NHL Realignment 2013-14: Biggest Problems with New Divisional Format

It seems like every time the NHL attempts to change things for the better, the league ends up getting worse. 

Most recently, the league decided to undergo a drastic realignment to the divisions, changing from six to four and having either seven or eight teams in each division. The league also announced the names of the divisions, which includes the Pacific, Central, Atlantic and Metropolitan. 

Without going into the names themselves (Metropolitan?), there are plenty of issues that will come up with this new system. Plus, there were ways the league failed at a chance to create more excitement in the format.

Here are the biggest problems with the NHL realignment.

Unbalanced Playoff Format

One of the big things that the league focused on with the new divisions was the increased importance each of them played in the postseason format.

Instead of having the best eight teams compete in the playoffs from each conference, each division will have at least three representatives no matter what. The squads with the next two best records will round out the bracket, according to NHL.com.

In this situation, there could be multiple deserving teams left out of the postseason because they are simply in the wrong division.

Two years ago, the Florida Panthers barely made the playoffs but were given the No. 3 seed thanks to winning the Southeast Division. This is bad enough, but things are about to get worse.

With only two wild-card spots, there is a very good chance of teams sneaking into the playoffs with fewer points than those staying home.

The goal of the league should be to get the best teams in the postseason, and this new system seems to prevent that from happening.

Leaving Out the Florida Teams

For the most part, these new divisions do a good job of keeping geographic rivalries. This is a good thing, because there is nothing quite like making a road trip to a game to root on your team against a team you have to beat for the division title.

CBS Sports provided a nice map to see how the divisions line up geographically. However, looking at the map, you notice a certain exception to that rule in Florida. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers are in the same division, but the rest of the Atlantic is much farther north. This will lead to a lot of travel for the squads and everyone else involved on a game-to-game basis.

While the other NHL teams are obviously not as close as they are in the Northeast, there were still other options to put in the region. The Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes could have easily been in the group as well.

The fact that they will remain in the same time zone for most of their games during the year is obviously a plus, but the two Florida teams are incredibly isolated in these new divisions.

Missed Opportunity to Extend New York-Boston Rivalry

Obviously, this factors into an East Coast bias, but the best city rivalry in America is almost certainly New York versus Boston.

The Red Sox and Yankees have battled for years in baseball, the Celtics and Knicks have a long rivalry and the Patriots always seem to have tough battles against both the Giants and Jets. 

However, the Boston Bruins have been in a different division from the New York Rangers (and Islanders) since the latest realignment. The Bruins and Rangers are two of the Original Six teams, but they have not played each other as often as they could have if they were competing in the same division.

The new Metropolitan Division features virtually every major city in the Northeast with the exception of Boston. This would have been a nice addition to compete with the other local squads that are not in Canada.

The NHL could easily flip the Columbus Blue Jackets for the Bruins and no one would notice and/or care.

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