Excellent Realignment News

[cardsfan04]

What I am hearing is that the NHLPA didn't reject it, but the NHL deadline expired...

This is what I heard as well.

Stupid.
The realignment is a good thing...not perfect, but much better than it is now.

Yeah, that's what I've been hearing now too. I know they need to prepare for next year and whatnot, but a January 6 deadline seems pointless.

I also don't think the NHL created the realignment idea to make the NHLPA look bad rejecting it. That kind of thing happens for sure (e.g. NFL owners ratifying a CBA that they knew the PA wouldn't pass), but this wasn't one of them. The NHL wanted this, and will still get it.

What I don't get:
1) Bettman knew the NHLPA had to approve the re-alignment. He even said so on NHL Radio when making the announcement.
2) The 2 things the NHLPA are concerned about shouldn't be that hard to address and should have been addressed simply by sitting down and talking about it. (Travel and playoff implications as it impacts players with unbalanced conferences)
3) The NHL, based on what I have read and heard, never even bothered to offer to sit down to discuss it.

So how is this bad on the NHLPA's part? It looks to me like Bettman dropped the ball.

That thing about travel - I'm wondering if they figured out the re-alignment overall increases travel for the league, when they touted re-alignment reducing travel - ignoring that it only reduced travel for Winnipeg and the current Western conference teams.

I certainly don't think Bettman should get off scott free. Those issues should have been easy enough to address. And, as I understand it, the league refused to give a mock schedule to address the travel issues. It's possible they have a reason that I can't think of, but that should have been easy enough to do.

However, I think the players would have found another reason to not ratify it had those issues been addressed. I think they're just saving bargaining chips for the CBA.

[ohio BLUES]

I call B.S. on the Jan. 6 deadline as well. Winnipeg moved from ATL over the summer and it seemed to work out OK. What could the NHL possibly need 10 months to implement?

[WaukeeBlues]

This is complete bullshit. The whole idea of the realignment was awesome, minus having Tampa and Florida in a division with Montreal and Toronto.

Minus the blatant NHL favoritism you mean?


I WOULD be ecstatic about this but for the statement from the league that they are sticking with the inherently unfair 4 conferences. At least hopefully the teams will be arranged better this time.

Edit: And for God's sake, honestly what's so f*cking difficult about putting a team from the west into the east? It's an extraordinarily simple fix. I just fundamentally don't understand the need to completely re-hash the entire League organization. Completely unnecessary. Nashville to Southeast, Minnesota to Central, Winnipeg to Northwest (Or something similar). Done. Wow. That was hard. </sarcasm>

[WaukeeBlues]

I call B.S. on the Jan. 6 deadline as well. Winnipeg moved from ATL over the summer and it seemed to work out OK. What could the NHL possibly need 10 months to implement?

My impression was the making of the schedule for next season. Seeing as they have to release it fairly early in the summer to give teams notice to arrange everything for travel, arenas, etc, I could totally see that they don't want to be finishing these negotiations up in February or March. I'm sure the schedule is nothing but a logistical nightmare every year and I don't know what you'd have to pay me to help create it but whatever it is, I'm sure the current people who make it aren't being paid enough.

[dmiles2186]

This is complete bullshit. The whole idea of the realignment was awesome, minus having Tampa and Florida in a division with Montreal and Toronto.

Minus the blatant NHL favoritism you mean?


I WOULD be ecstatic about this but for the statement from the league that they are sticking with the inherently unfair 4 conferences. At least hopefully the teams will be arranged better this time.

Edit: And for God's sake, honestly what's so f*cking difficult about putting a team from the west into the east? It's an extraordinarily simple fix. I just fundamentally don't understand the need to completely re-hash the entire League organization. Completely unnecessary. Nashville to Southeast, Minnesota to Central, Winnipeg to Northwest (Or something similar). Done. Wow. That was hard. </sarcasm>

The only problem with that is that you aren't factoring in the complete crap storm that Detroit and Columbus' owners would raise since they would still be stuck in the West. That's why it's so difficult at this point. Detroit has been wanting to be put in the East for years. But if you put them in the East, then you upset Columbus ownership since they would still be stuck in the West. The proposed realignment was designed to calm everybody down and find a middle ground to make everybody happy (one could argue that the Florida teams got hosed, of course). Either way, it's not as simple as it looks on the surface.