NHL Realignment: What Conference B Holds for the Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks will see changes in their schedule starting next season.

Can't wait.

The NHL's Board of Governors approved a new realignment plan Monday night, creating a more balanced schedule and less travel across time zones. The plan needs to be approved by the NHL Players' Association.

Both the regular season and the playoffs will have a different look with a four-conference setup.

Starting next season, the 'Hawks are proud members of Conference B. I know that fans of some teams are going to be up in arms about the way things are shaping up, but fans of the Indian head sweater should be pretty stoked.

As we wait for the league to give these new conferences less intramural-league sounding names, let's see how things shape up for the Blackhawks.

Diggin' The New Neighbors

Chicago draws a lot of familiar faces in its new conference.

Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis and Nashville are already Central Division rivals. Joining these teams are Dallas, Winnipeg and Minnesota.

All I can say is it's about time the Wild become a more meaningful and frequent opponent.

Besides gaining Minnesota, us fans keep the rivalry with the Red Wings. We keep all our current division foes. The Stars and Jets were at one time Central Division members as well. There's lots of familiarity and we didn't lose much in the reshuffling of the deck. Big-time plus.

There will still be some late starts on the West Coast for you night owls, but I think most fans will be more alert on the job most mornings with that happening less frequently.

Balanced Schedule May Hurt Some Rivalries, But Will Start Others

After playing each conference rival either five or six times depending on the season, Chicago will have a home-and-away contest with every other team in the league. Again, I count this as a huge improvement.

On one hand, we may see a waning of our rivalry with Vancouver, which will be unfortunate. The trade-off is that we will get to face all of the Original Six teams every season. Every team's stars will pass through the United Center every year. The advantage goes to realignment, in my opinion.

It will be nice to get to see Toronto in the United Center once a year. I'm sure the East Coast teams also won't mind the annual visit from the Blackhawks.

Playoffs

The structure of the playoffs also looks to undergo a big change.

What it seems is that we'll have a return to the old division pairings, with the top four teams in each conference making the playoffs, with each conference having a champion. The conference winners square off in a semifinal, with the winners advancing to the Cup.

This will hurt teams that play in hotly contested conferences, as only four of the eight teams in Conference B will advance to the playoffs. As constructed, the Western Conference has been a dogfight most seasons, so in that regard, little should chance.

On the other hand, it really puts a premium on beating the teams in your conference. It also should make the first two rounds of the playoffs intense wars between rivals.

The one thing I dislike about this new format is the prospect of each conference champ being seeded for what amounts to the Stanley Cup semifinals. It would be nice to see a consistent East-West final. Of course, what 'Hawks fan wouldn't enjoy a meeting with the Canucks in the finals?

I'm sure the new schedule next season holds both good and bad developments for the Blackhawks. Looks like we'll have to wait and see how everything works out.