The NHL announced yesterday that their plan for realignment has finally found a suitor for the 2013-14 season. The break-up consists of now 4 divisions yet to be named & an off-balanced geographical scale to which the teams must obied by. Here's how it breaks down:
This new configuration will be favoring the west with only 14 teams competing for 8 playoff spots vs. 16 teams in the east. The biggest losers in this realignment will be Florida & Tampa Bay, who's remote location must now travel to furthest northern reaches of the continent as the map from SB Nation shows:
The east would've broken down easier geographically by having Florida & Tampa Bay align with Carolina, Washington, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, & New Jersey. But as we see, big market favoritism is becoming more & more apparent. Keeping the squashed "Atlantic" division together which I make air-quotes as I speak out loud because Columbus & Pittsburgh are as far away from the coast as Phoenix or Dallas is) just shows where the money is & where it's going to stay.
It's like they're setting up the South for failure so they can relocate the franchises to Markham & Quebec City, which has been the plan all along anyways when Phoenix & Florida fall to economic pressure. Thankfully the realignment is only a pilot & will be evaluated after 2 seasons. But for what it's worth it'll be an interesting ride.
This new configuration will be favoring the west with only 14 teams competing for 8 playoff spots vs. 16 teams in the east. The biggest losers in this realignment will be Florida & Tampa Bay, who's remote location must now travel to furthest northern reaches of the continent as the map from SB Nation shows:
The east would've broken down easier geographically by having Florida & Tampa Bay align with Carolina, Washington, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, & New Jersey. But as we see, big market favoritism is becoming more & more apparent. Keeping the squashed "Atlantic" division together which I make air-quotes as I speak out loud because Columbus & Pittsburgh are as far away from the coast as Phoenix or Dallas is) just shows where the money is & where it's going to stay.
It's like they're setting up the South for failure so they can relocate the franchises to Markham & Quebec City, which has been the plan all along anyways when Phoenix & Florida fall to economic pressure. Thankfully the realignment is only a pilot & will be evaluated after 2 seasons. But for what it's worth it'll be an interesting ride.
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