National Hockey League realignment is officially a reality.
The NHL’s board of governors voted in favour of the revamped conference and division alignment via fax Monday.
The league had already been given the go-ahead from NHLPA chief Donald Fehr, so realignment will be in place for at least three seasons, starting with the 2013-14 campaign.
Fehr signed off on the plan after discussions with the union’s executive board, and the realignment issue will be re-evaluated following the 2015-16 season.
Detroit and Columbus will be put into more travel-friendly divisions in the Eastern time zone, and the Winnipeg Jets — formerly the Atlanta Thrashers — will leave the Southeast Division for a spot in the Western Conference.
Dallas will remain in the Western Conference but shifts into a division that includes five other clubs from the Central time zone.
Minnesota and Colorado also move to more geographically friendly divisions.
All 30 NHL teams will now play in all 30 arenas at least once per season for the first time since 1997-98.
Up until now, there has been an even split of teams with 15 in each conference. Under the new plan, the East will have 16 clubs in it — making playoff qualification a bit tougher.
The two divisions out West will contain seven teams each. The East divisions will both contain eight.
Each conference will still have eight teams in the playoffs but the setup will be slightly different.
Instead of the current system, under which the top eight teams in each conference make the playoffs, the new plan will award spots to the top three teams in each division along with the next two teams with the best records as wild cards.
The teams finishing second and third in each division will play in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of each series will play for the divisional championship.
The two divisional champions in each conference will then play in the conference finals to advance to the Stanley Cup final.
“It will definitely be a change,” Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader said last week. “The benefit will be less travel. The disadvantage is 16 teams in the East — so harder for a playoff spot. It’s one of those things that you kind of take the pros and the cons, and it’s part of the deal.
“It’s something that’ll be different, so we’ll give it a couple years and see how it goes.”
The divisions will be temporarily referred to as divisions A through D. Permanent names will be assigned later.
Division A: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver.
Division B: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg.
Division C: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto.
Division D: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York’s Rangers and Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington.
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Here is the new regular-season schedule matrix, released by the NHL Thursday:
Western Conference (7-Team Divisions)
Within Conference (Division): 29 games
* 5 games vs. five teams (3 Home/2 Away vs. two teams, 2 Home/3 Away vs.
three teams) AND 4 games vs. one team (2 Home/2 Away). Teams rotated on a yearly basis.
* 5 X 5 =25 games
* 1 X 4 = 4 games
Within Conference (Non-Division): 21 games
* 3 games vs. each team (2 Home/1 Away vs. four teams, 1 Home/2 Away vs.
three teams). Teams rotated on a yearly basis.
* 3 X 7 = 21 games
Non-Conference: 32 games
* 2 games vs. each team (1 Home/1 Away)
* 2 X 16 = 32 games
(Exception: one team from each division plays one less game inside Division and one more game inside Conference outside Division)
Eastern Conference (8-Team Divisions)
Within Conference (Division): 30 games
* 5 games vs. two teams (3 Home/2 Away vs. one team, 2 Home/3 Away vs. one
team) AND 4 games vs. five teams (2 Home/2 Away). Teams rotated on a yearly basis.
* 5 X 2 =10 games
* 4 X 5 = 20 games
Within Conference (Non-Division): 24 games
* 3 games vs. each team (2 Home/1 Away vs. four teams, 1 Home/2 Away vs.
four teams). Teams rotated on a yearly basis.
* 3 X 8 = 24 games
Non-Conference: 28 games
* 2 games vs. each team (1 Home/1 Away)
* 2 X 14 = 28 games
(with files from AP)
