Toronto and Detroit in the West

[ClydeLee]

Late starts suck, and don't call me Shirley.

Michigan should be in the central time zone anyway. Rally the movement that way. The majority of the state is closer to noon=central time zone

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

I wish Detroit was still in the central. More natural rivals than anyone out east.

 

[justHypnos]

East coast timezone bias strikes again. Just because the west is past your bedtime doesnt make their teams bad.

Since 2008ish the east has been dominated mostly by one team at a time.. Pittsburgh, Boston, Tampa, and Florida have combined for 11 of 16 finals. And those teams in their years masked what was an otherwise very mediocre group of teams in the east.

Meanwhile the west has seen 3 or so teams that were better than anyone else in the east and all capable of winning the cup if not for running into each other. Detroit, San Jose, Chicago, Los Angeles, Anaheim and then later Dallas, Vegas, Colorado

Just so you know, since 2008 Chicago, LA, Vegas, and (Western) Detroit has combined for 9 out of 16 finals as well. It's the nature of having a good team. It is often, though not always, good for longer than 1 season.

Also you should probably know that the one time it was possible, two eastern teams made the finals together. Sounds like you're imagining a narrative.

 

[JKG33]

Just so you know, since 2008 Chicago, LA, Vegas, and (Western) Detroit has combined for 9 out of 16 finals as well. It's the nature of having a good team. It is often, though not always, good for longer than 1 season.

Also you should probably know that the one time it was possible, two eastern teams made the finals together. Sounds like you're imagining a narrative.

The west has always had legit contenders. Remember those years with LA-CHI or ANA-CHI where it was obvious whoever won would win the cup? I can't remember a year where you could say that about the east.

Look at Florida, in their 2 year run they've beaten every other eastern "contender" quite easily. There's a huge gap between them and whatever shitty team you wanna say is 2nd. Them and Tampa representing the east the last 5 years have had the conference look a lot better than it is. Propping up a lot of bad teams behind them

 

[BruinsFan37]

Add a team to Arizona and another in Houston and both Nashville and Chicago would move East

Maybe, maybe not. 34 teams (2 in naturally in west) I could see them keeping everyone in the Western Conference, like when the Western Conference had fewer teams than the Eastern. Add three teams that naturally belong in the Western Conference and one of Nash/Chi moves East. (Not likely to add four Western teams since Atlanta is a target).

 

[Ezekial]

Michigan should be in the central time zone anyway. Rally the movement that way. The majority of the state is closer to noon=central time zone

It's funny that there's a small part of the UP that's central but it's the weirdest little chunk. When I lived there we lived in eastern but my grandpa's camp was 40 mins away in central.

 

[torontoblood]

How? The 1993 Gretzky- Gilmour series is probably the most significant playoff series off the modern era. Last epic year of NHL before dead puck. Last time the Leafs didn't suck. Toronto dipped to the East so they don't play anymore but if they didn't they would play LAK more than Montreal or Boston.

Peak NHL too the league went in the shitter quick after that year.

The leafs advanced to the western conference finals in 1994. Vancouver beat them in 5 games.

Then 5 years later in 1999, in their first full season as members of the eastern conference, the leafs advanced to the eastern conference finals against the Buffalo Sabres but lost to them in 5 games.

They also advanced to the ECF 3 years later in 2002 and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in 6 games.

The maple Leafs made four conference final appearances in the modern/bettman era : 1993, 1994, 1999, 2002. 4 trips to the final four in 10 seasons.

 

[Harvey Birdman]

Would love if NHL divisions were NFL style: 2 conferences with 4 divisions of 4 teams with an emphasis on divisional play, but seeing as the league is talking expansion again, wouldn’t work for too much longer

ANA/LA/SJ/VGK
SEA/VAN/CGY/EDM
CHI/WPG/MIN/STL
UTA/NSH/DAL/COL

NYR/NYI/NJ/BOS
TOR/MTL/OTT/BUF
CAR/FLA/TB/WSH
PIT/PHI/CBJ/DET

I’ve been saying this for years. With my own caveat that I also with they’d go back to 1v8 seeding. Divisional winners are guaranteed a playoff spot and seed everything else off of points.