NHL Shuffle

[Gentle-man]

New conferences announced


Under the format, every team would play every other team outside its conference twice -- once home, once away. Every team would also play every other team in its conference either five or six times. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be played within the conferences and the four conference winners will advance to play off for the Stanley Cup.

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
N.Y. Islanders
N.Y. Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

your thoughts?

 

[chuckanut]

i'm a fan that loves watching the nucks game in cali, so i'm all for it. it's a tougher road for sure, but the cutting down on the travel during the playoffs will def be a plus.

-chuck
**retired**

 

[bcneil]

There is good and bad to it.
Before even looking at which conferences would have 7 or 8 teams, I predicted both westerns would be the 8s.
Western teams will have a .500 chance to me the playoffs, the eastern teams .571
Over the next 20-40 years this adds up to several extra appearances for each eastern team.
A weak conference will be guaranteed in the final 4.

 

[donovan12345]

There is good and bad to it.
Before even looking at which conferences would have 7 or 8 teams, I predicted both westerns would be the 8s.
Western teams will have a .500 chance to me the playoffs, the eastern teams .571
Over the next 20-40 years this adds up to several extra appearances for each eastern team.
A weak conference will be guaranteed in the final 4.

Phoenix will probably be in the east next year disguised as a Nordique.

 

[brown25]

Vancouver would be top of its Conference if this were in place today.

 

[Gentle-man]

Think I would prefer to see a mix of conferences come playoffs top from each conference are 1&2 in east/west, 2nd from each conference are automatically in, next 4 best records from the 2 conferences round out the bracket, lets the stronger conference send more teams...

 

[Devils_Advocate]

What a burn for Winnipeg as they don't have a single Canadian team in their conference and will spend most of their time in the US south east.

Guess Bettman's plan is to have the NHL leave Winnipeg again.