The NHL’s Board of Governors gathered to discuss a handful of things that could help the game out in the long run and to help the league get straightened out with their conference alignment.
The league got down to matters on some of the things tested out during the NHL’s R&D camp this summer that saw tactics implemented to help officials both on the ice and in the replay booth make sure that a goal is actually a goal. The green verification line that sits a puck-width behind the red goal line in the net as well as thin mesh on top of the goals and a clear plastic skirt around the bottom of the net have been conditionally approved by the Board of Governors. The board will wait for approval from the NHLPA before going fully ahead with putting these new changes in place for this season.
As for changing the depth of the nets themselves, like the shallower nets used last night in Toronto, that will take approval from the competition committee to make that happen and should that be approved, it won’t happen until next season.
The bigger thing on the Board’s plate today, however, was discussion of realignment starting next season. The talk of realignment came up during the summer and much of that is in part thanks to the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg and adding another team to the west while three eastern located teams continue to play in the Western Conference. Detroit, Columbus, and Nashville are all seeking to find a way to the Eastern Conference next season and Wild owner Craig Leipold even may have tipped off what the NHL’s plans are to do it.
With the Board talking things over today, the clock is officially ticking until when we’ll see what the league comes up with as their solution to trying to keep everyone happy. Dan Rosen of NHL.com has the discussion.
Going back to a four division alignment would be another “turn back the clock” element by the NHL as that’s the setup the league had before switching to six divisions. The four division format also had the excitement of divisional playoffs with the top four teams in each division making the postseason and then squaring off against each other in the first two rounds of the playoffs. In those days, the schedule was also balanced and not overloaded with games against teams in the division. Rivalries were built in the post season between teams that already hated each other. It was truly a beautiful thing.
Should all these things make a comeback, the NHL doing things “old school” like this would help spice things up in the postseason as well as not burn fans out having so many regular season games between divisional foes. Of course, the NHL could decide to keep doing the playoffs just as they are now with division winners taking the top two spots and everyone else duking it out for the other six spots.
The NHL has to make a move on realignment before December so as to get the schedule in order for next season. If nothing can be agreed upon by then, any plans to realign would likely get tabled for another season. Don’t expect there to be any problems in getting something worked out however.