Really guys...the outrage here is beyond silly. Most of you guys are certainly younger than me (my first game at MSG was in 1961) and young minds are supposed to deal with change better than older minds. Change is life: nothing stays the same (or should it). It's only a label. No matter what any of us would suggest that seems logical to us, a hundred others would shoot it down as ridiculous. There wasn't a name that would make everyone happy and fit the parameters of each division. I've certainly tried to think of one and couldn't. The idea of coming up with a name first and than fitting teams into that name is putting the cart before the horse for sure.
Metropolitan certainly sounds strange and will take some getting used to. It is far from perfect but soon will be the new normal. Certainly many of you who are complaining now will, at some point in the future when things are changed again, be the first to defend the Metropolitan name as being fine, time-tested, and "traditional."
The realignment isn't perfect, but again, no system would make everyone happy. It is a compromise based on travel expenses more than anything with the big problem being the two Florida teams, out of place in whatever system was used, and the need to move Detroit into the East, where it belongs because of its time zone placement. I'm certainly happy with the teams that make up the Metropolitan Division and looking forward to games with Columbus. Its a great move for the Jackets and will help, finally, establish them was a legit franchise.
Lighten up guys with the venom and vitriol over a name. Maybe its the heat. We'll all get used to it. Many of you sound as if you're 65 (my age) rather than in your teens or twenties. You sound as if, if you were around in 1967, would have been against expansion and would have wanted to keep the Original Six around forever.
As for the schedule: the NHL seems to swing back and forth between two poles. Schedules are set up so as all teams play every other team each year so as fans in each city can see stars on other teams. After a few years of that, fans get turned off by too many boring, mid-season games against teams they never see and are turned off by the lack of emotion in the games (no history between the teams). Fans start clamoring for more emotion-packed, rivalry games against division opponents. The schedule is changed so as to have more division games. That lasts a few years before fans start wanting to see the stars on other teams and the pendulum swings again. Personally, I like more games against division rivals. I grew up with the Original Six where the Rangers played each of the other teams 14 times a year and each game was against a traditional rival. I grew up in an era where the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers played each other 22 times a year.
But, we are in an era now where we will play everyone. So be it. I can live with it. I can live with new division names (I've certainly seen many over the years).
On July 21 the only thing that really matters to me, is thinking about hearing Sam Rosen saying "This is New York Rangers Hockey" and the season starting. The name of our division is trivial. Lighten up. The NHL leadership team certainly is not the swiftest car in the race and have made many decisions that leave you shaking your head. But the name of a division is not a big deal. Metropolitan? Fine. Whatever.Let's play hockey.
