Conference and Divisional realignment that would bring equality to the NHL:

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

Conference and Divisional realignment that would bring equality to the NHL:
 

The Canucks are at a disadvantage in terms of how much they have to travel relative to most other teams.   This is one of the reasons why we often struggle with injuries.

 

meanwhile, teams in the Metropolitan division (amongst other divisions) have the easiest (or easier) travel schedules in the NHL and tend to experience less wear and tear on their bodies as the season progresses.

 

I think it would be more fair if all teams had to experience approximately the same travel schedule.  I think one way to achieve this, is to align teams from Northernmost to Southernmost as opposed to Easternmost to Westernmost.  
 

1) Patrick’s Division:   Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Boston.

 

2) Norris Division:  Seattle, Las Vegas, Colorado, Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago, New York Rangers, Buffalo
 

3) Smythe Division:  San Jose, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Columbus, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, New York Islanders.

 

4) Adams Division:   Anaheim, Arizona, Dallas, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Nashville, Washington 

Please keep in mind that these are just off the top off my head.   Ideally, you’d have a divisional realignment where the divisions would be classified in a horizontal geographical manner, where teams would be grouped together depending on how far north or south they were (again, my list was off the top of my head and so I have no idea if I made some geographical discrepancies).    

 

The NHL can then go old school and bring back the old divisional names (Smythe, Patrick’s, Adams, and Norris).

 

That “Canada Division” with Boston added would be a huge draw for the sport.   
 

LA being in the same division with one of the New York teams (ideally the Rangers) would also be big from a marketing standpoint.

 

Perhaps Colorado and Detroit can rekindle their role hatred from decades past?  
 

The bottom line here is that a divisional realignment such as this might bring more equality and fairness to the game in terms of the travel schedule.    The newer match-ups and newer rivalries might also help take the sport to another level.

 

 

Edited November 16 by Hindustan Smyl

[-AJ- 12,770]

*Laughs in Time Zone*

[AriGold2.0 15]

Oh boy, the sleep patterns will be really crazy with the schedule.. Back and forth, back and forth..

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

Just now, AriGold2.0 said:

Oh boy, the sleep patterns will be really crazy with the schedule.. Back and forth, back and forth..

Perhaps this could be combated with longer homestands?   Road trips can also be arranged as such that when a team goes out on a road trip, they would stay within the reasonable time zone (for example, a California trip where you play all the California teams).

 

Maybe you could also do something like baseball where when you visit a team, you play an entire series (2 or 3 games in a row in that team’s barn).

 

Playing a “regular season series” against a team would not only make the travel much easier, but could also manufacture more organic rivalries.

[AriGold2.0 15]

2 minutes ago, Hindustan Smyl said:

Perhaps this could be combated with longer homestands?   Road trips can also be arranged as such that when a team goes out on a road trip, they would stay within the reasonable time zone (for example, a California trip where you play all the California teams).

 

Maybe you could also do something like baseball where when you visit a team, you play an entire series (2 or 3 games in a row in that team’s barn).

 

Playing a “regular season series” against a team would not only make the travel much easier, but could also manufacture more organic rivalries.

Could you imagine how hard that would be on the players !! "Baseball" style series would beat the holy hell out of the players ! By the time playoffs comes half the team would be on the IR, lol.

 

But it's intriguing.

Edited November 16 by AriGold2.0

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

8 minutes ago, AriGold2.0 said:

Could you imagine how hard that would be on the players !! "Baseball" style series would beat the holy hell out of the players ! By the time playoffs comes half the team would be on the IR, lol.

 

But it's intriguing.

Baseball style series, in that, they wouldn’t play the 2-3 games all back-to-back.  They would get a rest in between days (like in a regular NHL playoffs).   
 

Perhaps to compensate for this, there could be larger day breaks between series’?  (I.e.  after a “series” is completed against a team, you could more days in a row off than teams currently get).    Basically - under this new system, teams would work harder but rest harder.

 

If you combine the above with reasonable geographical proximity within road trips, then perhaps the schedule could be even easier (for instance, a team playing 3 games over 6 days against the LA kings in LA......having a 3-4 day break afterwards, and then doing 3 games in 6 nights against the Anaheim Ducks in Anaheim).   
 

If the NHL planned it right, perhaps a system like this could be even easier than the current one.

Edited November 16 by Hindustan Smyl

[DonaldBrashear 2,180]

Never going to happen. NHL has made it clear that time zones are what matter not distance. This is because of TV ratings.

[Bertuzzi44ever 348]

1) actually vancouver is not at some huge disadvantage because it works both ways. When we have our home games the rest of the league has to travel the furthest they go all year to play us and we get a ton of teams either playing on back to back nights travelling from Edmonton or Calgary, or playing their third game in four nights after the Alberta swing (a lot of times both!) so that’s the trade off with our travel, which will actually get better once Seattle joins and now that VegA’s is here, (rather then Houston or Hamilton/Quebec city) or the fact Winnipeg is here and not Atlanta. Plus we get one of the easiest divisions in the league. If not the easiest. Every year almost a team who is last in our division wildcard wise usually has lower pt totals then other wildcards, same wth out top two teams in division.

 

 

 

2)  you do realize theirs more equality in the NHL more now then ever right? Look at the standings and results of the first round last year of the fact a team in dead last at New Years won the cup. (Never happened in 100 years)

 

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

41 minutes ago, DonaldBrashear said:

Never going to happen. NHL has made it clear that time zones are what matter not distance. This is because of TV ratings.

Has there been a noticeable drop in TV ratings whenever East coast teams play West coast teams? (due to the time difference).   I haven’t checked, but my gut feeling says no.

 

I would argue that the newer and more interesting match-ups would lead to higher TV ratings of anything.    

[AriGold2.0 15]

You try telling the bottom ten 10 teams owners that those miles are gonna increase heavily.

Edited November 16 by AriGold2.0

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

28 minutes ago, Bertuzzi44ever said:

1) actually vancouver is not at some huge disadvantage because it works both ways. When we have our home games the rest of the league has to travel the furthest they go all year to play us and we get a ton of teams either playing on back to back nights travelling from Edmonton or Calgary, or playing their third game in four nights after the Alberta swing (a lot of times both!) so that’s the trade off with our travel, which will actually get better once Seattle joins and now that VegA’s is here, (rather then Houston or Hamilton/Quebec city) or the fact Winnipeg is here and not Atlanta. Plus we get one of the easiest divisions in the league. If not the easiest. Every year almost a team who is last in our division wildcard wise usually has lower pt totals then other wildcards, same wth out top two teams in division.

 

 

 

2)  you do realize theirs more equality in the NHL more now then ever right? Look at the standings and results of the first round last year of the fact a team in dead last at New Years won the cup. (Never happened in 100 years)

 

You make great points, but I think the newfound parity has more to do with the OT loser point than it does with the Time Zone divisional alignments.  
 

At the end of the day though, I suspect that there’s a significant advantage in being a part of the Metropolitan division than it would be in being a part of the Pacific Division.  Road trips  to the West aside, those “road trips” that Metro teams have to go on are pretty much next door.   That $&!# has to add up over time.

[BCNeil 1,017]

Um Boston vetoes this right off the bat/

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

2 minutes ago, AriGold2.0 said:

You try telling the bottom ten 10 teams owners that those miles are gonna increase heavily.

That’s a great find.   Very interesting.

 

I didn’t even realize that Chicago was atop the list (makes sense though).   
 

Good point about convincing those bottom 10 owners.   Lots of powerful hockey higher-ups in New York, Toronto, Montreal, etc.

[AriGold2.0 15]

1 minute ago, Hindustan Smyl said:

That’s a great find.   Very interesting.

 

I didn’t even realize that Chicago was atop the list (makes sense though).   
 

Good point about convincing those bottom 10 owners.   Lots of powerful hockey higher-ups in New York, Toronto, Montreal, etc.

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/688932/

 

Enjoy if you want to waste 2 min of your life like i did lol.

 

Edit: I also think Chicago started overseas and it includes that.

Edited November 16 by AriGold2.0

[Hindustan Smyl 898]

2 minutes ago, BCNeil said:

Um Boston vetoes this right off the bat/

You’re probably right.    If something like this were to go down, you might have to keep Canada as its own separate division due to the border issues (ie Boston having to spend so much time going through customs, etc.).

 

Another division might have to consist of 9 teams.

[6string 3,923]

No Steamer!

 

MLB,NBA,NFL,MSL and even NASCAR operates regionally for a variety of $$$ reasons.

 

I'm gonna guess these leagues including the NHL won't need your help for now!

 

GCG!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[coolboarder 674]

1. When Seattle comes in the league, I'd rather it to be strictly divisions of 4 teams each, no conference with schedule matrix of 8/2.  8 divisional games (4H, 4A) and 2 games, home and away, against rest of the league.   Playoff would be strictly divisional with 1 v 2.  The divisional winners across the league would be 8 so therefore, you throw out the divisional records for round 2 of the playoffs with 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, and 4 v 5 and reseed again.  This will ensure that every games in the league is meaningful because it affects your round 2 seeding and divisional record don't matter at this point.   Imagine this, Canucks is able to come home 12 times after a short trips by midnight.   Canucks would go LA just once, rather than 2 times with conference format in place, saving themselves 2,4000 miles per round trip.  They can go on southwest road trip in one swing then never go there again for rest of the year.    

 

2. If they decide to keep the conference format with schedule matrix of 4-3-2, and if you truly wants Eastern conference teams to experience what Canucks went through, easily, make them fly to Florida first at the start of the road trip, either back to back games in Florida then fly to the West Coast with stops along the way without any opportunity to come home for a home game, more rest, etc.   2 games plus 3 or 4 games, then they would have went through 5 to 6 games road trip and Canucks would be able to catch them at their 5th or 6th game of the trip.   My ideal for Eastern conference when similar to Canucks by going to Florida then play games in the northeast would be, TB, Florida, LA, Ari, Van, then go home.  No more easier trips that involves with Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver groups or SJ, LA, Anaheim group.   Next trip would be Florida, Anaheim, SJ, Col, Calgary, Edmonton and quick three gamer, Tampa Bay, Vegas, and Seattle   That's how you rack up Eastern conference teams' air miles.  This will bring equality but not quite because geographically, Canucks would still have to go Central divisions so that is why I would be in favor of having 4 conference format with 2 divisions each.   

 

3.

43 minutes ago, AriGold2.0 said:

You try telling the bottom ten 10 teams owners that those miles are gonna increase heavily.

You know, I have done research that the Canucks would be able to go only 39,000 miles, just under 40,000 miles a few years ago, that not including Seattle.  If you want to know destination of each city.  Trip #1, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, then go home.  Trip #2. Washington, Philadelphia, NJ, NYR, NYI, Bos, Mon, Ottawa then go home.  Trip #2 is not difficult because cities are so close and is not taxing on the body and you get to stay in one city for one week so imagine this, 2 games then 3 games then 3 games.  Not that difficult of the trip shortest amount of the time on the plane possible but very long, it would take 3 weeks of the trip.  I am willing to have one long trip only if it's in this route.  If Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, forget it, it's out of the way despite in the same state.  Trip #3, Dallas, Nashville, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Dallas (2). If they keep 3 conference games on a rotational basis.  If not, start in Nashville then end at Dallas.  Trip #4, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Winnipeg.  You would end up with 2 or 3 quick road games trips to the divisional games in the southwest of the U.S and Colorado.   This research did not include Seattle.    If you go out of order, they would go above 40,000 easily.   One extra trip to the east if you cut down 8 games into 4 games each would easily go 45,000 miles.  I would rather them go through 39,000 miles which would better than Boston on the chart on my calculation.  10,000 miles difference would equal to 20 extra hours in the plane than other teams in the eastern conference which is a big difference on term of recovery.  You recover quickly on the ground than in the air.  

 

No more two quick games like Chicago/Winnipeg last week, it easily went up to 47,000 as shown on the chart.  You can see that it affects them this week for home games after a long road trips from late October with short time at home.  

Edited November 16 by coolboarder

[coolboarder 674]

1 hour ago, Hindustan Smyl said:

Baseball style series, in that, they wouldn’t play the 2-3 games all back-to-back.  They would get a rest in between days (like in a regular NHL playoffs).   
 

Perhaps to compensate for this, there could be larger day breaks between series’?  (I.e.  after a “series” is completed against a team, you could more days in a row off than teams currently get).    Basically - under this new system, teams would work harder but rest harder.

 

If you combine the above with reasonable geographical proximity within road trips, then perhaps the schedule could be even easier (for instance, a team playing 3 games over 6 days against the LA kings in LA......having a 3-4 day break afterwards, and then doing 3 games in 6 nights against the Anaheim Ducks in Anaheim).   
 

If the NHL planned it right, perhaps a system like this could be even easier than the current one.

You know, you can go on a long trip, 8 games, if you follow this formula.  No back to back games on the road for more than 3 games.   If it's 5 to 8 games, I would suggest a following formulas: For every 3rd games on the road, a mandatory 2 days off for the 4th games on the road.  The same for 6th game, then get 2 extra days off for 7th games on the road.    This will give the Canucks some breather and practice time to go with it.  This formula will take 2 1/2 weeks to complete if it's 7 games or 8 games.   

 

Another suggestion: if the NHL is able to buy its own building where players can sleep just like a hotel to go along with amenities, say in NYC or Florida or LA, some strategical locations around the league where teams would be able to stay in same city for one week and is able to play games and it would feel like a home and players can buy its own mattress and store them in the storage for use next season.   Teams would be able to use its players headquarter building for one week and to give Western teams a chance to rest and recover and be able to have a longer road trips for 8 games to shave off air miles by estimate 5,000 round trips.    If you are able to use Florida as a part of long trip, you would allow teams to stay in Florida for 3-4 days in same building to carry on the long trip games between Florida and Tampa Bay.   It's a home away from home.  

[Bertuzzi44ever 348]

2 hours ago, Hindustan Smyl said:

You make great points, but I think the newfound parity has more to do with the OT loser point than it does with the Time Zone divisional alignments.  
 

At the end of the day though, I suspect that there’s a significant advantage in being a part of the Metropolitan division than it would be in being a part of the Pacific Division.  Road trips  to the West aside, those “road trips” that Metro teams have to go on are pretty much next door.   That $&!# has to add up over time.

Yeah I can see your point too I shouldn’t of been as cut and dry. I guess that’s just my initial response when people play the victim card. We are who we are and we’re in the league or we’re not. I know your not playing the victim card and just trying to make it better but I’m tired of reading that the refs are out to get us or the reason we suck is our injuries I’m just tired of John Garrett making excuses I’m tired of reading about it. I want everyone to man up and get better at it so I just have a no tolerance BS with that crap.lol

 

you weren’t being too bad at all

 

cheers

Edited November 16 by Bertuzzi44ever

[BrockBoester 1,545]