Comments on: It's Time To Realign and Bring Back the Heat Among Hated Rivals

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:47:45 +0000

With the Original 6 division, you couldn’t have the true Patrick Division back. The most heated rivalry in hockey has to be Rangers Islanders. Then you also lose Rangers vs. Devils, and Rangers vs. Flyers. I do feel bad for Caps fans being stuck in a division with teams that no one even cares about.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:57:29 +0000

While I really like the idea, I believe the more progressive, and realistic realignments, will be the ones which minimize travel. With fuel expenses doing nothing but going up, I think the Caps playing Phil/NJ/NY/Boston will mean more trips by train or bus. The airlines tickets are already nearly doubled over last year.
Think about it — but I’ll bet the “energy savings schedules” will be the winners.

By: pepper

pepper — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:48:56 +0000

This is fun.
As much as I’d like to bury all of the southeastern teams into their own hole of a division, I think the league needs an “anchor” of a team that’s more established in each division. In your “Norris,” maybe Carolina’s Cup win makes them so, as the Caps were in some sense the anchor, the team with the longer history, for the Southeast as it exists today.
I would also favor the 8 team / 4 division approach, with all of the old Patrick teams plus Carolina and TB (seeing them as the most solid Southeast teams other than the Caps) – I think Vogs offered a plan like this sometime a year ago.
Then I would push for intra-division playoff matchups in rounds 1 and 2 – #1 vs. 4 and 2 vs 3. That’s what I really miss, especially after enjoying the Flyers series this season. Its a tired cliche but true – its the playoffs that build rivalries, not times played vs. each other in the regular season.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:22:34 +0000

Bring back the Norris Division (1974-1979), where the Capitals finished as many as 95 points behind the Canadiens and finished in last place except the two seasons when Detroit (!) took that honor. Montreal, LA, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Washington — how random.

By: JR

JR — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:18:29 +0000

More importantly, can we get rid of this asinine overtime loss point? And how about 10 minutes of 4-on-4 for OT? Could two NHL teams possibly play 10 minutes of 4-on-4 and not score?

By: pucksandbooks

pucksandbooks — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:15:02 +0000

freakin: right you are! Back in the day, the Caps kept company in the Norris division with Pittsburgh, Montreal, Detroit, and LOS ANGELES. So these folks today who’d have you believe it’s an unconscionable consideration to require the vaunted Senators travel out West aren’t fluent with league history. At the end of the day — especially because of expansion — somebody’s Ox has to get gored. Ours did 10 years ago. Time to spread the misery, and I say target one or two small market, non-Cup holders.

By: freakinandpeakin

freakinandpeakin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:01:46 +0000

“Fash13 wrote:
If I?¢‚Ç¨‚Ñ¢m not mistaken, DC is EAST of Ottawa, right.”
Ottawa has a longitude of 75 degrees 43′ West
Washington is at 77 degrees 02′ West.
Washington is slightly west of Ottawa. Maybe we should go back to the western conference and re-join LA in a division!

By: katzistan

katzistan — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:00:16 +0000

Sure, works out great for the Caps, but not so much for Buffalo and Ottawa, who are removed from all their natural rivals. The fact that they don’t have “clout” doesn’t seem to be a good reason to screw them and their fans over. Love the original 6 division, but fact is that those teams all have developed other rivalries (such as Boston-Buffalo and Rangers-Devils) over the last 40 years, so it’s probably best to keep them spread out.
I think going back to 4 divisions instead of 6 makes a lot of sense. Not sure how you’d divide up the schedule though.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:31:31 +0000

Instead of Las Vegas and Houston. Quebec and Baltimore. (you want heated rivalries? put Baltimore and Washington in the same division) And Quebec definatley deserves a team after the nordiques moved to colorado.

By: pucksandbooks

pucksandbooks — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:18:59 +0000

Mark, there was no single overriding reason for my realignment but rather 5 or 6 pretty compelling ones, I thought I conveyed. But the fact that you have, in all likelihood, Sid and Alex locked up in their present organizations for their careers is not a trivial consideration. Instead I really am enamored with the idea of an O6 division — I can’t think of a single reason for any serious hockey fan not to support it. It opens so many remarkable marketing opportunities, particularly in terms of involving all-time greats for those franchises. I could even see the Rangers taking trains to play Boston, that kind of thing.