Penguins-Blue Jackets: "I-70 Series" Limited By Current NHL Geography

Pittsburgh and Columbus are less than 200 miles apart, but in the mind of the National Hockey League, they might as well be on opposite ends of the North American continent.

You see, in the northeast-centric landscape of the NHL, Eastern Time Zone cities Detroit and Columbus are forced to play in the Western Conference. Heck, even Toronto, which is a few meridians east of Pittsburgh, played in the West as recently as 1998.

But while the Red Wings have traditionally competed against the likes of current Central Division rivals St. Louis and Chicago, the eighth-year Blue Jackets are stuck with someone else's schedule.

Teams from as far away as Vancouver and Los Angeles visit twice a year, while the Penguins made the mere three-hour drive for just the second time in four seasons.

Give the NHL credit for being flexible by mandating three interconference home-and-home series for each of its 30 clubs. Award further kudos for pitting the Pens and Jackets against each other twice in this, the first season for the revamped scheduling matrix.

But in the aftermath of a 4-3 Columbus shootout victory, a game that featured a Hatfields-vs.-McCoys atmosphere in the stands (appropriate since the Blue Jackets are the namesakes of Union Civil War soldiers), I've got to wonder if the league can make a special exception and arrange for Pittsburgh and Columbus to meet four times a year.

I'm not advocating having the Penguins and Jackets play two fewer games apiece against their conference brethren; on the contrary, let's simply set aside four of the six East vs. West contests for a yearly "I-70 Series" that would surely excite and activate both fanbases.

It doesn't have to be exclusive treatment, either. I guarantee old Original Six combatants Toronto and Detroit would love to collide four times per season and get an old blood-feud boiling again.

What about Chicago and Boston, too? The option to handpick an interconference four-game series could be given to all teams to accept or decline, depending on interest.

In a league that is dependent on packed houses and spectator intensity, what's the drawback? Maybe Carolina and Nashville can kindle a Southern-fried tit-for-tat, or Tampa Bay and Calgary could elect to relive their seven-game Stanley Cup Final of 2004.

It's certainly food for thought.

In the meantime, with Blue Jackets Fever reaching epidemic proportions in Buckeye Country and a franchise-record crowd at Nationwide Arena to see playoff-hopeful Columbus try to fend off the two best centers in hockey, surely Jackets management can't wait for the Pittsburgh Penguins Road Show to ride back through central Ohio.

The way both teams are playing—a combined record of 22-8-3 since Feb. 4—it's not that improbable that the Pens next visit to could occur in early June as opposed to some as-yet-undetermined date in the future.

But aside from dreaming of a Pens-Jackets Cup tussle (would West Virginia be considered the neutral zone?), the next best thing besides adding Columbus to the Atlantic Division would be a four-game set each season.

NHL geography be damned.