My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

[Bomber]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

I love that Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, and Winnipeg are together.

That's all fine and good, but the Minnesota team should be the North Stars, the division should be called the Norris, and Detroit is missing.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

Unbalanced conferences are BS.

Agreed, at least in the abstract.

Thinking out loud: Is there any particular reason we need to have conferences in the NHL? Surely it can't be to preserve a role for a pair of trophies that no one's willing to touch! Assuming the first two rounds of the playoffs are going to be intra-division, you're basically talking about pairings for the third round. Why not just rotate those pairings? It could work like this:

Year 1
Metro vs. Central
Atlantic vs. Pacific

Year 2
Metro vs. Pacific
Atlantic vs. Central

Year 3
Metro vs. Atlantic
Central vs. Pacific

Doing it that way you'd only have a 16 team "conference" once every three years. Also, regardless of the playoff format, a somewhat regionalized schedule for the regular season could still be retained -- Metro gets extra regular season games with Atlantic, Central gets extra games with Pacific.

I'm still thinking this through; maybe there's a better option for reducing the imbalance. But at least from a CBJ perspective, the motivation for realignment was not having enough Eastern Time Zone match-ups during the regular season. As long as the regular season is properly structured, I gotta believe that if a team is fortunate enough to be one of the last four standing, a little extra travel in Round 3 wouldn't be a huge issue for them.

[jmh]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

If you think about it...Atlantic works better as a name with the teams in that division than it does with the current ones.

Truth. This realignment is crappy. Unbalanced conferences are BS.

[lugnut92]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

OK 30-sec break from vacation. Jaromir Jagr has agreed to one-year deal with Devils. Likely won't be officially announced until Tuesday...

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) July 22, 2013

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

After seeing how Justin Bieber treated the Black Hawk logo when he was in the Chicago locker room, the Bruins took appropriate measures before Bieber's concert at TD Garden last night.

*****https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BPukBf7CcAAMh8o.jpg:large******

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

That division is going to be brutal.

Will look like the Eastern Conference. All clutch & grab & trap.

Except for the one skilled team, of course.

[Jimjamesak]

I love that Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, and Winnipeg are together.

That division is going to be brutal.

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

I love that Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, and Winnipeg are together.

Me too although I don't care about Dallas. Can see why Minnesotans might though.

[JF_Gophers]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

I love that Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, and Winnipeg are together.

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

Thought you were kidding. Did they really name it that?

Actually, if they shorten it to Metro Division, as Fade said, it will be a decent name although Columbus, Carolina and Pittsburgh in a "Metro" division is laughable.

If you think about it...Atlantic works better as a name with the teams in that division than it does with the current ones.

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

Glen Metropolit only played for two teams in the Metropolitan Division.

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

Seriously? The Metropolitan Division? It's almost as bad the Legends and Leaders Divisions.

Thought you were kidding. Did they really name it that?

Actually, if they shorten it to Metro Division, as Fade said, it will be a decent name although Columbus, Carolina and Pittsburgh in a "Metro" division is laughable.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Seriously? The Metropolitan Division? It's almost as bad the Legends and Leaders Divisions.

"The whole arrangement looks great. But those other three divisions need to reconsider their names."

-Jim Delaney

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

Seriously? The Metropolitan Division? It's almost as bad the Legends and Leaders Divisions.

Should've just shortened it to the 'Metro Division'.

People need to face that we were never going to get the Patrick, Adams, Smythe, and Norris Divisions back.

If they're going with divisional playoffs for the first two rounds, then I don't like the wildcard thing. There's invariably going to be years where a better 4th place team in a tough division gets screwed by a mediocre 5th place team in a sh*tty division that got 12 pts. from shootout 'wins'.

[MountieBoyOz]

Re: My Stanley Cup Runneth Over

Seriously? The Metropolitan Division? It's almost as bad the Legends and Leaders Divisions.