Quote:
Originally Posted by Borntoolate85
-Move Nashville to the Southeast division. It's a true southern city, would have a good rivalry with the Hurricanes, and shorter travel times.
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False, false, false, false, false, false, false.
Air travel distance between Nashville and:
Southeast teams:
Carolina - 451.6
Washington - 567.5
Tampa - 622.2
Florida - 789.7
total: 2,431.0
Central teams:
St. Louis - 254.0
Columbus - 334.1
Chicago - 398.7
Detroit - 470.8
total: 1,457.6
That's a difference of 973.4 miles or a 67% increase in divisional travel.
While I agree that Nashville
is a true Southern city, since going into the tough Central, we have developed rivalries and remained competitive...that is where we WANT to be. Not the Southeast.
Not to mention that the entire Eastern Conference plays in Eastern Time....we are in Central. That will completely screw us on away game TV coverage. Columbus and Detroit, on the other hand, are east of us and already in Eastern Time...not to mention closer that both of those are closer to all of the Eastern Conference teams, sans Tampa and Florida (and Nashville is marginally closer than Detroit to Raleigh).
I feel like there is this big misconception that "Nashville is a Southern city, ergo they make perfect sense to plug into Atlanta's hole." Sure, Nashville is closer to Tampa and Florida than Columbus is...but did you know Columbus is closer to not only Washington, but Raleigh as well?
We already looked at Nashville's travel map, let's look at Columbus's:
Columbus to:
Washington - 328.1
Carolina - 371.0
Tampa - 832.5
Florida - 967.7
total - 2,499.3
Remember Nashville's total was 2,431.0, a difference of just 68.3 miles, and take into account that Columbus not only closer to the remaining 10 Eastern Conference teams, but is also in the same time zone in all of them.
I have several thoughts as far as potential moves the NHL could make. They could get rid of the silly geographic conferences, and go back to the old Clarence Campbell and Prince of Wales Conferences, and forget about geographic location (mix in teams from all over, kind of like baseball or football, and have the divisions be geographic).
Or you could go for the quicker fix. Since Eastern Conference folks get their panties in a bunch any time you talk about shaking up the rivalries, I won't touch the vaunted *rolls eyes* Atlantic or Northeast divisions...
Option 1: Simple moves
Winnipeg --> Northwest
Vancouver --> Pacific
Dallas --> Central
Columbus --> "Southeast"
-Pacific
--Anaheim
--Los Angeles
--Phoenix
--San Jose
--Vancouver
-
Northwest
--Calgary
--Colorado
--Edmonton
--Minnesota
--Winnipeg
-
Central
--Chicago
--Dallas
--Detroit
--Nashville
--St. Louis
-
"Southeast"
--Carolina
--Columbus
--Florida
--Tampa
--Washington
However, the Canucks might whine about not having any Canadian buddies in their division...so they may resist the move to the Pacific.
In that case, move Colorado to the Pacific instead (much, much closer than Dallas) and keep the rest the same. Unfortunately, Minnesota would be stuck in a division where the other four are all syrup-sucking iceholes.
Also, there's the potential issue of the Central being so strong, that it always gets 3-4 teams in the playoffs.
Option 2: Complete mayhem
Clarence Campbell Conference
-
West
--Calgary
--Colorado
--Edmonton
--San Jose
--Vancouver
-
Central
--Buffalo
--Chicago
--Detroit
--Toronto
--Winnipeg
-
East
--Carolina
--Columbus
--New Jersey
--Philadelphia
--Pittsburgh
Prince of Wales Conference
-
North
--Boston
--Montreal
--New York Islanders
--New York Rangers
--Ottawa
-
South
--Florida
--Nashville
--St. Louis
--Tampa
--Washington
-
West
--Anaheim
--Dallas
--Los Angeles
--Minnesota
--Phoenix
This is just a rough idea...and one that would balance the time zones throughout the conferences. I tried to also balance the power and not overload divisions with too much or too little strength. Obviously, there are still some issues...no matter how you dice it, since there are so many teams in EST and so few in PST or MST, some divisions are going to be more geographically close together (and in the same time zone) while others will stretch for a thousand miles or so, and cross 3 time zones. That is just unavoidable at this time with the team (and population) balance.
-There are 16 Eastern Time Zone teams, 6 Central, 3 Mountain, (Phoenix), and 4 Pacific. I divided the time zones equally throughout the conferences, though I later moved Colorado, so one conference does have the majority of the Mountain Time Zone teams.
-I tried to equally distribute the power to the conferences, with each side having 8 of this season's playoff teams. I didn't take seeding into consideration, but for the most part, each side has its fair share of powerhouses, contenders, and bottom feeders.
-I wanted to make sure that the Canadian teams were not isolated, so I paired them up together in 3 different divisions (Vancouver-Calgary-Edmonton, Toronto-Winnipeg, Montreal-Ottawa). While there is no more Toronto-Montreal division, I did put them in the same division as Detroit and Chicago to renew their Original 6 rivalry.
-Speaking of Original 6, they are divided equally in 2 divisions and in two separate conferences, to give each side sort of a zen-like balance. In the Central Campbell, you have Chicago-Detroit-Toronto, and in the North Wales, you have Boston-Montreal-New York. I figure, if anything, it would make for great TV.
-It was tough to try to be geographically friendly to the western divisions of both conferences, due to their relative isolation. Taking into consideration the above factors, it proved especially difficult in the Wales West, where Minnesota trades their long haul with Vancouver for an equally grueling trip to Los Angeles and Anaheim. However, with Dallas in the division, there is somewhat of a natural rival (Dallas done stole their team 18 years ago) and finally a team competing in the same time zone. The rest of the division is 4/5 of the current Pacific, so that and the Campbell West are the least changed among the divisions, with only one new team. The rest of the divisions are mostly 2 and 3 team parts of current divisions forged together.
-I could have switched Dallas and Colorado to change this, but decided against it for geographic purposes.
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