Realignment: An NHL Tradition

Did you have mixed emotions when the NHL announced it’s new realignment? Do you think it’s weird the Florida teams basically got thrown into the Northeast Division? Are you confused by divisions being called conferences? It’s okay, everyone is a little confused by the division/conference dilemma/conundrum, but rest assured anything else you feel is perfectly normal (historically speaking) for a fan of the National Hockey League.

A quick look through the record books would show that since the days of the Original Six, the NHL has almost constantly toyed with its lineup of teams. In fact, this current season ended the longest stretch since 1967 without any expansion, relocation or realignment. As Kurt Angle would say, “It’s true… It’s true.” The last expansion teams were the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000. Eleven years later, the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and blissfully disturbed the status quo. Previously, the longest stretch was nine years from 1982 to 1991, which book-ended the Colorado Rockies heading to New Jersey and the Sharks washing ashore in San Jose. Between those two periods of stability, many franchises played both geographical and divisional musical chairs for the better part of the 90’s.

Any real hockey fan in their late twenties and older has fond memories of the Campbell and Prince of Wales conferences and longs for the days when teams weren’t clinically cut into puzzle pieces on a map. How can one possibly grow attached to division names inspired by a compass? But even the familiar names of Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe were not always what we remember them as. For instance, imagine a Norris division of Montreal, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Washington… playing in the Prince of Wales conference… before the Norris and Patrick divisions swapped conferences in 1981. I assure you, someone just read that and couldn’t decide between looking it up on Wikipedia or getting a Kleenex to stop his brain from bleeding out his nose.

Here's a quick reminder on what we're in for next season...

Conference A: ANAHEIM, CALGARY, COLORADO, EDMONTON, LOS ANGELES, PHOENIX, SAN JOSE, VANCOUVER

Conference B: CHICAGO, COLUMBUS, DALLAS, DETROIT, MINNESOTA, NASHVILLE, ST LOUIS, WINNIPEG

Conference C: BOSTON, BUFFALO, FLORIDA, MONTREAL, OTTAWA, TAMPA BAY, TORONTO

Conference D: CAROLINA, NEW JERSEY, NY ISLANDERS, NY RANGERS, PHILADELPHIA, PITTSBURGH, WASHINGTON

Upon further inspection, the new four conference system is actually a little bit of genius. It creates some new and really exciting possibilities, not the least of which is the rumoured and most logical playoff structure given the schematic they’ve put in place. It would finally do what none of the other big four sports have figured out: Have almost any two teams face off in the championship final. Once every conference has a champion, they would re-seed the four teams and the two left standing would play for the Stanley Cup. Montreal-Philadelphia? Vancouver-Chicago? Winnipeg-Phoenix? When it comes to the Cup, anything can happen now. To me, that’s the real beauty of the NHL’s future structure.

It’s also comically easy to play with the groupings should relocation or expansion occur, since the four conferences are essentially independent from one another. There is no East or West umbrella covering the divisions, which explains why they are no longer referred to as “divisions”. Someone moved to Quebec? Cool, take your rightful spot in sorta Northeast! Expansion in Kansas City? No problem, do you want to be rivals with St. Louis or Colorado, we can make some room by moving Columbus!

Of course, the conferences are currently named A, B, C and D. Barring an unprecedented surge in the alphabet’s popularity, they will be renamed before the start of the 2012-2013 season. The only question is whether or not they will stick with the bland geographical titles or pay tribute to more former greats. Public opinion clearly favours the latter and I count myself among the public. If I were the NHL, I’d hold an online voting campaign to name the new conferences, much like the All Star vote. And also like the All Star vote, I’d disregard any actual votes and rig it in the league’s best interests. It’s pretty simple really. Gretzky, Howe, Orr and Lemieux. Even the players themselves represent a team (or two) in each conference. Done and done.

The big gripe I've heard about this realignment is that it's gonna get boring playing the same teams all the time. Well, that's already the case. No one is going to be playing in their conference any more than they're already playing in their division. However, it greatly narrows the possible playoff opponents. The reality is, that although there is never a perfect system, the NHL has never been afraid of tinkering or revamping itself. While fate has never given us all the long awaited Montreal-Toronto matchup, the odds are much better that one day soon we'll be watching the Habs and Buds duking it out for the Bobby Orr Trophy while Bruins fans bemoan the sacrilege of it all. And that's something everyone can enjoy.