Saturday Night Hockey - Realignment

Realignment

So the NHL and NHLPA finally agree to how to realign the league for (at least) the next two season. The NHLPA passed it with the caveat that it gets re-evaluated after the 2014-15 season. Realignment would make the league look like this:

Western Campbell Conference		Eastern Prince of Wales Conference
Pacific Smythe Division	Midwest Norris Division	Central Adams Division	Atlantic Patrick Division
Anaheim Ducks	Chicago Blackhawks	Boston Bruins	Carolina Hurricanes
Calgary Flames	Colorado Avalanche	Buffalo Sabres	Columbus Blue Jackets
Edmonton Oilers	Dallas Stars	Detroit Red Wings	New Jersey Devils
Los Angeles Kings	Minnesota Wild	Florida Panthers	New York Islanders
Phoenix Coyotes	Nashville Predators	Montreal Canadiens	New York Rangers
San Jose Sharks	St. Louis Blues	Ottawa Senators	Philadelphia Flyers
Vancouver Canucks	Winnipeg Jets	Tampa Bay Lightning	Pittsburgh Penguins
		Toronto Maple Leafs	Washington Capitals

(I might have made a few changes).

It does look good for the most part and, overall, should cut down on travel. Every team does the home-and-away trip with the rest of the league, with each team playing intraconference teams three times and intradivision teams four to five times.

What bugs me like last time this was proposed was the stupid idea of having all Northeast teams with Florida and Tampa Bay in the same division. I have a simple solution: move Columbus to the Central, Florida and Tampa Bay move to the Midwest, and Colorado moves to the Pacific to correct for the time zone change. This will also give the East more bias since teams there get the extra
7% (?) chance of making the playoffs.

The playoff format I kind of like. Having the top three in each division and two wildcard spots should correct for any kind of situation were a team from one division gets in despite having less points than a team that didn't qualify. The other (and kind of short-lived) idea of having a one-game playoff for the 4th and 5th team in a division seemed intriguing, but it would also make the regular season almost meaningless for most teams, since that would mean more teams (2/3 of the league - 20 teams - in this case) qualify for the playoffs. Keeping it at 16 with the wildcard spots is the better way to go.

RIP Stompin' Tom

Lineup Notables

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

Pittsburgh: No injuries for the Pens. Marc-Andre Fleury will start.
Toronto: Joffrey Lupul (arm) and Matt Frattin (knee) are out. James Reimer starts.

Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

Montreal: Rene Bourque (concussion), Petteri Nokelainen (back), and Raphael Diaz (concussion) are out while Yannick Weber (lower body) is questionable. Carey Price is in net.
Tampa Bay: Benoit Pouliot (shoulder), Mattias Ohlund (knee), and Mathieu Garon (lower body) are out. Anders Lindback starts tonight.

Calgary Flames vs. Los Angeles Kings

Calgary: Mikael Backlund (knee) and Paul Byron (hand) are out. Miikka Kiprusoff is expected to start.
Los Angeles: Matt Greene (back) and Willie Mitchell (knee) are out. Jonathan Quick will start.