NHL Realignment

[huscoon]

Winnipeg will be in the Southeast Division for the 2011-12 NHL season. After that, who knows? Who knows which division the "Jets" will be in. Who knows who will jump to the Eastern Conference, if anybody. Who knows if the Coyotes will even stay in Phoenix. But, speculating the numerous possibilities is the fun part.

The most obvious solution is to

Comments

[huscoon]

The primary reasons are to encourage rivalries and reduce travel costs. With the NBA and NHL, they have conferences based on geography to do exactly that. In fact, back in 2005, the NHL was so worried about travel costs, they limited interconference play to only 10 games per season (they play 82 games a year). This resulted in teams playing intradivision rivals up to 8 times in one season.

With the NFL and MLB however, conferences (or in baseball's case, leagues) are more historic than anything. The NFL used to have a handful of teams, 14 before the Super Bowl era. In 1970, the NFL merged with the AFL, creating a two-conference league with a total of 26 teams. The NFL teams created the NFC, the AFL teams created the AFC.

With baseball, it was much the same with the National League, which fought off several upstart leagues in the late 1800s before the success of the American League resulted in a merger of sorts. The history of MLB is very, very fascinating, moreso than any others organization sport in the world. And if I tried to tell the story to you, well, I wouldn't get anything else done for the next week or two. :)

[vermillionfox]

Encourage rivalries? Then explain why Dallas vs Boston is but 1-2 times a year?

It's the rivalry that is there but doesn't get to be enjoyed. >:[

[huscoon]

Dallas-Boston? In which universe?

Plus, I also mentioned geography, because Dallas and Boston should never be in the same conference because of geography.