Thread: any thoughts on realignment

I don't give a **** about who is in what division or conference. All I want is every team to come to LA at least once every season

Pacific Division
Anaheim
Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose
Vancouver


Mid-West Division
Chicago
Dallas
Detroit
Minnesota
Nashville
St. Louis
Winnipeg


Northeast Division
Boston
Buffalo
Montreal
New Jersey
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Ottawa
Toronto


Atlantic Division
Carolina
Columbus
Florida
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington
Tampa Bay

Or swap Detroit and Columbus.

Yeah, I can't believe they are considering having uneven conferences. You want every team to have an equal chance of getting into the playoffs. I think Columbus or Nashville goes to the East and Winnipeg comes to the Western Conference. To me, it would be weird to have Chicago and Detroit in different divisions, let alone conferences. Every team should play all teams in the opposite conference twice a year (home/ road) like it used to be. I am ok with 3 divisions in each conference. I do think they need to bring back the old division and conference names because it's one more thing that makes hockey unique. The playoff format is working fine as it is right now. "Wild card" just sounds cheesy.

The NHL should not expand/move into Seattle/Portland.
For some odd reason (I only lived there as an adult, so not sure why) there is little to no hockey culture there.
If a team ends up in Portland or Seattle the NHL better start planning where they will go after that because they will last shorter than the Coyotes in Phoenix.

One thing this seems to show is that the NHL, should it go ahead and expand, will likely do so in the West, putting Kansas City, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas on notice.

Yes, I know the first reAction is "WTF? Las Vegas? But the league has made noise about putting a team there before and there has to be a reason other than the Strip that they do the awards show there.