NHL CBA-related Goodness ... Badness ... whatever

[andyt]

I hate the idea of an unbalanced number of games between teams in the division. For fairness sake, I would be happier if they could figure out a 50-game season with 20 divisional games and 30 non-divisional conference games.

Yep, in that scenario, everybody gets 25 home games, just won't have the same number of home and away games against a single opponent. For example, the Canes may get 3 home games against Washington but only 2 against Florida, etc. It's not ideal either, but it's the easiest way to get to 50. If they wanted an even number of home and road games against all opponents, they could have gone with 44 (6 games in the division, 2 games in the conference) or 56 (4 games in the conference, eliminate divisional seeding).

[CarolinaPen]

I hate the idea of an unbalanced number of games between teams in the division. For fairness sake, I would be happier if they could figure out a 50-game season with 20 divisional games and 30 non-divisional conference games.

I am only good with the unbalanced schedule if it favors the Canes....say an extra game against Winnipeg and not the Caps or Bolts.

[jeffbear]

Frankly, I don't really care. Just commit to something and get on with it. We've been tortured enough with the work stoppage as it is. And I'm vastly more concerned with leveling out the number of back to back sets that include travel than I am with balancing the divisional games.

[GlenwoodAvenueHooligans]

So when is the schedule supposed to come out?

I'd say go heavy on the division schedule. 6 games vs division opponents = 24. 2 games vs conference non-division opponents = 20. Then if you need to get up to 48 games for every team take 2 teams from the conference from the other divisions w/ the same ranking and play each of them 2 times more and you get the extra 4 games. Eg. for the Hurricanes who finished 5th in SE, they'd play the 5th placed teams from ATL (NYI) and NE (MTL) 2 additional games each, the SE division winner (FLA) would play NYR and BOS extra 2 games each, etc...

[dwind]

The big market teams need to have an advantage so teams like the canes will have back to back games against Winnipeg on Saturday night and the panthers Sunday afternoon while the phylers will have back to back against the devils.

[jeffbear]

The big market teams need to have an advantage so teams like the canes will have back to back games against Winnipeg on Saturday night and the panthers Sunday afternoon while the phylers will have back to back against the devils.

I'm not quite as deep in that well as Windy, but I do agree that the Southeast is at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the Eastern Conference. The other two divisions are much more compact. Of course, we're no worse off than the average Western team. Those guys have to hate schedule compression of any kind.

[andyt]

I'm not quite as deep in that well as Windy, but I do agree that the Southeast is at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the Eastern Conference. The other two divisions are much more compact. Of course, we're no worse off than the average Western team. Those guys have to hate schedule compression of any kind.

Especially Dallas, who are 2 hours ahead of 3 other teams in the division...

[*AH*]

Dallas should be in the Central, with Colorado in the Pacific. What happened to moving Winnipeg to the Western Conference and Columbus to the SE Div? Just rumors without foundation, I guess. I'd rather see Nashville in the SE. But ain't gonna happen, eh?

[cmaleski2]

I think they will get back to looking at realignment after this season now that the new CBA is in place. I think this is all in the plans still, just going to take at least another season before its implemented.

[jeffbear]

I think they will get back to looking at realignment after this season now that the new CBA is in place. I think this is all in the plans still, just going to take at least another season before its implemented.

The owners chickened out on both realignment and the Olympics in these negotiations. Both issues got deeply back-burnered.

[HeyKurtz]

Looks like we're officially ready to go!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...-vote/1828151/