The NHL's Board of Governors approved realignment for next season, with the Panthers moving from the Southeast Division to a yet-unnamed Conference C. Florida will be with Southeast alum Tampa Bay as well as Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Boston.
By being in a seven team division, the Panthers will play each division foe six times – three home, three away. The new format brings back complete play as each team will play every team in the league at least twice – one at home, one away.
The top four teams in each division will play each other in the playoffs with the four conference champs being seeded for the Stanley Cup semifinals.
This goes into affect next season.
good for the Cats to be in a division with the Canadian teams that draw well. I thought Detroit would get out of the West, but overall .they seemed to have done a good and logical job with the realignment.
Posted by: ac | December 05, 2011 at 10:18 PM
Could be fun if the cats play the bolts in the playoffs
Posted by: Season ticket holder since day one | December 05, 2011 at 10:20 PM
Saw this on FSF last night. BOS and BUF look to be tough opponents - and, yet another reason to hate MTL.
Posted by: DV | December 06, 2011 at 08:43 AM
i think this is a horrible decision to split the conferneces up into 4 ... now there will be no east west coast cup finals... for all you know the finals could stay in the east or the west....
Posted by: Chris | December 06, 2011 at 08:45 AM
Apparently the whole 4 conference reseed thing is not 100% set in stone. They will meet with GMs to discuss how Round 3 goes and go from there. I hope they stick with a East/West thing: Conf A and B = West/Campbell, Conf C & D = East/Wales, just because that decision really will have no effect on the scheduling (ie: DET plays same scehduled either way).
Posted by: skpantherfan | December 06, 2011 at 09:49 AM
How is it that our division literally has to travel from top of N. America to the bottom yet the 3 NY and 2 PA along with Washington could literally bus themselves from game to game.
How is this alignment fair again?
Posted by: catfan927 | December 06, 2011 at 12:09 PM
I find it ridiculous that the Florida teams are traveling all the way to Canada as well. They should've just done the splits geographically, not based on trying to maintain rivalries. New rivalries can always be created.
Posted by: Mad Max | December 06, 2011 at 02:14 PM
I strongly suspect that the money people at both the Panthers AND Lightning are overjoyed with the prospect of having multiple games at home against teams from Canada and the Northeast. It's as simple as economics. This is the NHL catering to the requests of the Florida teams, not catering to the Canadian teams. They get to visit here in the dead of winter, and we get to soak in their desperately needed money. win-win. Fans of Florida teams get to have their arenas inundated nightly with assclowns from Canada and the Northeast. lose-lose. Money wins every time.
Posted by: Moob | December 06, 2011 at 03:54 PM
"This goes into AFFECT next season"
Really? How about a little proof reading and editing before publishing?
Posted by: deluqh | December 08, 2011 at 08:58 AM