07 January 2012

NHL Realignment Rejected

Hey look, a post about hockey.  It has not been a great season for the Flames (see last game against the Bruins), so I have not been writing about hockey much.  There is one thing in the news to distract us from that spanking.  The NHLPA has rejected the proposal to realign the league.

As I am writing this, I really have no clue as to why they rejected a plan that was basically approved by the NHL, the teams, and the players...mostly.  What I do know is the idea was a fairly good one...except for one part.

Currently, there are two Conferences (West and East) and within those two conferences there are three Divisions with five teams each.  (Pacific, Northwest, Central, Northeast, Southeast, and Atlantic) Pretty simple, it makes sense.

In the past, when there was fewer teams, there was two Conferences and within in them two divisions each.  It was great, back in the day. The names of the Conferences was named after the Conference trophy (Clarence Campbell and Prince of Wales) the teams play for before the Stanley Cup.  Where as the Divisions were named after historical figures in hockey (Smythe, Norris, Adams, Patrick).  When I first got into hockey, it took me a while to figure out Smythe, Norris, Adams, Patrick (or SNAP), and which teams were in each division. But it was unique to hockey.

So the proposal was to have two Conferences...makes sense here...with two Conferences each.  Wait, what?  Yeah, Conferences within Conferences.  How does that work?  How do you divide a Conference into Conferences?  It should be Divisions!  See how confusing this is?  This was the one problem I had with the proposal.  It just does not make any logical sense...at all.

You mean to tell me that 30 GMs around the league, a handful of board members, executives, and all those highly paid people came up with "Conferences within Conferences"?  There is no league, professional nor amateur that does that.  They have Conferences, Divisions...maybe a Regions.  Seriously?

I certainly hope that the one of the problems that the NHLPA has with the proposal is this. 

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