Globe and Mail reports that NHL may be loaning money to Phoenix Coyotes

The bigger thing (at least to me) is the tome zone factor. Even if it is just an hour, changing time zones for every single conference road game has to wear on you.

 

All of this needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt given the near-certainty more franchises will likely be on the hoof within a couple seasons.

 

Local sports columnist in Valdosta says the obvious (according to him) that hockey doesn't work in the South.

http://valdostadailytimes.com/sports/x645566821/Column-Hockey-Thrashers-South-don-t-mix

 

The 21,000 people yesterday who turned the St. Pete arena into one of the loudest scenes I've heard this playoffs disagree with you.

 

If Indianapolis can be in the South for football, Columbus in the Southeast is fine.

Nashville makes more sense though.

 

If Mr. Transplanted Yankee has decided that nobody in Georgia cares about hockey, why is he wasting time and newshole writing a column about it?

 

The Thrashers wouldn't be moving if there was a winning product. Nashville is doing OK because the team is a constant fixture in the playoffs.

 

There's no point in even having divisions when it's your position in the conference that determines whether or not you make the playoffs.

And if you eliminate the divisions, you no longer have to deal with the ridiculousness associated with a team getting a No. 3 or even a No. 2 seed because of a bogus first-place divisional result.

Think about it. It's totally asinine to say to Team B, well, you didn't quite compile enough points to finish eighth, so your season is done - hit the links. But, Team A, you get the No. 3 seed and home-ice advantage in the first round even though two other teams in the conference actually had more points than you did.

 

Which is why they should go back to the old four division format.

The top four teams in each division made the playoffs and the first two rounds were intra-division. You didn't see a non-division opponent til the conference finals.

Not only does it make division games more meaningful but there is nothing like a brutal playoff series to stoke rivalries.

Something like this would be fun:

Washington
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Florida

Boston
Montreal
Rangers
Islanders
Toronto
Ottawa
Buffalo

Nashville
Columbus
Detroit
Chicago
Minnesota
Dallas
Colorado
St. Louis

Vancouver
Edmonton
Calgary
Winnipeg
San Jose
Los Angeles
Anaheim
Phoenix

 

I spent about half my life in the San Jose area and am shocked to find out that, according to this writer, that it's part of the South!

 

South Bay?

 

Well, it is in California. And southerners did try to argue that California should have been a slave state when it entered the Union in 1850 because most of it was "the south" (or south of 36-30, the Missouri Compromise line). In reality, from every map I've looked at, most of California is north of that line and at more northern latitudes than many areas where it snows a lot.