What evidence do you have of girgensons not being at the top of the ufa list?
- Boss34

Eyes and a brain.

Eyes and a brain.
- BeadyEyedDouche

Have you ever been in a room with Boss. I bet that would be interesting.

No need to make it that complicated, the divisions themselves are fine.

Play each team outside the division once: 24 games

Play each team in your division 8 times, plus play one “rival” team in your division 10 times: 58 games

Playoffs: top 4 in each division qualify, 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3; winners play each other for division title, each division can have its own little trophy. Finally, the 4 division playoff winners would be ranked by reg season record with 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 in the SC semis. The last 2 standing play in the SCF

This would significantly increase rivalries while also reducing travel costs. Easy, peasy.
- BiggE

Yeah, I definitely went the complicated route and I agree the main format issue is that the Sabres only play Leafs one more time than they play the Coyotes.

That's just dumb

Yeah, I definitely went the complicated route and I agree the main issue is that the Sabres only play Leafs one more time than the Coyotes.

That's just dumb
- Hank Balling

Why we don’t play more divisional games is mind bottling

Why we don’t play more divisional games is mind bottling
- IndianaSabresFan

Parity

The great scourge of our time

Yeah, I definitely went the complicated route and I agree the main issue is that the Sabres only play Leafs one more time than they play the Coyotes.

That's just dumb
- Hank Balling

Totally agree, but the realignment you suggest would never be approved by the owners. Mine, assuming Bettman ever gets his head out of his butt, might stand at least a slight chance, lol.

One other change I’d make in a perfect world: Nashville would join the metro, and Columbus back to the Central. Nashville vs Carolina is a rivalry waiting to happen.

Totally agree, but the realignment you suggest would never be approved by the owners. Mine, assuming Bettman ever gets his head out of his butt, might stand at least a slight chance, lol.

One other change I’d make in a perfect world: Nashville would join the metro, Columbus the Atlantic and Detroit the Central. Nashville vs Carolina is a rivalry waiting to happen.
- BiggE

Agreed with most of that but Detroit spent 20 years fighting to leave the western conference.

They would never, ever agree to go back to the west.

The rest are all natural fits

Hank, the North/South Conference realignment is an idea I have gushed over many a time...

And in doing so, I have narrowed down one fundamental, obvious, glaring flaw with a North/South alignment as opposed to an East/West alignment.

It's not travel costs, it's time zones.

You put all Canadian teams in the same Conference, you have Vancouver traveling through 4 time zones to play Montreal (and vice-versa). You Have Los Angeles going all the way to Miami and likewise... 4 times a year? Or once, with your proposed schedule of a double-header.

So you replace East/West with North/South and have to make a Northeast/Northwest and Southeast/Southwest divisional alignment and this kind of defeats the purpose. You've essentially kept all the teams in the same division except the Northeast, which gets dumped on it's head, and just renamed them.

Sounds like your idea is to make the NHL more like the MLB and that would be a travesty in multiple ways.

Agreed with most of that but Detroit spent 20 years fighting to leave the western conference.

They would never, ever agree to go back to the west.

The rest are all natural fits
- Hank Balling

Another thing that would probably help viewership with more divisional games is timing. How many people stay up to watch a game that starts at 10:00. Or for the people on the west when they are still at work when the game starts.

Hank, the North/South Conference realignment is an idea I have gushed over many a time...

And in doing so, I have narrowed down one fundamental, obvious, glaring flaw with a North/South alignment as opposed to an East/West alignment.

It's not travel costs, it's time zones.

You put all Canadian teams in the same Conference, you have Vancouver traveling through 4 time zones to play Montreal (and vice-versa). You Have Los Angeles going all the way to Miami and likewise... 4 times a year? Or once, with your proposed schedule of a double-header.

So you replace East/West with North/South and have to make a Northeast/Northwest and Southeast/Southwest divisional alignment and this kind of defeats the purpose. You've essentially kept all the teams in the same division except the Northeast, which gets dumped on it's head and just renamed them.

Sounds like your idea is to make the NHL more like the MLB and that would be a travesty in multiple ways.
- BeadyEyedDouche

My counter point would be this:

Currently 16 away games are played out of conference.

This format would have 20 away games played out division/conference

It's not a major change

My counter point would be this:

Currently 16 away games are played out of conference.

This format would have 20 away games played out division/conference

It's not a major change
- Hank Balling

Time zone could be more about game times for viewers

My counter point would be this:

Currently 16 away games are played out of conference.

This format would have 20 away games played out division/conference

It's not a major change
- Hank Balling

So instead of reducing the strain, you add to it?

How about instead of playing every team at least 1 time per year, you only play a single non-conference division in a season? And half of those games would be at home. So you reduce the 16 to 8 and further down to 4 by splitting the schedule, instead of increasing it to 20.

And as Indiana has stated, it's more about fans and game start times than the teams and their traveling. You don't want to add more games on the West coast that I have to stay up and watch, surely?

Time zone could be more about game times for viewers
- IndianaSabresFan

But again, we're only talking about 20 out of division or conference away games versus the 16 we have right now

So instead of reducing the strain, you add to it?

How about instead of playing every team at least 1 time per year, you only play a single non-conference division in a season? And half of those games would be at home. So you reduce the 16 to 8 instead of increasing it to 20.

And as Indiana has stated, it's more about fans and game start times than the teams and their traveling. You don't want to add more games on the West coast that I have to stay up and watch, surely?
- BeadyEyedDouche

That was my format. Maybe I didn't articulate it clearly.

The northeast would play against the southeast one year, and the southwest the next.

6 games x 7 teams in division
4 games x 8 teams in conference
1 game cross over division (4 at home, 4 away)

20 games at weird times versus 16 right now, but you get the advantage of regional rivalries as the return

That was my format. Maybe I didn't articulate it clearly.

The northeast would play against the southeast one year, and the southwest the next.

8 games x 7 teams in division
4 games x 8 teams in conference
1 game cross over division (4 at home, 4 away)

20 games at weird times versus 16 right now, but you get the advantage of regional rivalries as the return
- Hank Balling

That's like 96 games lol

That's like 96 games lol
- BeadyEyedDouche

Jesus, my bad . That was supposed to be a 6 (as it's written in the blog). I fixed the comment

6x7
4x8
1x8

It's still 82 games. 20 weird times instead of 16 as it is now, and the years where you cross over with your own time zone, it's 16 games at weird times

Jesus, my bad . That was supposed to be a 6 (as it's written in the blog). I fixed the comment

6x7
4x8
1x8

It's still 82 games. 20 weird times instead of 16 as it is now, and the years where you cross over with your own time zone, it's 16 games at weird times
- Hank Balling

Looks like we have to just get rid of time zones and everything is solved.

No.

No.
- PDO-Speedwagon

I needed to draft Gritty closer to the Sabres division

No need to make it that complicated, the divisions themselves are fine.

Play each team outside the division once: 24 games

Play each team in your division 8 times, plus play one “rival” team in your division 10 times: 58 games

Playoffs: top 4 in each division qualify, 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3; winners play each other for division title, each division can have its own little trophy. Finally, the 4 division playoff winners would be ranked by reg season record with 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 in the SC semis. The last 2 standing play in the SCF

This would significantly increase rivalries while also reducing travel costs. Easy, peasy.
- BiggE

The current playoff format is by far the worst of all sports. They had arguably the best, NCAA basketball tourney was possibly more exciting, and they ruined it.

1 and 2 should go to the division winners and the rest go by points. It's unfair the team that gets the third most points in a conference has to play the team that gets the fourth most points. And that's the only time I'll ever defend the Leafs.

Yeah, I definitely went the complicated route and I agree the main format issue is that the Sabres only play Leafs one more time than they play the Coyotes.

That's just dumb
- Hank Balling

So dumb.

We need to get back to playing thr Sens, Leafs, Habs and Bruins 6x per year. Heck, I'll even add Detroit to that bunch. Florida teams do not belong in our division. To your point, Pittsburgh and CBJ make more sense.

O Canada 🇨🇦



The Groundhog Day event in Val-d'Espoir, Quebec in eastern Canada began Thursday morning with music and dancing, but as it came closer for Fred to make his weather prediction, event organizers told the crowd of the groundhog's death.

https://www.yahoo.com/new...-groundhog-201433029.html

NHL marketing department blows.

I have a feeling we have seen the last of the Apple. I hear he got a new computer and doesn’t remember his password anymore and doesn’t know what email address is tied to his account.

RIP 🍎
- IndianaSabresFan

good riddance I say. guy was a grade a sh1twhistle.

good riddance I say. guy was a grade a sh1twhistle.
- TheSabresTaco

Damn right. He kept sleeping with my wife.

Damn right. He kept sleeping with my wife.
- IndianaSabresFan

At least he was only sleeping.