Comments on: Did Wild owner Craig Leipold spill the beans on new division alignment?

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:52:46 +0000

Have Detroit an eastern time zone team, 6 central time zone teams, and 1 mountain time zone team in 1 division? Are you drink, high, or both?

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:55:26 +0000

Your wrong. It wouldn’t be more 10:00 games. First 2 rounds would be normal 7 or 8 start time. Only chance it would be 10 is if they made it to the western finals. Just like if they made it to the cup finals as an east team, still would be a 10 start time for up to 3 or 4 games.

By: Dave Dunn

Dave Dunn — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:14:13 +0000

Smythe: Vancouver, San Jose, Anaheim, LA, Calgary, Edmonton, Phoenix
Norris: Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Minnesota, Nashville, Colorado, Winnipeg

Adams: Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, NJ
Patrick: Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina

if the Nordiques (Coyotes) come back:
Smythe: Vancouver, San Jose, Anaheim, LA, Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado
Norris: Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Minnesota, Nashville, Winnipeg, Columbus

Adams: Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, Quebec
Patrick: Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, NJ

By: tk1966

tk1966 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:47:53 +0000

You are equating being poorly run with the fan base. Hate to tell you but the fans were not the ones mortgaging the team to make movie deals, etc. And they only threatened to move to KC as leverage to get a deal for the arena – something all businesses do in one for or another. They fans only bailed when it appeared to them that they would be supporting a team that was gone. Ask any fan of any team in any sport if he would pay money to sit in the stands to watch his team lose and then be in another city in a year or two. You show me a fan that says he’d be there, and I’d show you someone that is either stupid or is off their medication.

By: comeonnowguys

comeonnowguys — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:54:10 +0000

With divisional playoffs, you could have Detroit in the West with less of those P.I.T.A. 10pm start times.

I’d love to see:

Campbell
Smythe: Anaheim, Colorado, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver
Norris: Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg

Wales
Adams: Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, New Jersey, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Toronto
Patrick: Carolina, Columbus, Florida, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Washington

By: comeonnowguys

comeonnowguys — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:47:31 +0000

I really hope they put even more focus on already increased division sizes, which means Detroit and Nashville wouldn’t have to travel as much to the west coast.

I think Columbus is a better fit. There’s just too much history with Detroit and the old Norris teams. I like Nashville in the Central. Columbus is hurting though, barring relocation, they would likely benefit more than the other two teams from new rivalries with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, etc.

By: comeonnowguys

comeonnowguys — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:40:56 +0000

I’m with you. I can’t believe they’d break up Habs/B’s AND ‘Hawks/Red Wings.

By: nhlbruins90

nhlbruins90 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:02:00 +0000

It will be a cold, cold day in hell when the Habs and B’s are in separate divisions. It will never happen. (I know this is all speculation though.)

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:05:44 +0000

It’s just starting times of hockey games. Why don’t you find something better to bitch about, like how Bush destroyed this country and Obama had made it worse than that.

By: redwinglion

redwinglion — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:25:56 +0000

Please. I have just as much of a right to complain about it as you have to complain about anything else. “Get over” that.

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:43:23 +0000

First of all it is either Detroit or Columbus going east. My money is on Columbus. They have only been around 10 years. Will the NHL break up Detroit from Chicago and St. Louis who have been division rivals for 30 years, the beginning of the 1981-82 season. Especially if the rumored shake up to the playoffs happen, where 1st plays 4th and 2nd plays 3rd in the quarterfinals. Semi finals have those winners playing for a chance in the conference finals vs the other division winner.

Second, the East has not been leaked at all. That was PHT’s guess of what it would look like. The only thing I would assume about the East is that Florida and Tampa will be in the division. Beyond that is anybody’s guess.

My guess for the east:
Florida, Tampa, Carolina, Washington, Columbus, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh

New Jersey, islanders, rangers, buffalo, Boston, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto.

By: hooockey

hooockey — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:08:00 +0000

You can’t separate Montreal from Boston, or Pittsburgh from Philly; that will never happen.

Possible Atlantic Division
Carolina
Florida
New Jersey
NY Islanders
NY Rangers
Tampa Bay
Washington

Possible Mid-Atlantic Division
Buffalo
Boston
Detroit
Toronto
Montreal
Ottawa
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia

I can’t see it working any other way.

It gets really interesting if Phoenix moves to Quebec. Do they make Detroit go back West?

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:22:16 +0000

Stop your complaing. My God! You still have to make a trip to the West coast every year. BALANCED SCHEUDLE. Your gonna play every team at least once on the road.

Eastern Conference has 15 games. You play both home and away, which is 30 games.

Central Division has 6 opponents. If you play them 4 times each (2 home 2 away) gives you 24 games. Even the games against the rest of the division, your local start time would be 8:00, as known as PRIME TIME.

You have to play the Pacific teams once at home as well. That is 8 more, 7:00 local starts. Your complaining over playing the Pacific division on the road 8, maybe 16 times a season? Colorado, Calgary, Edmonton and Phoenix all play in the Mountain, so local start time is 9:00. Not the worse thing in the world. That leaves Vancouver, San Jose, Anaheim, and Los Angeles as the only 10:00 start times. 4 or 8 games a year.

Get over it!

By: chobes68

chobes68 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:27:26 +0000

Amen. As a Hawks fan, I like the idea of bringing in the Wild and Stars, that should be fun, especially from the Wild’s perspective. Losing Detroit for the sake of Columbus makes no sense.

By: chobes68

chobes68 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:26:02 +0000

I agree. Plus, Columbus doesn’t really have a blood rival in the Central. Having them play the Pennsylvania teams more could create that, similar to the football rivalries.

Losing Detroit from the Central would blow, but bringing Minny in, along with Dallas makes sense.

By: chobes68

chobes68 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:24:26 +0000

You beat me to the punch. This was the same organization that threatened to move to KC, when they were bad, not drawing because they were bad. Ridiculous fan bases draw even when their team is bad. If they were ridiculous, the Pirates would sell out all the time, and the Penguins wouldn’t have been at the bottom in attendance when they pulled their power play.

I’ll chime in too, losing Detroit vs the Hawks would suck.

By: redwinglion

redwinglion — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:55:36 +0000

PLEASE get Detroit into the East. As a Wings fan I cannot begin to tell you how irritating it is to have all of those 10:30 EST start times. It kills ratings.

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:19:23 +0000

Don’t forget the old Norris days with Minnesota, and you get 2 for the price of one. Dallas who used to be Minnesota and now the Wild.

By: geshtahl

geshtahl — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:14:32 +0000

As a Red Wings fan, I hope that Columbus moves east since I’m kind of partial to the Detroit-Chicago-St. Louis hate-triangle.

By: cannonblast14

cannonblast14 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:52:19 +0000

Not that it matters in this situation becuase it may be worse, but i dont understand how the Wings can move to the East over Columbus. Columbus is more east and is closer to most other teams in that division

By: psujay

psujay — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:49:01 +0000

Pittsburgh – A ridiculous hockey market…? You can’t go bankrupt three times and be considered a good market. They’re profitable when they have stars though, that’s true.

By: greatminnesotasportsmind

greatminnesotasportsmind — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:07:55 +0000

Since the Western Conference covers all 4 time zones, if this realignment is right, it’s perfect ( western conference wise). No division is larger than 2 time zones. It puts both Minnesota and Dallas they both want to be. Beings back the Norris with Minnesota, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Chicago, and hopefully Detroit. Dallas used to be in Minnesota. The other division seems like it is lined up nicely too, basically Colorado on west. Seems like only one eastern time zone gets hosed, but it’s still better than Minnesota and Dallas playing the majority of their road games between 8:00 and 9:30 on the west coast.

By: nyncsports

nyncsports — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:47:07 +0000

The Mid. Should have Boston and Columbus. Atlantic should Carolina, FLA and TB. Central should keep Detroit. Pacific is fine

By: bigfranky75

bigfranky75 — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:04:26 +0000

in the East, substitute Boston for Carolina and that layout makes a whole lot more sense…the proposed (your guess) Mid-Atlantic with Boston in there swapping out Carolina would be EPIC!

By: andrewfbrowne

andrewfbrowne — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:59:19 +0000

That mid-atlantic division is definitely a blood bath. I would like to keep the Bruins in the division just for the old Adams division rivalry.

Look at it though, that is probably taking all the best hockey towns with the exception of a few and putting them all in one division:

Buffalo, huge hockey town, passionate fans, small market, but lots of fans
Detroit, they do not call it hockey town for nothing
Toronto, it is in Canada, nuff said
Montreal, see note above.
Ottawa, see note above
Pittsburgh, ridiculous hockey market with a ton of fans, actually ridculous sports market.

That only leaves Carolina, which is in a city full of transplants most of whom come from North Eastern citites and there are a large number of hockey fans there.

By: Joe Yerdon

Joe Yerdon — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:49:18 +0000

Nick: That part is just our own guess and stab in the dark as to what may happen. Leipold’s take on the Central is the only thing that’s got any real footing.

By: nickr214

nickr214 — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:47:42 +0000

Don’t like this at all. U can’t take boston out of it’s previous division. No Boston versus Montreal 6 times? I’ll be pissed. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. Not sure

By: sknut

sknut — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:09:54 +0000

I think Florida and TB are in a tough spot you can’t help where your located and this won’t help their travel schedule. Its about time they do the balanced schedule though, its good for all fans to see every team at least once.