How do you feel about having the Flyers, Capitals, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Hurricanes and Panthers in our division next year? According to Elliotte Friedman on the HNIC hotstove this week, this is the realignment plan that has been gaining steam.
A quick breakdown of the proposed plan is that it will be a 4 division league with each conference having a 7 team and 8 team division. Each team plays a home and home game against other teams not in their division and then the rest of the games are against their own division. That’s a lot of inter-divisional games. There will also be a change to the playoff format as the first two rounds of playoffs would also be inter-divisional, followed by a East and West Conference finals in the third round and Stanley Cup in the fourth. The Western teams like the plan because it cuts down on travel but as you can see in some of the links below, some teams are very opposed to it.
So what do you think about this realignment plan?
Your links after the jump…:
Your Lightning links:
- We here at Raw Charge are participating in Movember. Please join the Raw Charge team or consider donating to our blogger overlord at Raw Charge’s page. Do it…
- Ryan Malone may not play tonight against the Hurricanes (Lightning Strikes)
- A positive story by the Globe and Mail on hockey in Florida? Aside from the opening jab, a pretty positive review of Lightning and Panthers hockey
- Stamkos’ leadership role and defensive detail is making him a more complete player, even better than last years version according to Boucher (Winnipeg Free Press)
- So the headline writer had fun with this one: “Lecavalier star that stirs the Lightning’s drink” (Montreal Gazette) which was more interesting than the headline in the National Post for the same article
- Steve Yzerman favors mandatory visors for players. Currently the NHLPA says that 70 percent of players wear them but only 59 percent of Lightning players do (St. Petersburg Times)
- Although we were excited about Brett Connolly staying with the Lightning, it’s going to hurt the already struggling Prince George Cougars (Buzzing the Net)
- A review Southeast division teams in the month of October (Hockey Independent)
Your links from around the NHL:
- Because the proposed change has the Flyers and Pens being split up into different divisions, they are joining forces to fight the proposed realignment (The Times Herald)
- And here is the Pensblog’s take on proposed realignment. “But unfortunately, it’s not the Penguins Hockey League. This realignment is all about geography and getting an increase in television ratings almost league-wide.”
- SBN Philly says that rivalries come and go, and the NHL needs to suffer through short term anger in realignment
- Joe Thornton calls the Rangers the ‘softest team we played on road trip’ (Puck Daddy)
- Is it time to start paying attention to the Oilers? As of last night they were 4th in the league and it’s pretty much due to their high draft picks that are now playing for them (NHL)
- Pierre Lebrun’s ESPN Weekend Notebook has some great insight from Jarret Stoll on his transition to wearing a visor
- Andrew Sykes from the Hockey Writers has a list of top 10 surprises in October
- The CBJ blog put together and epic 4 post series on the case for Columbus from other NHL bloggers. He covers the ownership, and the city and the fans and franchise viability
- Anaheim Calling has a challenge out to men to participate in their Movember contest
- This weeks’ edition of Pundays from The Royal Half: Otta Wow!
- Some teams have shovels or hats; the Chicago Blackhawks have a heavyweight belt they give out to the top player of the game. Awesome (via @ChrisKuc)
