Something that every Red Wings fans has desired: a schedule plan that decreases the amount of insane west coast trips the team embarks on every season. Most importantly, we will be seeing a true balanced schedule that the NBA has where every team will play a home-and-home against every team in the National Hockey League.
The NHL’s Board of Governors are meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. to discuss realignment and other topics. We have covered this meeting a few times in recent weeks. While this isn’t a perfect plan that every team will love, it is a plan that had it’s benefits and drawbacks for every team. Still pending Gary Bettman’s approval, this format will go into effect next season.
Here are the proposed Yet-To-Be-Named Conferences:
West Coast teams : Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver Midwest teams: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, WinnipegMid-Atlantic teams: Carolina, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, WashingtonEast Coast teams: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto
Some of the highlights:
Four conferences instead of two. Two teams will have eight teams while the other two have seven. They are based on region and geography.Designed to alleviate travel concerns Western teams had where they crossed as many as three time zones. Teams such as Detroit and Columbus frequently had games in Los Angeles, San Jose and Vancouver starting as late as 10:30 p.m. Eastern. The Red Wings and Blue Jackets will venture to western Canada and the west coast twice a season versus four they currently have.The schedule will also force every team to make a trip to California, Arizona, and western Canada. Something some Eastern teams do one trip per city every-other-year.In the seven-team conferences, teams would play intra-conference six times (three and and three away).In the eight-team conferences, teams would play each other five or six times on a rotating basis. Three teams play each other six times and the other four will square off five times. If you play a team six times one season, they will play them five times the following season.Similar to the Pre-Bettman NHL, the first round will be intra-conference the first two rounds. With the division champion playing the fourth seed and the second seed hosting the third. The third round will consist of the conference champions with the two teams left playing for the Stanley Cup.UPDATE AT 11:45 p.m. From Bob McKenzie (View the Original article
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