Pro Hockey Realignment Proposal Means New Rivalries

The drum beats began anew last Saturday with a series of tweets by Hockey Night In Canada analyst Elliotte Friedman in which he revealed the latest proposal for National Hockey League realignment. It’s not confirmed at this point — the plan needs ratification by the owners and players — but this could be what the league looks like as early as next season.

Conference 1: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, N.Y. Islanders, N.Y. Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington.

Conference 2: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto.

Conference 3: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg.

Conference 4: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver.

For those who were counting, the two Eastern conferences each have eight teams while the Western conferences have seven. That imbalance is probably the biggest flaw in the plan, because playoff seedings need to be addressed: that can be done with a crossover spot as in the Canadian Football League (not an ideal solution) or perhaps a wild-card playoff in the West (more preferable).

Still, few seem bothered by the issue: Tampa and Florida travel would go up, and the conferences they compete in would be stronger, while Chicago would lose a natural rivalry with Detroit. But the Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets should love the move to the East, with far less travel and more convenience for their fans too.

“It’d be unbelievable … the travel takes years off of all our lives,” Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard said in an interview posted in USA Today. “We know how to deal with it, we’ve traveled back-and-forth across the United States quite a bit, but to move to the East, I think that would be a lot of fun. That would be great for our fans, too, not having to stay up till all hours of the night to watch us.”

Winnipeg has to be overjoyed; the Jets would shift into a conference where every team but one (Colorado) is in the Central time zone. Other benefits include reduced travel and the ability to build more natural geographical-based rivalries, especially with the Minnesota Wild who are an eight-hour drive from the ‘Peg.

SB Nation’s Steve Lepore thinks this will also be great for television. NBC Sports Network’s “Wednesday Night Rivalry” broadcasts brought in more than 900,000 viewers for the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh game last week, and this would create even more contests that fans would want to see. North of the border, this sounds like a good deal for CBC, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.

This issue might have to be revisited in the next couple of years if new — or relocated — teams in Quebec, southern Ontario and Seattle become a reality. For now, though, it appears to be a plan which makes sense for almost everybody.