NHLPA Rejects Realignment
| Conference A | Conference B | Conference C | Conference D |
| Anaheim | Chicago | Boston | Carolina |
| Calgary | Columbus | Buffalo | New Jersey |
| Colorado | Dallas | Florida | NY Islanders |
| Edmonton | Detroit | Montreal | NY Rangers |
| Los Angeles | Minnesota | Ottawa | Philadelphia |
| Phoenix | Nashville | Tampa | Pittsburgh |
| San Jose | St. Louis | Toronto | Washington |
| Vancouver | Winnipeg |
Like I said before, it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Leastern Conference".
Well we found out one interested party who isn't too keen on this format...the NHL Players' Association.
Make the jump for more info.
The NHL released a statement this evening saying that "it will not move forward with implementation of realignment ... because the NHLPA has refused to provide its consent. As a result ... the NHL will maintain its current alignment and playoff format for the 2012-13 season."That comes to us from the Detroit Free Press early this morning. So that schedule that was supposed to be more fan-friendly in terms of East/Midwest audiences and player friendly in terms of travel for our players...yeah, the NHLPA might be telling us to kiss it goodbye for at least one more year.
Kenny Holland is none to happy about this new turn of events...
"We'd be disappointed if it's on hold for a year. This is the first I've heard of it, but we'd be disappointed. We voted for realignment." --Ken Holland
The board of governors approved the new realignment by a vote of 26 for and 4 against back in December. But, as any professional sport can tell you, the players and the owners don't always see eye-to-eye.
All of the concerns I was hearing about from the players prospective were coming from Western Conference teams questioning the fairness of having two "conferences" that had one more team than that of the two Eastern "Conferences". Well, if you're looking for a majority vote, and you have 16 teams on the "getting shafted" side and 14 teams on the other side...then it would seem obvious that the motion isn't going to pass.
I suppose we should have seen this coming, with all of the grumbling about play-off percentages and such from the players.
I'm sure there will be a lot more said on both sides before this all said and done.
I certainly understand why the players wouldnt like it, however the divisions or whatever does not look all that bad. What I think the big issue is, is that the assigned teams, regular season play and travel, and all that is definatley hammered out. What is not well thought out are how the playoffs would be done. If that was worked out better then I would think that it would be easier to pass. The playoff system is just as important as everything else if not even more important. That would need to be hammered out in better detail than it is now before it would make sense.
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scraping the whole division/conference idea and seeding the playoffs based on overall standings would be the only "fair" way to do it, unless they add two more teams to the east someone will be upset.
I bet Winnipeg is pissed that they have to stay in the East another year, that travel has to be brutal, especially since they are in the south east
BOO-urns, I was really looking forward to the re-alignment next year (though I will admit the uneven conferences solution was a bit kludgy. I wonder if this means the Jets are going to be staying in the southeast division for another year? I think a swap with the Red Wings until all this stuff is settled would be good, the Jets get reduced travel time and we get to pound on the southeast division.
On a side note, does anyone have an issue with points showing up properly? Mine always shows 0, though if I look at my profile it shows 16 and I thought I had more than that.
