Well after months of speculation it’s finally here and that is a total realignment of the NHL.
Gone are the days of the traditional two conference system that seemed to run its course years ago.
However will the alignment bring enough change to satisfy the everyday NHL fan?
Or what about the fans and organization for that matter of the Detroit Red Wings?
They didn’t get their original wish which was an outright move to the Eastern Conference. But I’m pretty sure any observant Wings fan could see that coming a mile away.
There is though plenty to take in and look forward to regarding the new alignment that we will take a look at right now…
- The Wings will be in the following conference that will consist of Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg. Detroit gets to keep current divisional rivals in Chicago, Columbus, St. Louis and Nashville and add Minnesota, Winnipeg and Dallas to the mix.
- Detroit will play each of the fore mentioned teams in their conference five or six times and play the rest of the NHL once at home and once on the road. This means the Wings will get that yearly trip to Toronto, Pittsburgh, Montreal, New York and Boston.
- Once playoff time rolls around the top four teams will make the postseason. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be entirely within the division meaning no more late night playoff games in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
- Travel time, which has been a major concern of the Wings and their fans in the past, will be tremendously cut down. Instead of multiple trips to the West Coast and Western Canada, Detroit will only make one trip out west throughout the course of the season.
- The Wings will have a much more attractive home schedule with each original six team making their rounds to the Joe.
“I’m so happy. It’s a dream come true for the Detroit Red Wings,” club senior vice president Jimmy Devellano told MLive.com from the NHL’s Board of Governors meetings in Pebble Beach, Calif.
“For our fans, there will be far fewer games starting at 10:40 (p.m.), especially come playoff time. I like that for our fans and TV ratings.
“The second thing is our fans will get to see the (Toronto) Maple Leafs, Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh, the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. They’ll all visit on one occasion.”
Detroit GM Ken Holland also echoed his praise to Ansar Khan of Mlive.com…
“When this process started 6-8 months ago when Atlanta moved to Winnipeg and we knew there was going to be realignment, our thought was we wanted to be in the East,” Holland said. “As the process went along and the four conferences were proposed, we felt there was going to have to be a compromise position. Four conferences made a lot of teams happy.
“Our fans want to see all the teams in the league at home once. More of our road games start between 7:30 and 8:30. With the playoffs within the conferences for the first two rounds, there’s less travel. More road games in the playoffs will be in prime time.
“Our fans should be excited and happy about it.”
Now the Wings are in one of the two conferences that feature eight teams meaning that they will have an extra team to compete with for the playoffs during the season. However given the overall success of the Wings this shouldn’t be a problem.
Ref: Mlive.com, TSN.ca, TheFanHub.com (image)