Four's Company

On Monday, the National Hockey League announced conference realignment for the 2012-2013 season; the league moves to four conferences (to be named later) of either seven or eight teams each.  In so doing, they followed a fairly predictable pattern, albeit with a few surprises.

Back in October, I endorsed John Shannon's plan for a three-conference NHL alignment, but this four-conference plan is a fine solution.  Several of my wishes (and those of many other hockey fans) were fulfilled in Monday's announcement:

1. Every NHL team will play in every opposition building at least once during the season.
2. Almost every team will have some sacrifices of travel, not merely those in the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones.
3. It should also result (properly) in the retirement of the Prince of Wales and Clarence Campbell trophies.  When boys and girls play hockey, they never dream of winning either of those trophies.  They dream of winning the Stanley Cup.

I *do* hope some flavor of wild-card system is implemented for the playoffs to ensure that Team 1 in one conference with more points than Team 2 in another conference does not miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs, just because four teams from Team 1's conference have already qualified for the playoffs.

Also, the NHL absolutely needs to avoid the idiotic mistake the Big Ten Conference made in giving their two divisions non-geographic names like "Leaders Division" and "Legacy Division," or whatever the name actually is.  This is just confusing and nonsensical for people who aren't yet familiar with the league.  The conference names should be obvious:  Western, Central, Eastern, and Atlantic.  Simple and accurate.

And now, a look at the Fab Four...

Tor's map of the 2012 National Hockey League conference alignment

CONFERENCE A
(The NHL should name this the Western Conference.)

No surprises exist with this group.  The nice part here is that my beloved Colorado Avalanche will now only have to cross one time zone for conference play, not two.

CONFERENCE B
(The NHL should name this the Central Conference.)

The Minnesota Wild will now be grouped with other teams in the Central and Eastern Time Zones, and also have renewed regional rivalries with Chicago, Saint Louis, and Detroit.  The Wild also have new rivalries with the Dallas Stars and the "new" Winnipeg Jets, but they lose several games against my beloved Colorado Avalanche.

The Detroit Red Wings did not get everything they wanted in the alignment, but at least their conference opponents are in the Central Time Zone, not the Mountain and Pacific zones.

The only real problems are for the Winnipeg Jets; they will be the only Canadian team in the conference, forcing them to spend more time going through United States Customs.  They also will not see western Canada's other teams as often, but the result for their fans will be more early game broadcasts, rather than late broadcasts.

CONFERENCE C
(The NHL should name this the Eastern Conference.)

Frankly, I am surprised that the NHL made this conference a seven-team group by leaving Columbus in Conference B.  Probably this was done in order to maintain some geographic continuity with Detroit and Nashville.  If the Blue Jackets franchise eventually transfers to Québec City, they will become a Conference C city and leave Conference B with seven teams.

The other interesting move was to put both Florida teams in Conference C with Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa, Boston, and Buffalo.  Geographically, it *does* force those teams to fly to Florida more often, so the travel burden around the NHL is distributed a little more equally.

CONFERENCE D
(The NHL should name this the Atlantic Conference.)

The realignment puts the Pittsburgh Penguins in the same conference as their cross-state rivals in Philadelphia, along with Carolina, Washington, and the three New York City metropolitan-area teams.  These seven teams will have the easiest travel burden in the entire league.

However, these seven teams still have their own occupational hazard:  The cruddy ice surface at "Madison Circular Garden" in New York City.  (H/T to T.A. behind the Orange Curtain.)