HansH said:
So, which three move West to replace them, eh? Or are you saying the league needs to have 18 teams in the East and 12 in the West?
Where's your brilliant Conference breakdown?
How is this for something radical? 3 conferences with:
West: New Pens, Oilers, Flames, Canucks, Sharks, Ducks, Kings, Coyotes, Av's, & Stars.
Central: Wild, Blues, Blackhawks, Wings, Leafs, Sabres, Blue Jackets, Predators, Thrashers, & Hurricanes.
East: Lightning, Panthers, Capitals, Flyers, Devils, Rangers, Islanders, Bruins, Habs, & Senators. (Put Canes in central to keep the 2 Florida teams together and give the East some travel).
82 game Schedule:
Home and away against everyone from the other 2 conferences (20 teams *2=40games). 4 games against everyone from your conference (9 other teams *4=36 games). Home and away against the 2 teams that finished the same in their division the prior year ie 1'st place 1'st, 10'th plays 10'th (2 teams *2=4 games). Random (2 games). This schedule has every team and every player visiting every city. It also includes more better games that could be geared toward a national tv games (the #1 vs #1 or #2 vs #2).
Playoffs: Round #1: The top 4 teams from each conference make the playoffs and within each division #1 plays #4 and #2 plays #3. That makes for 12 teams and 6 series based on geography. The next best 4 records in all of the NHL are paired up #1-#4 and may have to travel further in round I due to not finishing in the top 4. Round #2 is reseeded with any of the conference winners guaranteed a top 3 slot (if they advanced in round #1) and the remaining teams are seeded based on regular season record. So the #1 remaining seed will play #8, etc. Round #3 will not be reseeded.
So, you asked for something brilliant with a confernce make up. It's different, but is solves the not seeing every team schedule problem, is fairly balanced both rivalry and competativly, and evens out the travel some.
Thoughts/comments ........