Yeah, this is why I'd really wish the playoffs were seeded more like the following:

(1E) vs. (8W)
(2W) vs. (7E)
(3E) vs. (6W)
(4W) vs. (5E)
(4E) vs. (5W)
(3W) vs. (6E)
(2E) vs. (7W)
(1W) vs. (8E)

Because then we would have seen the following:

Pittsburgh vs. Minnesota
Anaheim vs. Ottawa
Washington vs. San Jose
St. Louis vs. Toronto
Boston vs. Los Angeles
Vancouver vs. NY Rangers
Montreal vs. Detroit
Chicago vs. NY Islanders

And while the travel might have sucked for some teams, how much fun would it have been to see a rematch of the '07 Finals, a rematch of the '94 Finals, another Original Six matchup, an old Norris Division matchup, and then Bruins/Kings - which might have had even more physical play than the Blues/Kings has seen.
- Chip McCleary

Sorry Chip but I wouldn't be a fan of this at all. I like the Campbell vs Wales aspect in the finals. I also think going to the new format will be good in that rivalries should be built better as your probability of playing the sames teams year after year is increased. It may not be perfect but I think the new format will be good.

In the old west, the new format this year would have seen ANA vs SJS and LAK hosting VAN in the A dvision; CHI vs WPG and STL vs MIN in the B division which are huge differences.

In the old east, the new format would still pit WSH vs NYR, BOS vs TOR and MTL vs OTT. The only difference would be PIT taking on DET. Interesting.

This would potentially kill big rivalry's that come from playoff hockey, as you don't see the other conference nearly as often as your own.
- carcus

And yet, new playoff rivalries would be produced from ... playoff hockey. Besides, in the new scheduling format you're playing everyone at least twice - so it's not like there's nearly as much "we don't see them" as we've seen from 2005-2013.

The travel is really the big stumbling block here, and I freely admit it - but I'm also the kind of person who thought instead of hearing continued "we have to travel 3 time zones, they get to play most of their games in the same timezone / get to take a bus to half of their games" complaints in the entire realignment debate, I would have ignored that issue entirely and redrawn divisions randomly, keeping a handful of natural rivalries (MTL-BOS, TOR-OTT, PIT-PHI, EDM-CGY, ANH-LA, FLA-TB, NYR-NYI or NJ, CHI-DET or STL) and scattered everyone else so that every division crossed at least 3 time zones so that everyone would be getting screwed. Then, if you want to go back to Patrick / Adams / Norris / Smythe for division names, you're good to go because there's no worries about "what, Boston is in the Central?" mislabeling.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying the league should go to the format I suggest (because again, I realize that travel concerns rule it out) - it's just a, "imagine if it was" thing for right now. If you carry this back to '05-06, there's more than a few times where two teams meet up at least twice - including 2010 when Philadelphia/Chicago and Montreal/San Jose would have met up in back-to-back years. Think a rivalry would have started there? 2009 would have seen New Jersey/St. Louis - and I don't think we would have needed years of games between the two teams to get a good hate on for the Devils in a 1st-round series.

Yeah, this is why I'd really wish the playoffs were seeded more like the following:

(1E) vs. (8W)
(2W) vs. (7E)
(3E) vs. (6W)
(4W) vs. (5E)
(4E) vs. (5W)
(3W) vs. (6E)
(2E) vs. (7W)
(1W) vs. (8E)

Because then we would have seen the following:

Pittsburgh vs. Minnesota
Anaheim vs. Ottawa
Washington vs. San Jose
St. Louis vs. Toronto
Boston vs. Los Angeles
Vancouver vs. NY Rangers
Montreal vs. Detroit
Chicago vs. NY Islanders

And while the travel might have sucked for some teams, how much fun would it have been to see a rematch of the '07 Finals, a rematch of the '94 Finals, another Original Six matchup, an old Norris Division matchup, and then Bruins/Kings - which might have had even more physical play than the Blues/Kings has seen.
- Chip McCleary

This year has actually been an exciting year for NHL hockey. The only team that decided not to show up this year is Vancouver and luckily for them the flight won't be that long from SJ to VAN.