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. After this series was clinched a few days ago the complaints starting coming in.

How could these two great teams meet in only the first round? The Penguins had the second best record in the Conference and fourth in the league, while the Flyers had the third highest point total in the East and sixth most in the league. Meanwhile inferior teams in Boston and Florida get a higher seed, an easier opponent, home ice advantage, and a better chance of advancing. It’s a shame that one of the Pennsylvania teams will be golfing in two weeks, to say nothing of those two Central Division teams in the same situation.

Cries have gone up to switch things around (including on this very blog) with the three most common suggestions being: Top 8 in each Conference just make it, Division leaders guarenteed a playoff spot; The NBA Model with the Division leaders getting a top four spot; or Top 16 make it no matter what.

As intriguing as it would be to have a Top 16 NHL Playoffs, this option seems highly unlikely. The travel schedule would be unreal, and perhaps more importantly, there is less of a chance to have rivalries and repeat matchups. What are the odds that Vancouver and Chicago would have played each other for the past three years if they weren’t locked in the same half of the league? So let’s throw this out as both fair and fun to consider, but highly unlikely.

The other two options leave things certainly more equitable. They would instead give us the following series:

TOP 8 IN CONFERENCE                                         
#1 New York Rangers vs. #8 Ottawa Senators
#2 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #7 Washington Capitals
#3 Philadelphia Flyers vs. #6 Florida Panthers
#4 Boston Bruins vs. #5 New Jersey Devils

#1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #8 Los Angeles Kings
#2 St. Louis Blues vs. #7 San Jose Sharks
#3 Nashville Predators vs. #6 Phoenix Coyotes
#4 Detroit Red Wings vs. #5 Chicago Blackhawks

NBA MODEL                                         
#1 New York Rangers vs. #8 Ottawa Senators
#2 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #7 Washington Capitals
#3 Boston Bruins vs. #6 New Jersey Devils
#4 Florida Panthers vs. #5 Philadelphia Flyers

#1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #8 Los Angeles Kings
#2 St. Louis Blues vs. #7 San Jose Sharks
#3 Nashville Predators vs. #6 Chicago Blackhawks
#4 Phoenix Coyotes vs. #5 Detroit Red Wings

First off, it’s entirely coincidental that both of these options give us the same Eastern Conference matchups, as we can see it doesn’t hold true in both Conferences.

Of course everyone looking at that is salivating at the thoughts of another Crosby-Ovie showdown, but that’s only an option because of how disappointing the Capitals were this year. Had they preformed even half way to expectations things would be very different. Outside of that fluke, the only real “WOW” series is Detroit-Chicago in the 4-5 slot. Of course, hardcore hockey fans would probably find some fascination in all of the matchups, but the fact is: we’re not the target, and we can’t be.

The fact is that we’ll watch anyway. Even if there somehow was a Columbus-Minnesota showdown in the first round, those of us who come up with these crazy schemes are likely to watch it anyway. What the NHL needs to do is get ways to hook in the casual fan, and for better or worse the Philly-Pittsburgh and to a lesser extent Detroit-Nashville help with that.

With this current crazy system lets the NHL (and NBC) do is give a higher chance of a true “Main Event” to happen in the first round. The league gets to hype the hell out of one, or both, of these showdowns to get eyeballs on the television. Of course, they would draw better if they were playing in the 3rd round, but there are no guarentees of that happening, with all of the upsets that happen in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

To take it to the other half of this blog, professional wrestling, we should look to the King of the Ring tournament. From 1993 to 2002, the WWF/E would have an annual tournament on Pay-Per-View with the winner being crowned King of the Ring. This was great for hardcore wrestling fans, but the casuals didn’t seem to want any part of it.

In the 1993 event, Bret Hart had great 2nd and 3rd round matchups with Mr. Perfect and Bam Bam Bigelow, which many casual fans would have paid to see, but there was a big problem. They weren’t advertised, since they happened later on in the night, and were only deemed as possible. Instead the company was only able to hype up matches like Mr. Perfect vs. Mr. Hughes and Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan, as they were the first round showdowns, which few people really wanted to see.

The company had to change their plan and instead give us first round matchups that could help sell the card on their own. Perhaps the best example of this was in 2000, when the two favourites to win the tournament were Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. It would have been great to have these two face off in the finals, and it would really add some prestige to the event, but instead they were matched up in the first round. After Angle won, his next two matches against Crash Holly and Rikishi were pretty much foregone conclusions, but that point it didn’t matter. We had already made the investment and bought the event, we were stuck with those matches. People paid for the definite matchup in Angle-Jericho who may not have paid for the possibility of Angle-Jericho.

And that’s where we come back to hockey. People will watch Philly-Pittsburgh in the first round, hopefully some of those casual fans will be entertained enough to follow the winning team to the second round and beyond should they be so lucky.

The league needs a marquee series in the first round. They need something to sell people right from the start, and hope to get them hooked going forward. The second round usually gives us at least one good series like Boston-Philadelphia, Detroit-San Jose, or Pittsburgh-Washington, while the third and fourth round can usually sell themselves (unless it’s Edmonton vs. Carolina and you don’t live in Canada).

Still don’t buy that this is the league’s motivation? Consider their failed realignment plan, if we had those divisions and the same standings (which is of course impossible since there would be different standings and we would get: VAN-LAK, PHX-SJS, STL-CHI, NAS-DET, BOS-BUF, OTT-FLA, NYR-NJD, PIT-PHI.

Yes, we would still get Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia in the first round, to be our first round Main Event, with Nashville vs. Detroit to serve as a nice undercard. The proposed Conferences involved lumping most of the big US Draws in one division to give us a good chance for a Main Event in the first two rounds, and then the other top draws like Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, and Chicago get divided up and placed with some second tier draws like Tampa Bay, St. Louis, and even Nashville and Dallas to give us a good chance of a solid undercard for those other nights or late games.

The fact is that the NHL is a business, and as such is focused on the bottom line first and fairness second. It just makes more business sense to have a higher chance of having a guaranteed barn burner then to hope for one later, and like it or not, we’ll most certainly be getting these Angle-Jericho style matchups were the potential winners are going head to head at the beginning.

Of course the Stanley Cup Playoffs will most certainly lead to some more compelling series in the second and third rounds, since hockey isn’t scripted like professional wrestling. That is unless you’re a Flyers fan, then you may have other opinions on that…

Apr 11

NHL Playoffs: Another Pair of Idiots Guide to Every Series in the Eastern Conference and the Stanley Cup Finals

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Yesterday, myself and special guest Troy looked at the playoff series in the West, today we’ll look at the East, which features the real marquee matchup of the first round in Philly-Pittsburgh.

#1 New York Rangers vs. #8 Ottawa Senators

The Battle of teams that are 6-8 places ahead of their pre-season predictions! That’s right, the Senators were expected to be near the bottom of the Conference, while the Rangers were thought to be a bubble team, sitting in their usual 7-9 spot, but yet, here we are. Both teams have worked very hard and been very well coached to get to this point, but the clock will strike 12 for one of these Cinderellas very soon.

Troy Says: How surprised is everyone to see the Sens on the playoffs? I don’t think there were many people this year that thought they had it in them. Karlsson has emerged as one of the best defencemen in the league. According to NHL.com he’s joined by Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, and Denis Potvin as the only players to lead blueliner scoring by more than 20 points. That’s just flat out impressive. Their goaltending has also been good this year even though Anderson has been inconsistent at times. The play of Alfredsson and Spezza has been a big boost and their veteran leadership will certainly help this team. Too bad they’re up against the Rangers though. New York is a team I’ve enjoyed making fun of for the last number of years because they’ve been trying to buy their way to a cup and each time they’ve fallen flat on their faces. This year though they’ve finally got it right. Brad Richards has fit in very nicely and their young D corps has been impressive. Add to that Lundqvist in the net and this will be a hard team to beat. The only chance Ottawa has it to outscore them, which they are capable of doing.

Most Interesting Story: Goaltending, goaltending, and goaltending! The Senators have been striking gold all season with their men in the cage. First Anderson plays dynamite, and then when he gets hurt, Lehner steps in, and then they give Bishop a whirl and he looks great too. It doesn’t matter who they seem to put in, they seem to have some success.

Success, though is in the eye of the beholder, as few goalies have been as successful as current Vezina favourite, and potential Hart Trophy nominee, Henrik Lundqvist, who has been absolutely lights out this year. These two teams oddly match up very well in every other position, great playmaking centre, dynamic (but injury prone) scoring winger, and some great young d-men, but when it comes to the most important position, it’ll be like Ancient Rome. The Senators may have to bow to the King, but it’ll be a close fight to the end.

Et tu Bishop?

Most Interesting Stat: The Rangers earned 17 more points than the Sens this year, and allowed 53 less goals than they did. Both of these differences are tops amongst all of the playoff matchups this year. That being said, the Sens scored 23 more goals than the Rangers.

Glen’s Prediction: Rangers in 7 with both teams combining for four shutouts along the way.

Troy’s Prediction: For my money though this is New York’s series.

New York in 6

Coin’s Prediction: Senators in 7

#2 Boston Bruins vs. #7 Washington Capitals

Let’s see, where do we even start here? The defending champions taking on a team that thinks “Because it’s the Cup” is a reference to their Jock Straps? Or Tim Thomas exercising his rights as a Free Citizen by winning some games in DC, or will that damn Lamestream Media throw him off his game?

This is a simply fascinating series both on and off the ice and will no doubt provide endless analysis going forward.

Troy Says: This is not going to be a fun series for Washington. Washington is a team that tends to choke in the playoffs and they’re going against the defending champs. Not good. What is good though is that Ovechkin finally decided in the last few weeks to put the team back on his shoulders again and he has been his old self which is fun to see.

Most Interesting Story: Toughness! You have one team that is perceived as being soft against another team that often has the words “Big” and “Bad” in front of their name. Both teams have a ton to prove.

Chara vs. Ovechkin will be the most interesting matchup on the ice to watch for the next two weeks. Both men are big, both men can hit, and both men can take a hit. Chara is one of the best in the league and slowing guys down, but if Ovechkin is truly motivated than he’ll have his work cut out for him.

Most Interesting Statistic: The Boston Bruins scored 61 more goals than they allowed this year, far and away tops in the NHL, while the Capitals allowed 8 more than they scored. The Caps join their division rival Florida as the only teams in the league to make the playoffs with a negative goal differential.

Glen’s Prediction: Bruins in 4 with both Alex’s combining for only 2 goals

Troy’s Prediction: This could be a fun high scoring series, but it’s not going to last long.

Boston in 4.

Coin’s Prediction: Capitals in 6

#3 Florida Panthers vs. #6 New Jersey Devils

Much has been said about how little the Panthers deserve this spot. They backed into the three seed with a series of losses, they only have the sixth best record in the Conference, they have an embarrassing -24 goal differential, they lost a zillion games in overtime, and I heard some people blame them for both the Kennedy Assassination and the hole in the ozone layer. But the fact is, all of this doesn’t matter. Sure the standings probably should be changed, but they haven’t been. The 2012 Florida Panthers are not the first inferior team to benefit from the standings, and probably won’t be the last one. Right now everyone has zero wins and that’s all that matters.

Troy Says: Florida?? Really? They still have a team? Wow….and not only are they in the playoffs but they won their division so they actually have home ice against the Devils. As much as I like to make fun of this team they are worthy of their position. They don’t have that high end talent but they are consistent and can wear you down. The Devils however do have that high end talent. And they have three 30 goal scorers this season so if one cylinder isn’t firing, they have lots more to go to. Add to that Marty Brodeur who – even though he’s gotta be in his 50s by now – is still a damn good goalie and I think Florida’s return to the post season will be short lived.

Interesting Matchup: Coaching! Peter DeBoer was hired as the Panthers coach, was given nothing, and then thrown under the bus for it. Thankfully he was given another chance by the Devils this year and made the most of it, helping them return to the playoffs and post over 100 points in the process.
But rookie head coach Kevin Dineen has been pretty great this year too, sure Dale Tallon gets a ton of credit for his July 1 chemistry experiment working out, but Dineen was there to make sure that it didn’t blow up in anyone’s face.
Interesting Stat: This is only the third first round series since the Lockout between two teams that both didn’t make the playoffs the year before. The other two were both in 2008, Montreal-Boston and Washington-Philadelphia.

Glen’s Prediction: New Jersey Devils in five with three of the games going to overtime.

Troy’s Prediction:  New Jersey is like Detroit in that once they’re in the playoffs all bets are off.

New Jersey in 6.

Coin’s Prediction: Devils in 5

#4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Philadelphia Flyers
This is the absolute main event! This series will be a rough, high scoring affair featuring two of the most exciting and dynamic teams in the league. These two teams have a chance to show everyone what’s right about our beautiful game, but also what’s wrong with it. Hopefully they make the right choices.
Troy Says: This is the series everyone wanted. I can’t wait! The only shame is that this is happening in the first round and not the third. This series is worthy of a Conference Final and at the end of it, a very good cup contending team will be going home. Philly is a tough team, much tougher than Pittsburgh, but they also boast some serious offensive ability. It’s this toughness that will be hard on Pittsburgh. Also, for the first time in a long time, Philly finally has a legitimate and unquestioned number one goalie in Bryzgalov. He stunk out the joint last year in the playoffs with Phoenix so he’ll definitely be looking to atone so look for him to be strong. Other than the toughness, Pittsburgh can counter everything Philly has. Pittsburgh has unreal talent up front and a solid defensive group that will make life tough for the Flyers. Behind it all you have the reliable Marc-Andre Fleury and that’s what could tip this series. This one could go the distance.
Most Interesting Matchup: It may be cliche to say goaltending here, but how could it be anything else?
In the red corner you have a calm, cool, collected goalkeeper who showed Niklas Lidstrom how clutch he could be back in 2009. In the blue corner you have a man best known for waxing poetically about masks and the size of the universe.
How these two men perform when it counts will be a fantastic story to watch for the next few weeks.
Most Interesting Statistic: Despite these two being labeled as blood rivals, they’ve only met in the playoffs five times before, with two of those coming post-Lockout. The Flyers have faced the Rangers twice as many times in the playoffs, with the Penguins most common playoff opponent being the Washington Capitals.

Glen’s Prediction: Pittsburgh win in six of the best game you’ve ever seen

Troy’s Prediction:  Pittsburgh in 7.

Coin’s Prediction: Pittsburgh in 6

Quick Picks: The 2nd and 3rd Rounds

Glen Says: 

Devils over Rangers in 6 stunning games
Penguins over Bruins in 7 heavy games
Penguins over Devils in 5 to move on to face the Canucks
Finals have Penguins over Canucks in five with Crosby scoring the Overtime winner to leave the city very conflicted.

Troy Says:

NYR over New Jersey in 7 (Callaghan gives a Messier-like guarantee!)
Pittsburgh over Boston in 7
Finals: Penguins over Canucks in 6
Coin Says:

Penguins over Senators in 6
Devils over Capitals in 4
Penguins over Devils in 7
Finals: Detroit over Pittsburgh in 5

Does the coin know it’s not 2008 anymore?

Feb 24

Weekly Plus/Minus: Santino Marella, NHL Playoff Seedings, Carter and Johnson, John Cena, and Heat on Everyone!

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What a week this has been in our strange little world! We had a surprisingly good WWE Elimination Chamber where a comedy act had the performance of a lifetime, a monster trade taking place, a team went from 9th to 3rd and another may jump four spots this week, and John Cena cut a truly legendary promo.

Santino Marella: Out of everyone in both the hockey and wrestling world, the Milan Miracle has had the most upward mobility of anyone this week. Since last weeks post, he won a Battle Royal to get into the Elimination Chamber, then went out and pinned both Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett, two quickly rising superstars.

The best moment came when Santino was shockingly in the final two with World Champion Daniel Bryan and he hit his trademark Cobra and covered the Champ. He had a very long two count and near fall. The building was electric as the Milwaukee crowd thought they had witnessed the impossible. Of course, Santino was unable to pull it off and lost to Daniel Bryan shortly thereafter. While Santino didn’t leave the building with the gold, he most certainly made huge strides to become a star. Hopefully he’ll get a good spot on the Wrestlemania card to continue his Rockyesque run.

Cursed Battle Royal: This past Monday we had a 10 man Battle Royale to determine CM Punk’s challenger for Wrestelmania. The biggest story from the match wasn’t Chris Jericho’s predictable victory, but the injuries that came out from it.

Both Dolph Ziggler and Wade Barrett sustained injuries in this match, and things just seemed messy. Luckily Ziggler was fine, but Wade Barrett suffered an arm injury when he was eliminated, which was worsened by Santino Marella falling on him as he was thrown out.

The loss of Barrett is a pretty big one as he had to be considered a favourite to win the Money in the Bank Match at Wrestlemania, and now it looks like he won’t be on the card.

While accidents most certainly happen, to have Truth, Kingston, and Marella all wrestle two matches a mere 24 hours after participating in Elimination Chamber matches is just poor decision making and we are lucky that things weren’t worse.

Scott Howson and Dean Lombardi: Well this sure made things interesting didn’t it? The big swap of Jeff Carter for Jack Johnson and a first round pick is sure to send some shock waves through the NHL. The plug has clearly been pulled on this current Columbus squad and the LA Kings are not satisfied with having the 30th ranked offense going into the playoff push.

Howson and Lombardi have been walking on thin ice for a while now and this move may have saved both of their jobs this offseason. Columbus shed salary and kicked off their rebuild, while LA got a scoring winger to play with either Kopitar or Richards — I know Carter is a natural centre, but he makes a great winger, and there is no way you want him third on your depth chart.

As much as Howson has been critized this year, the fact is that he turned impending RFA Jakob Voracek and a high 1st round pick into signed for several years Jack Johnson and  mid-1st rounder. Which really isn’t that bad. Of course you may have to convince people that this entire season has been some sort of a bad dream, which may be easier said that done.

Heat on Everyone: I don’t know what’s going on with the WWE right now. It seems like nobody is well liked backstage.

Several different reports this week came out that there was Alberto Del Rio was too arrogant, that The Miz was too lazy, Brodus Clay is too reckless, and that Rey Mysterio is taking too long to come back from injury.

I don’t know what’s going on right now, but they need to shut people up about this, especially at Wrestlemania time. The company does not want bad publicity their way at this time. The backstage tensions need to be kept to a minimum and nobody needs to do anything stupid. A backstage fight or public drunkenness could most certainly cost someone their job.

What’s more troubling is the reports that people are upset with the Rock, which brings us to…

John Cena: Mr. Cena really kicked the generational showdown kicks into high gear with a truly unreal promo this past week. He, quite rightly, called out The Rock for leaving even after he said that he never would. He said this week that Dwayne will “bury him”, and he probably will.

The fact that Cena stands up for the business, continues to be a company man, and gets shat on for it is an absolute crime. The man works his ass off week in, week out, and does more to promote the product than anyone else since probably Hulk Hogan in the 80s. I can’t wait to see him beat The Rock on April 1.

NHL Standings: Thursday night, the Winnipeg Jets jumped from 9th in the East to 3rd, while the Panthers fell from 3rd to 8th, the Capitals, currently in 9th have the potential to jump up to 3rd with a few wins. Meanwhile in the West, the Coyotes and Sharks are tied for 3rd and 7th, but a full 10 points behind the 4th place St. Louis Blues

Division leaders are guaranteed the top 3 seeds in the Conference in the NHL, and this has often been some point of contention, but this is getting ridiculous. The NBA had a similar problem to this after the Spurs and Mavericks were consistently two of the best teams in the league but were forced to split the first and fourth seeds in the West. This problem seems to be there for the Central Division, and potentially the Atlantic as well. The Southeast division has been perennially weak, and last years toughest division  — the Pacific — seems to have been somehow neutered.

If you are the Nashville Predators, currently sitting in fifth in the West with 77 points, do you try to win the rest of your games and face a very tough St. Louis team, or do you try to slide down and play San Jose, who currently has six fewer points? If it’s in your teams best interests to not win, then something is deeply flawed.

If the playoffs started today we would get Vancouver-Dallas, Detroit-Phoenix (again!), San Jose-Chicago, St. Louis-Nashville in the West, with New York-Florida, Boston-Ottawa, Winnipeg-Pittsburgh, and New Jersey-Philadelphia in the East. This makes me feel really bad for St. Louis and Nashville, two fun, tough, teams poised for deep runs, who through the luck of the draw are forced to play each other while San Jose and Chicago, two teams that are limping at the moment, get a much more favourable matchup.

A few years ago, the NBA changed it so that the division leader was guarenteed a top four seed, and it seems to have worked out nicely. If the NHL followed suit we would get: Vancouver-Dallas, Detroit-Phoenix, St. Louis-Chicago, San Jose-Nashville, New York-Florida, Boston-Ottawa, New Jersey-Pittsburgh, Winnipeg-Philadelphia. Tell me that isn’t more equitable?

 

Prediction for Next Week: Rick Nash remains a Columbus Blue Jacket.

Feb 15

NHL Realignment: A Modest (10 Division) Proposal – Fear and Relocating in Las Vegas (Part III)

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My last post in this series I looked at the hopes and joys of Canadians, this time we’ll look at their nightmare scenario, the Coyotes move to Las Vegas or even worse, stay in Phoenix. All of this through the eye of a radical paradigm shift. Instead of having each Conference have three divisions of five, each Conference will get five divisions of three.

A team in Las Vegas gives us some tough questions on the West Coast. Clearly they would want to get placed with the two LA Area teams, given their geographic proximity. Sadly, this would have to split the Sharks away from their cross-state rivals. While this may seem strange, remember California is a very big state and LA is about 100km closer to Vegas than the Bay Area. Also, this would no doubt help the new market in Sin City establish itself.

This would leave the Sharks to join the Canucks and Avalanche, their next two closest teams, which would let the rest of the West shape up as follows:

After looking at different possibilities for the Eastern Conference in previous posts, I think I like this one the best, it gives every team 1-2 rivals and lumps Columbus in with the two strong Ontario markets — plus it leaves the option for their potential relocation to Hamilton/Toronto. I guess looking at it I could be open for a swap of Ottawa and Buffalo, but as a Sens fan I want a chance to beat Toronto year after year, until the playoffs.

I’m a huge fan of the Central Division as it plays off of the NFL and MLB where Detroit, Chicago, and Minnesota all share divisions. We would just need the NBA to stop considering Minnesota close to Portland and Salt Lake City and we could be set.

Now should the unthinkable happen and the Coyotes stay in Phoenix, things could be pretty different. The California teams could stick together, same with the Western Canadian teams. This would lump Phoenix in with Colorado and Dallas in an all-relocated-in-the-90s division. Winnipeg and Minnesota would get lumped in with St. Louis, leaving Detroit-Chicago-Nashville as a very fun and highly competitive trio.

For the visual learners in the audience it would look like this…

From last time you’ll remember…

Schedule and Playoffs

The playoffs are pretty easy here, division leaders all make the playoffs, plus the next three best teams. With five divisions, we really don’t need them to be given the top seeds, but a guaranteed playoff spot is good. Since the divisions are so small geographically, the local networks that would have a much higher chance of covering the playoffs.

As for a schedule, I would set it up as follows:

- 8 games against 2 divisional opponents for 16 games
- 3 games against 12 non-divisional in-conference opponents for 36 games (rotate the extra home game every year)
- 2 games against 15 non-conference opponents for 30 games

Lots of in-division games, fair schedule, lower travel time, teams like Detroit and Nashville don’t have to go to California and Western Canada twice a year, every year.

And that concludes this particular realignment series. I’ve got a few other ideas to bring up later on.  Personally I like this get up with a Seattle, Kansas, or Quebec City team, which seem to be the most likely anyway. Chances are we won’t be seeing this anytime, it’s a bit too radical, and you know the rules, the NHL doesn’t do anything until the NBA does it first!

Feb 13

NHL Realignment: A Modest (10 Division) Proposal — Part II

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Get ready Canadians, you are about to have a sportsgasm. In yesterday’s post, I looked at possible ten division alignments contingent on the Coyotes moving to either Seattle or Kansas. Today we will look at the possible alignments that could happen if the team moves to either Quebec City or Hamilton.

Should the ‘Yotes move to Quebec, it’s pretty obvious that they would lump in with Montreal and Boston, giving the Habs their obvious two rivals. This leaves Buffalo with the two Ontario squads, and the rest of the Eastern Conference to fall into place easily.

The Western Conference is slightly more complicated for a change. Chicago-Detroit-Columbus is a good Central Division, leaving a few choices for the other six Midwest Markets. Winnipeg and Minnesota are going to be partnered up leaving either Colorado or St. Louis to join them. I like the idea of a vertical Midwest Division, putting Colorado-Dallas-Nashville for the Southwest. You could switch St. Louis and Colorado around, but that looks familiar.

Alternatively we could have Detroit-Columbus-Nashville as the Central Division, Chicago-Minnesota-Winnipeg as the Midwest and St. Louis-Dallas-Colorado as the Southwest, but I am really opposed to a Wings-Hawks split, and Columbus is along for the ride.

Now should the former Blackberry CEO get his wish and the team moves from the Desert to the (Canadian) Steel City. My Southern-Ontarian-Heart is giddy at the thought of a Hamilton-Toronto-Ottawa, leaving Montreal-Boston-Buffalo to give us a rivalry rich trio.

Columbus gets booted away from Detroit and Chicago in favour of an old school Norris Division Triad. Columbus may not be “South” but it fits in fairly nicely with Nashville and Dallas, neither of which have strong historic rivalries, also one of them will be guarenteed to make the playoffs every year which will be good for two struggling and one developing market.

From last time you’ll remember…

Schedule and Playoffs

The playoffs are pretty easy here, division leaders all make the playoffs, plus the next three best teams. With five divisions, we really don’t need them to be given the top seeds, but a guaranteed playoff spot is good. Since the divisions are so small geographically, the local networks that would have a much higher chance of covering the playoffs.

As for a schedule, I would set it up as follows:

- 8 games against 2 divisional opponents for 16 games
- 3 games against 12 non-divisional in-conference opponents for 36 games (rotate the extra home game every year)
- 2 games against 15 non-conference opponents for 30 games

Lots of in-division games, fair schedule, lower travel time, teams like Detroit and Nashville don’t have to go to California and Western Canada twice a year, every year.

Now that we’ve looked at the Northwest, the Midwest, and the Great White North. Only one more stop for next time, Vegas Baby!

Feb 12

NHL Realignment: A Modest (10 Division) Proposal — Part I

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After examining all of the simple changes that could take place to the NHL Realignment based on the Coyotes moving, it’s time to look at breaking the paradigm a bit more.

Since 1998 the NHL has had six divisions, each composing of five teams, this came after expansion made the four divisions of six-seven teams model obsolete. This has led to some strange peculiarities like Dallas sharing a division with San Jose while Minnesota shares one with Vancouver, not to mention Winnipeg being joined with Tampa Bay.

The scenarios I looked at before were unable to completely fix these problems, hell the plan that the NHL pushed had the Florida teams listed as “Northeast”, which we can all laugh at for a moment or two. Maybe the five-team division model just doesn’t work with the current distribution of teams in the NHL, and maybe it never really did work.

In this post, we’ll look at inverting that model, instead of six divisions of five, let’s for for ten divisions of three. Clearly there needs to be an even number of divisions, keeping with the current set up of two Conferences— although five divisions of six can actually work nicely— maybe we’ll cover that one later.

Admittedly, I got this idea from Tom Fulery, who looked at this possibility with a Phoenix move to Quebec. I’ll take it one step further and examine the options depending on the Coyotes moving to Seattle, and Kansas in this post, with Quebec, Hamilton, Las Vegas, and Phoenix examined later on this week.

Should they move to Seattle, which I still think is the most likely scenario, obviously a Seattle team should share a division with Vancouver, so there are two teams covered. Geographically, the third team would either be San Jose or one of the Alberta teams, but both of them are probably taken. The Alberta teams should stay together, and so should the California teams, meaning their third team would most certainly be Colorado. This enables an All-California division, and a Winnipeg-Calgary-Edmonton option.

Letting the dominoes fall, it should end up like this.

I tried to keep the names as standard as possible, with the obvious need to add a few names, including “Empire” which I loved so much that I stole from Tom Fulery as well. The West was pretty easy to figure out and so was most of the East. Obviously Detroit could be moved East instead of Columbus with little need to readjust things. I considered an All-Eastern Canadian division, but Montreal would not want to lose Boston as a rival, so they were kept together, this necessitated Buffalo joining them or else the New York Metro teams would have to be split up. Clearly Columbus could benefit greatly from sharing a division with Toronto, and hey they may end up being the team that moves to Hamilton, so we can avoid the later headache now.

Another, more geographically incongruous option, was to have Toronto-Ottawa-Buffalo, Pittsburgh-Columbus-Philadelphia, then Montreal-Boston-Washington, but I would like to stay as logical as possible, while preserving as many traditional rivalries as we can.

The only real losers I see here are Colorado and St. Louis would both lose some of their stronger rivalries, the Pennsylvania teams would probably like to stay with the New York teams, but they get reunited with Washington which is probably a good thing. Also, the three Southeast teams are really missing any sort of marquee names, but the guarantee of at least one of them in the playoffs could really help sustain these markets.

Now what if we end up with the Kansas City Coyotes? Their obvious divisional opponents would be the cross-state St. Louis Blues. Looking around they are close to Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville, and Dallas. As much as they would love to stay with the Hawks, it probably doesn’t make too much sense to take them away from Detroit, same with Nashville. The Avalanche and Wild probably need to join the Jets, leaving the otherwise isolated Stars to join the Missouri dominated division, making everything else look like this.

I tried playing around with an All-Eastern-Canadian Division, which led to a few more dominoes falling. I tried to focus on Geography, which leads to the New York City teams going with Boston — building off of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and the Devils going with the Flyers and the Capitals. The Pittsburgh-Columbus-Buffalo division is very geographically logical, but separates some big-time NHL rivalries. I guess we could get a Boston-Buffalo-Columbus division, which may make less people unhappy in the long run.

Schedule and Playoffs

The playoffs are pretty easy here, division leaders all make the playoffs, plus the next three best teams. With five divisions, we really don’t need them to be given the top seeds, but a guaranteed playoff spot is good. Since the divisions are so small geographically, the local networks that would have a much higher chance of covering the playoffs.

As for a schedule, I would set it up as follows:

- 8 games against 2 divisional opponents for 16 games
- 3 games against 12 non-divisional in-conference opponents for 36 games (rotate the extra home game every year)
- 2 games against 15 non-conference opponents for 30 games

Lots of in-division games, fair schedule, lower travel time, teams like Detroit and Nashville don’t have to go to California and Western Canada twice a year, every year.

Really, what’s not to like?

Feb 05

Imagining How the Las Vegas (or Phoenix) Coyotes Will Affect NHL Realignment

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In the previous four editions of this series we looked at how the uncertain location of the Phoenix Coyotes affects the possibilities with the NHL’s divisional alignments for next year. Today I’ll finish it up with looking at what I consider to be the two most unlikely scenarios, the team moves across the desert to Sin City or stays in Phoenix. Both seem like pipe dreams to me, but it’s worth exploring.

A few important points from the previous posts in the series that you are too lazy to go back and read.

  • The NHL can’t have Winnipeg be in the Southeast for one more year, so some changes are coming.
  • Even if they can’t blow up the league for next year, I think that there can be some minor tweak now to set up for seismic shift down the line.
  • They have to wait and see where Phoenix goes first before any changes can happen – they don’t want to move Columbus, Nashville, or Detroit to the East, only to have them be forced to switch back a year later
  • I think that Columbus is the most likely team to move East, it’s the best hope of saving this franchise. Detroit will have to wait in line even longer. If the NHL decides to swap Nashville instead, that is an easy change from these maps, Detroit is more complicated though.
  • Also, if Columbus moves to the Southeast, they can join their division rivals in Florida and Tampa Bay in moving to join the Northeast in the plan that was vetoed, only they make some ounce of geographic sense.

Dallas really doesn’t belong in the Pacific Division, so let’s give them the Blue Jackets’ spot in the Central and Colorado really should slide in there.

The East is more or less unchanged, and the West has a simple domino effect with Winnipeg-Colorado-Dallas-Columbus all playing musical chairs.

Minnesota may not be the biggest fan of sharing a division with four Canadian teams, especially Vancouver being two Time Zones away, so we’ll try to keep them with Colorado. This will require Vancouver getting kicked out to form a true Pacific Division with Vegas and the California teams, who all share the same (very inconvenient) Time Zone. Which will make things look like this…

This is much better for Time Zones than the current paradigm. The Pacific Division is all on the same Time Zone, the Northwest has three on Mountain and two on Central, while the Central has four on the Central Time Zone and the lone Red Wings in the Eastern Time Zone.

Of course, this may not be ideal for Minnesota, who really would rather be in the Central Division, so let’s see if we can make that happen.

Dallas may of course be West, but it is certainly not North, at least 50% truth is better than the flat out lie that makes them “Pacific”. Of course there would be a slight increase in travel — Edmonton is about 300km farther away from Dallas than San Jose is — but there is only one Time Zone difference here.

After looking through these three possibilities, I think that I like the first one the best. It’s easy, clean, and logical. If you don’t feel like scrolling back up, the divisions will look as follows:

PACIFIC: Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado, Las Vegas/Phoenix
NORTHWEST: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Minnesota
CENTRAL: Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis, Dallas
NORTHEAST: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo
ATLANTIC: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York Rangers, New York Islanders
SOUTHEAST: Columbus, Washington, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay

So this concludes my series of looking at Realignment with respect to the Coyotes. I may consider a few more zany ideas in the future.