Pittsburgh Penguins on the move as NHL Approves Realignment Plan
By Matt Shetler
The NHL as you know it is about to change and the Pittsburgh Penguins will be on the move beginning in the 2012-13 season.
No longer will the Pens be residing in the Atlantic Division, but thanks to a radical realignment approved by the NHL Board of Governors, the league will go from a six-division, two-conference league to a four conference one. two of the unnamed conferences will have eight teams and two will have seven.
The new plan allows for a home-and-home series between each team in the league and play five or six games against each conference team.
The new format will increase overall travel in the regular season, especially for Eastern Conference teams who will now have more trips West. But it cuts down on travel for some Western Conference teams, which was a critical issue for teams such as Detroit, Dallas, Columbus and Nashville.
But no longer will teams have to play all their conference games in a different time zone as the new format is more geographically friendly. Two conferences feature all Eastern time zone teams. One features all members of the Eastern and Central time zone teams and the other features teams from the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
Of course while the realignment plan seems good for the overall health of the league, the current format of the Stanley Cup Playoffs will have to change as well, something I’m not all together crazy about.
The top four teams in each Conference will qualify for the playoffs. The first-place team in each conference would play the fourth-place team in the same conference; the second-place team would play the third-place team.
The four respective Conference champions would meet in the third round, with the survivors playing for the Stanley Cup.
As for the Pens, they will be playing in a conference that features all Eastern time zone teams. The new conference features New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington and Carolina.
That’s fine for the Pens and their fans as the biggest concern on behalf of the organization was to maintain their current rivalries and judging by the look of things, everything remains intact.
For a view of the total look of the realignment you can click HERE
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