Tasser’s Take: NHL restructure, good and bad

About 1,300 miles. That’s how far the Winnipeg Jets have to travel to play a National Hockey… About 1,300 miles. That’s how far the Winnipeg Jets have to travel to play a National Hockey League Southeast divisional game against the Washington Capitals.

The Jets — based in Atlanta and known as the Thrashers before this season — have thrown a wrench in the NHL’s division format.

The capital of Georgia and hockey just don’t seem to get along. Atlanta is now the only team in the modern era to have an NHL team relocate on them twice, and they constantly cause headaches for the NHL.

In 1980, just eight years after debuting — in 1972 the New York Islanders also debuted — the Atlanta Flames (referring to the burning of Atlanta by U.S. Army General William Sherman during the American Civil War) up and went north for the winter, settling in Calgary, Alberta.

The NHL has a relocation and expansion history that many current fans know nothing about. For example, how many of you knew that the New Jersey Devils franchise is currently in its third city?

OK, so a lot of you, but there are many ignorant fans out there that had no idea that the Devils started as the Kansas City Scouts in 1974, moving after just two horrendous years to Colorado. There, known as the Rockies, they became the precursors of the Avalanche. After six equally bad years in Colorado, they jumped cross-country to New Jersey in 1982, where they have been ever since.

That started a trend in the 1990s in which teams left rural, hockey-rich areas in search of bigger markets. In 1993, the Minnesota North Stars went south after 26 years — and two Stanley Cup Finals appearances — to land in Dallas.

1995 Colorado got a reprieve when the Quebec Nordiques — 16-season veterans of Canada — relocated and became the Colorado Avalanche.

In 1996, the original Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix to become the Coyotes — who are embroiled in their own financial troubles with the possibility of relocation. And in 1997, the Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh, N.C., to become the Carolina Hurricanes.

The last time the NHL needed to tweak its divisions was in 1999, when the Thrashers entered the league as an expansion team (along with Minnesota’s second chance, the Wild). Then, the NHL moved from four divisions — Smythe, Norris, Adams and Patrick — to the six geographically named ones we see today. But those are soon to fall by the wayside as well.

According to ESPN.com, in order to create a more balanced travel format for all teams while attempting to maintain rivalries, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors have agreed to implement a drastic change.

Four yet-to-be-named conferences will replace the two-conference, six-division alignment already in place. Every team will be guaranteed a home-and-home series with every nonconference team in the league and five or six against every conference foe.

Two seven-team conferences will contain the eastern-time-zone teams, with Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto making up one and Carolina, New Jersey, both New York teams, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington making up the other.

Out west, Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver will make up one of the eight-team conferences, and the other will contain the central-time-zone teams of Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg.

The problem with this realignment appears to come at playoff time. The top four teams in each conference will make the playoffs and the first two rounds will be used to determine the champion of each respective conference. Details beyond those, however, are still undecided, as the league has yet to decide whether to reseed from that point on or work based on predetermined matchups.

There has already been griping over whether the Players’ Association (NHLPA) has to pass off on the plan or not. Bettman says no; the NHLPA says yes. The proposal received the 20-out-of-30 team votes needed to pass and there’s been speculation on what the new conference names will be. The favorite plan seems to be the old Smythe, Norris, Adams and Patrick names mentioned earlier.

Regardless, this new plan will ensure one thing that this writer is happy about: We’ll get to see Pens-Flyers and Pens-Caps games at least a combined 10-12 times per year. And that is never a bad thing.