The New NHL Conferences

The NHL Board of Governors approved a radical new alignment for the teams next season. With Atlanta moving to Winnipeg last summer, it was clear they could not stay in the Southeast division and that changes were needed. In their annual meetings this week, the Governors were expected to review up to 4 different arrangements but after only 1 night, they approved the new alignment with a vote of 26 in favour to 4. In this post, I will talk show you the new 4 conferences and give my thoughts on the new system. The 4 conferences are:

Conference 1

Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche, LA Kings, Phoniex Coyotes, San Jose Sharks, Anahiem Ducks. 

This conference groups together all the teams that are farthest west. It keeps the 3 California teams together as well as the Oilers and Flames for more Alberta battles. The one disadvantage of this system is that many teams in this conference are trying to get equal attention from the eastern side, which will be more difficult when most of their games will be against each other. This conference fits in with the geography problems teams like Detroit and Columbus had; those teams won't have to do big road trips twice a year now. I like this conference, the teams are all competitive and it fits well geographically. 

Conference 2

Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Balckhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets

This conference also is able to keep rivalries intact with both Chicago and Detroit staying together as well as Dallas and Minnesota. There is also an interesting aspect with the Jets being the only Canadian team in the conference. This conference covers the Midwest very nicely for travel and also has many competitive teams to keep the hockey exciting.  

Conference 3

Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadians, Buffalo Sabers

This conference has an interesting set up which I'm not sure I like. It has the 5 most north eastern teams in the league mixed in with the 2 most southern. The Panthers and the Lightning don't fit well geographically in this conference and will be faced with plenty of travel time north thought the season. As far as competitiveness goes, this conference has a mix of rebuilding teams and contending teams which will either create some exciting games, or very off balance ones. Besides the hiccup that is the out of place 2 Florida teams, this division should still create some great matchups, especially between Tornoto and Ottawa or Montreal and Boston. 

Conference 4

NY Ranger, NY Islanders New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Fyers, Washington Capitals

This may just be the most competitive of the new conferences. Now Crosby and Ovechkin will be facing off a lot more which will only increase their rivalry, but with both New York teams and both Pennsylvania teams, there will be many fierce matches in this conference. Every team here has stars who can score and are ready to make a playoff push, so watching them battle every night will be a treat. Geographically, all of these teams are fairly close, though the 2 New York teams could have been saw have been swapped with the 2 Florida teams to improve the travel distances. But this conference is the best one for now and will provide some very exciting hockey. 

So as you can see, the new conferences keep most rivalries together, improve travel for all teams and should improve the game dramatically. Every team will play a home and home aith every other team which will take between 44-46 games out of the 82 game regular season. The remaining games will be played in conferences to increase rivalries. The playoff formats haven't been decided yet, but the first round will be played in the conferences. The top 4 teams in each conference will advance with them playing a 1 vs 4 and   2 vs 3 best of 7 series. What happens next will be decided by the NHL General Managers in March. Some people are complaining about 2 conferences having 8 teams and 2 having 7. But based on the division of the teams, this is the best way to go. 

Feel free to comment below this article with how you feel about the new system. As always I can be reached by email at josh@jbenny.com or on twitter via @jbenny15. Thanks for reading.