if distance is the reason for the realignment, it is a valid arguement. make more sense to put the 3 teams from Canada, Buffalo, Boston, and 2 other teams from the northeast in one division, and the central atlantic teams to be in the same division as the south florida teams. bet anything Crosbytch bytched about it and had them change it
yes, he got his by one of his teammates (4th liner), both went down hard. Crosby hopped to the bench with what appeared to be a leg injury, but was back on the ice a couple minutes later
This is official now. It's been approved (written from a Red Wings blog so that's why Detroit's mentioned so much):
These are the proposed conferences that leaked this past weekend and will indeed be the way the league is now formatted. Every team will play a home-and-home with the rest of the league and the remaining games will occur within the division. The current Central Division will be kept intact, but Dallas, Winnipeg, and Minnesota will be added. This will help alleviate the travel for the Stars and WIld and give the Jets a new home away from the sunshine of Florida and Carolina.
For the playoffs, the top four teams in each conference will qualify and face off against each other. For example, let's take the top four teams listed in the Wings' conference. You would have #1 vs #4 and #2 vs #3. So we'd see Detroit vs Minnesota and Chicago vs St. Louis. The two winning teams would then face off and decide the conference champion.
The conference champions will be re-seeded based on regular season records. So we could see Detroit vs Montreal and San Jose vs Pittsburgh and eventually a Detroit vs San Jose Stanley Cup Final. Essentially, Detroit could play any team for the Cup except those in it's own conference.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The NHL's Board of Governors on Monday approved a radical realignment plan, eliminating the current two-conference, six-division setup in favor of a configuration that features four conferences based primarily on geography. Two conferences will have eight teams and the other two conferences will have seven teams.
The Board authorized Commissioner Gary Bettman to implement this proposal in Monday evening's vote, pending input from the National Hockey League Players' Association.
The vote, which required a two-thirds majority of the League's 30 governors, passed on the first of two days of meetings here at The Inn at Spanish Bay. The League's new structure will go into effect starting next season.
The makeup of the yet-to-be-named four conferences is as follows:
* New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina
* Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, Florida and Tampa Bay
* Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg
* Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado
The four conferences are designed to alleviate geographic concerns among several current Western Conference teams that had been unhappy about their extensive travel through one, two, and sometimes even three time zones. Some of those teams argued that the late start of road games in the Pacific time zone were affecting fan interest, especially among younger fans.
The new alignment also enables the NHL to create a balanced schedule in which all teams will play each other at least twice every season, once at home and once on the road, giving fans a chance to see every team and superstar in the League. The remaining games will be played within the conferences.
In the seven-team conferences, teams would play six times -- three home, three away. In the eight-team Conferences, teams would play either five or six times in a season on a rotating basis; three teams would play each other six times and four teams would play each other five times. This process would reverse each season: An eight-team Conference member that plays an opponent six times in one season would play it five times the following season.
The top four teams in each Conference qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first-place team would play the fourth-place team; the second-place team would play the third-place team. The four respective Conference champions would meet in the third round of the Playoffs, with the survivors playing for the Stanley Cup.
i may hate the redwings, but i hate the Penguins more. Always good to have a win against them and hold their "superstar (bytch!)" scoreless. My hatred for the Pens goes back to Ulfie ending Neely's career. I will never like or respect that team ever....
My hatred for the wings is more of a nuisance thing that goes back to when i was behind the Avs in the 90's. only time i ever routed for the wings in the playoffs was to beat the Pens in the finals a couple years ago...
after reading on the new allignent, i digg it. i like that we play each team twice a years, get to see different teams, ect.... i dont mind it, kinda digg it. the only thing that sucks is having washington and pitt in our conference. fuck all that noise.
maybe next they will get rid of hockey sticks and pucks...
My hatred for the wings is more of a nuisance thing that goes back to when i was behind the Avs in the 90's. only time i ever routed for the wings in the playoffs was to beat the Pens in the finals a couple years ago...
lolwut? avs were fucking bitches, they had one of the biggest bitches in hockey history. claude the turtle lemieux
Wow the Playoff system is the biggest thing here. I didn't catch that the first time. It doesn't matter whatsoever what the other division does now, the only thing that matters is your own division. Weird.
wish the nhl wasn't so gay as it is right now. let the guys fight if they want to, stop fucking stepping in. it's so depressing to grow up with fighting in hockey to this crap.
Maybe this is a reason why.....
NEW YORK -- Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain ailment related to Alzheimer's disease that is caused by repeated blows to the head, the New York Times reported.
The 28-year-old Boogaard, who died in May of an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone, was found to have had CTE -- which can be diagnosed only after the death of the patient, according to the third story of an extensive three-part series on Boogaard posted on the newspaper's website Monday night.
Dr. Ann McKee, one of four co-directors of Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and the director of the center's brain bank, saw signature brown spots near the outer surface of Boogaard's brain, which are revealing signs of CTE.
Such damage in someone as young as Boogaard was surprising. Symptoms of the condition include memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings, and addiction.
"To see this amount? That's a 'wow' moment," McKee said of the damage to Boogaard's brain tissue. "This is all going bad."
The disease was more advanced in Boogaard than it was in famed enforcer Bob Probert, who died of heart failure in 2010 at 45. He played 16 seasons in the NHL and often struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.
Reggie Fleming, who was 73, and 59-year-old Rick Martin, were other hockey players who were found to have CTE.
CTE has also been found by researchers in the brains of numerous deceased former NFL players, including Dave Duerson, Chris Henry, Mike Webster, Cookie Gilchrist and Andre Waters.
Comments
These are the proposed conferences that leaked this past weekend and will indeed be the way the league is now formatted. Every team will play a home-and-home with the rest of the league and the remaining games will occur within the division. The current Central Division will be kept intact, but Dallas, Winnipeg, and Minnesota will be added. This will help alleviate the travel for the Stars and WIld and give the Jets a new home away from the sunshine of Florida and Carolina.
For the playoffs, the top four teams in each conference will qualify and face off against each other. For example, let's take the top four teams listed in the Wings' conference. You would have #1 vs #4 and #2 vs #3. So we'd see Detroit vs Minnesota and Chicago vs St. Louis. The two winning teams would then face off and decide the conference champion.
The conference champions will be re-seeded based on regular season records. So we could see Detroit vs Montreal and San Jose vs Pittsburgh and eventually a Detroit vs San Jose Stanley Cup Final. Essentially, Detroit could play any team for the Cup except those in it's own conference.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The NHL's Board of Governors on Monday approved a radical realignment plan, eliminating the current two-conference, six-division setup in favor of a configuration that features four conferences based primarily on geography. Two conferences will have eight teams and the other two conferences will have seven teams.
The Board authorized Commissioner Gary Bettman to implement this proposal in Monday evening's vote, pending input from the National Hockey League Players' Association.
The vote, which required a two-thirds majority of the League's 30 governors, passed on the first of two days of meetings here at The Inn at Spanish Bay. The League's new structure will go into effect starting next season.
The makeup of the yet-to-be-named four conferences is as follows:
* New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina
* Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, Florida and Tampa Bay
* Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg
* Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado
The four conferences are designed to alleviate geographic concerns among several current Western Conference teams that had been unhappy about their extensive travel through one, two, and sometimes even three time zones. Some of those teams argued that the late start of road games in the Pacific time zone were affecting fan interest, especially among younger fans.
The new alignment also enables the NHL to create a balanced schedule in which all teams will play each other at least twice every season, once at home and once on the road, giving fans a chance to see every team and superstar in the League. The remaining games will be played within the conferences.
In the seven-team conferences, teams would play six times -- three home, three away. In the eight-team Conferences, teams would play either five or six times in a season on a rotating basis; three teams would play each other six times and four teams would play each other five times. This process would reverse each season: An eight-team Conference member that plays an opponent six times in one season would play it five times the following season.
The top four teams in each Conference qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first-place team would play the fourth-place team; the second-place team would play the third-place team. The four respective Conference champions would meet in the third round of the Playoffs, with the survivors playing for the Stanley Cup.
My hatred for the wings is more of a nuisance thing that goes back to when i was behind the Avs in the 90's. only time i ever routed for the wings in the playoffs was to beat the Pens in the finals a couple years ago...
NEW YORK -- Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain ailment related to Alzheimer's disease that is caused by repeated blows to the head, the New York Times reported.
The 28-year-old Boogaard, who died in May of an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone, was found to have had CTE -- which can be diagnosed only after the death of the patient, according to the third story of an extensive three-part series on Boogaard posted on the newspaper's website Monday night.
Dr. Ann McKee, one of four co-directors of Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and the director of the center's brain bank, saw signature brown spots near the outer surface of Boogaard's brain, which are revealing signs of CTE.
Such damage in someone as young as Boogaard was surprising. Symptoms of the condition include memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings, and addiction.
"To see this amount? That's a 'wow' moment," McKee said of the damage to Boogaard's brain tissue. "This is all going bad."
The disease was more advanced in Boogaard than it was in famed enforcer Bob Probert, who died of heart failure in 2010 at 45. He played 16 seasons in the NHL and often struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.
Reggie Fleming, who was 73, and 59-year-old Rick Martin, were other hockey players who were found to have CTE.
CTE has also been found by researchers in the brains of numerous deceased former NFL players, including Dave Duerson, Chris Henry, Mike Webster, Cookie Gilchrist and Andre Waters.