An idea on Conferences
I saw an idea tossed out on a hockey board that I think could be fun.
What if the NHL went to North/South Conferences instead of East/West?
Basically you’d have the NE, Central, and NW divisions in the North. The Pacific, SE and Atlantic would make up the South, with a few substitutions like Nashville and St. Louis headed to the South in exchange for let’s say the Rangers and Pittsburgh.
It will even out the travel of all teams, as each conference is stretched out over the width of the continent, this could be seen as a plus or a minus by the league but there’d be no one team able to use travel as an excuse.
It would greatly improve the chances of “non-traditional” markets getting a team to the SC Finals as the Southern Conference’s make up will be mostly non-traditional teams.
If you keep the Islanders in the South and the Rangers in the North, it could set up a “Bettman boner fest” all NY SC Final. (This alone would probably be enough to get him to sign off on it)
Looking it at it from a purely selfish viewpoint it would mean more matches between Montreal and Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit and other matches I would like to see more often and less against Florida, Carolina and Atlanta, who I could care less about.
Also just for fun the All-Star Teams could have their uniforms in blue for the North and grey for the South (you know to help market it in the states).
Anyhow I thought it was a fun idea that maybe people would like to throw their 2 cents at.