**OFFICIAL** Hockey Thread

[RiseAgainst]

Your first division is 5 hours apart travel-time wise, from farthest city to farthest city.

Boston and Newark? 230 miles, 4 hours by car or a very short flight. I have no sympathy for eastern teams who have had zip for travel for years while teams like Vancover and Colorado have had absolutely brutal travel schedules.

 

[eduardo89]

Your first division is 5 hours apart travel-time wise, from farthest city to farthest city.

lol, seriously? That division could play each other every night and not have travel fatigue

Boston and Newark? 230 miles, 4 hours by car or a very short flight. I have no sympathy for eastern teams who have had zip for travel for years while teams like Vancover and Colorado have had absolutely brutal travel schedules.

Vancouver has the longest travel in the league right now. The closest team is a 4 hour flight away, and that's within division.

 

[Nirvikalpa]

lol, seriously? That division could play each other every night and not have travel fatigue.

That's the point I was trying to make. Every other division he made up has more mileage, when one of the chief complaints of his was that some teams in the NHL now travel 14hours to games, while not giving that division a challenger more than 5.

 

[gregb]

Playoff format: Division winners shall advance to the playoff round, joined by one (1) wild card team. Teams shall be seeded by regular season record.

My plan for the playoff format is to have 1st in East play 8th in West, 2nd East play 7th in West and so on.

Then they (8 winners) are all put together and 1 plays 8, etc.

That way, the Canucks don't have to play 4-7 games against a team that we (the Canucks) have already played 8 times in the regular season, instead we could see some team like Boston, Montreal, etc that we only see/play once a year, or twice.

Really, Montreal, Toronto, all the teams in the East, the Western conference only sees them once at home and maybe once on the road. The Canucks have a "rivalry" with the Bruins now? Because we played a series against them, not because of anything in the regular season.

The idea is that the NHL wants an "East/West" matchup for the finals. Well, I want 8 E/W matchups in the first round. That way no team can build to get out of their conference, etc like they do now. Each city's fans will see at least one or two series with teams that they have played once or twice each season. Travel costs are no big deal since they stay 4 nights (2 games) in each city and there is always a day off between games. It makes the travel thing equal between Eastern teams and Western teams. Last year the Canucks would have beat the Bruins NO PROBLEM, except we had to travel every series about 500 miles, not 30 minutes like Boston had to, so we were worn out by the time we hit Boston and meanwhile the Bruins had stayed every night of the playoffs in their own beds, etc.

Finally, the above scenario makes it possible to -
1) always have a chance of the two best teams meeting in the finals, right now if Pittsburgh and New Jersey were the best teams there is no chance for them to meet, and
2)have a chance to see one more Toronto/Montreal cup final before I die, or a Chicago/Detroit one, etc., or a Vancouver/Seattle one (as soon as they move Phoenix or Florida or Carolina to Seattle.

I'm sick and tired of seeing e.g. 15 Oilers games in a year (8 reg, 7 playoffs), 15 Flames games in a year (8 reg, 7 playoffs), etc - and one Leafs, Habs, Rangers, Capitals, etc a year. It is Bulls**t.

If playoff were held today my system would have -
Rangers/Kings
Bruins/Avs
Panthers/Hawks
Penguins/Predators
Flyers/Wings
Devils/Stars
Sens/Canucks
Capitals/Blues

Second Round if all top teams win and then ranked by points.
Blues - Panthers
Rangers - Stars
Penguins - Bruins
Canucks - Wings

 

[eduardo89]

I'm sick and tired of seeing e.g. 15 Oilers games in a year (8 reg, 7 playoffs), 15 Flames games in a year (8 reg, 7 playoffs), etc - and one Leafs, Habs, Rangers, Capitals, etc a year. It is Bulls**t.

I agree, I'm sick of playing the Oilers and Flames. They both suck and theres no real rivalry with them. I'd love, however, to see the Canucks play the Hawks and Wings more often.

 

[RiseAgainst]

My plan for the playoff format is to have 1st in East play 8th in West, 2nd East play 7th in West and so on.

Then they are all put together and 1 plays 8, etc.

That way, the Canucks don't have to play 4-7 games against a team that we (the Canucks) have already played 8 times in the regular season, instead we could see some team like Boston, Montreal, etc that we only see/play once a year, or twice.

Really, Montreal, Toronto, all the teams in the East, the Western conference only sees them once at home and maybe once on the road. The Canucks have a "rivalry" with the Bruins now? Because we played a series against them, not because of anything in the regular season.

The idea is that the NHL wants an "East/West" matchup for the finals. Well, I want 8 E/W matchups in the first round. That way no team can build to get out of their conference, etc like they do now. Each city's fans will see at least one or two series with teams that they have played once or twice each season. Travel costs are no big deal since they stay 4 nights (2 games) in each city and there is always a day off between games. It makes the travel thing equal between Eastern teams and Western teams. Last year the Canucks would have beat the Bruins NO PROBLEM, except we had to travel every series about 500 miles, not 30 minutes like Boston had to, so we were worn out by the time we hit Boston and meanwhile the Bruins had stayed every night of the playoffs in their own beds, etc.

Finally, the above scenario makes it possible to -
1) always have a chance of the two best teams meeting in the finals, right now if Pittsburgh and New Jersey were the best teams there is no chance for them to meet, and
2)have a chance to see one more Toronto/Montreal cup final before I die, or a Chicago/Detroit one, etc.

I'm sick and tired of seeing e.g. 15 Oilers games in a year (8 reg, 7 playoffs), 15 Flames games in a year (8 reg, 7 playoffs), etc - and one Leafs, Habs, Rangers, Capitals, etc a year. It is Bulls**t.

The other possibility that could be fleshed out would be to move from the East(Wales)/West(Campbell) format to the AL/NL or AFC/NFC style. This would increase travel times for all teams more evenly as well.

 

[RiseAgainst]

I agree, I'm sick of playing the Oilers and Flames. They both suck and theres no real rivalry with them. I'd love, however, to see the Canucks play the Hawks and Wings more often.

I'd love to see the Wild play Hawks/Wings/Blues more, I'm an old North Starts fan and still consider my Norris Division rivals far more rivals than Johnny Canuck and Cowgary...

 

[gregb]

The other possibility that could be fleshed out would be to move from the East(Wales)/West(Campbell) format to the AL/NL or AFC/NFC style. This would increase travel times for all teams more evenly as well.

I'm not really concerned with travel time during the regular season, sure, it makes a difference but it is the playoffs where the real problem happens. Intense games, every 2nd night - that is where the East winner really gets an edge.

 

[RiseAgainst]

That's the point I was trying to make. Every other division he made up has more mileage, when one of the chief complaints of his was that some teams in the NHL now travel 14hours to games, while not giving that division a challenger more than 5.

Geography is still geography. I'm sure Vancouver would prefer the travel schedule to SEA/CAL/EDM/WIN over MN and COL. If you wanted to force more travel you could split Tampa Bay into their division and move one of the NY's out.

 

[cstarace]

Canucks look incredibly weak lately. They look soft. I don't see much of an ability to score in a tight checking game. They simply do not give the appearance of a team that is designed to succeed in the playoffs. Kassian was probably too little, too late.

 

[eduardo89]

Canucks look incredibly weak lately. They look soft. I don't see much of an ability to score in a tight checking game. They simply do not give the appearance of a team that is designed to succeed in the playoffs. Kassian was probably too little, too late.

I have no idea what's going on lately. It's as if they just don't care about the rest of the season. Bieksa is back to his "casual Kev" self, Luongo is weak (he usually is, I can't stand him) and the Sedins are cold as ice.

We'll see how they are once we get to the playoffs. 1st round is usually the hardest for them to get past and they get better as they play more games.

 

[cstarace]

I have no idea what's going on lately. It's as if they just don't care about the rest of the season. Bieksa is back to his "casual Kev" self, Luongo is weak (he usually is, I can't stand him) and the Sedins are cold as ice.

We'll see how they are once we get to the playoffs. 1st round is usually the hardest for them to get past and they get better as they play more games.

I think what happened last night with the Duncan Keith cheapshot on Daniel Sedin in some ways reminiscent of what I just described. Teams shouldn't feel so free as to take liberties against Canucks like that. They're a good team, I think there's just something missing in terms of grit and toughness.

But yeah, if they make it past the first round, everything could change.

 

[RiseAgainst]

Canucks look incredibly weak lately. They look soft. I don't see much of an ability to score in a tight checking game. They simply do not give the appearance of a team that is designed to succeed in the playoffs. Kassian was probably too little, too late.

The playoffs are about one thing and one thing only, shutdown goaltending. I love Bobby Lu, I really do, he's got immense talent, but come big games he fades quicker than Sir Robin at the first sign of smoke.

I'm looking for a big year from my boy J Quick:

 

[cstarace]

Quick is nice, but we all know where the real action is at

 

[eduardo89]

The Vezina belongs to Lundqvist this year.

 

[RiseAgainst]

F Henrik.

I've never liked him, he plays too deep for me, but talented for sure. He's on a tear this year, but that often doesn't translate to playoffs (see Bobby Lu), as well you have your not as hot regular season guys who can literally carry a team to a cup on a streak (see Cam Ward). I think J Quick has potential to be the latter.

 

[cstarace]

F Henrik.

I've never liked him, he plays too deep for me, but talented for sure. He's on a tear this year, but that often doesn't translate to playoffs (see Bobby Lu), as well you have your not as hot regular season guys who can literally carry a team to a cup on a streak (see Cam Ward). I think J Quick has potential to be the latter.

He's actually been playing far more aggressive this season, and some are attributing that to his phenomenal success.

 

[Nirvikalpa]

Y'all are wrong with your goalie picks. Guy was NHL's Star of the Week consecutively, and had some great shutouts this year (as well as broke the Flyers record for shutout time), and is HILARIOUS:

Ilya Bryzgalov! He knows more than just hockey... like facts about the Universe, and tigers.

 

[eduardo89]

Ha ha ha. Bryzgalov sucks.

He is funny though.

Oh and shoot out is a joke, it's a stain on the great game of hockey.

 

[Nirvikalpa]

I meant to say shut* out :o