NHL Realignment and Division Names

[J0e Th0rnton]

Ouch.

I am pretty sure Marcel Dionne is the only man in the hall of fame who never won a best of 7 playoff series.

[Samifan]

Metropolitan, Atlantic, Patrick, I dont care. The only name I want associated with the Flyers is Stanley Cup Champion!

Hoping it happens once more before my table is ready at Miroslav Satan's joint.

[jammer2]

I am pretty sure Marcel Dionne is the only man in the hall of fame who never won a best of 7 playoff series.

Dionne was one of the most underrated superstars...ever. He's still solidly in the top 5 of all time for pts, and the playoff series, I don't blame him one bit. For the most part, the Kings secondary scoring was horrid. He had a solid 45 pts in 49 playoff games ya know.

[ruxpin]

I am pretty sure Marcel Dionne is the only man in the hall of fame who never won a best of 7 playoff series.

There aren't any Maple Leafs in the Hall?

(I think you may be right)

[ruxpin]

Dionne was one of the most underrated superstars...ever. He's still solidly in the top 5 of all time for pts, and the playoff series, I don't blame him one bit. For the most part, the Kings secondary scoring was horrid. He had a solid 45 pts in 49 playoff games ya know.

The Kings didn't really have quality goaltending or defense when he played, either. Rogie Vachon and Mario Lessard didn't inspire fear in anyone. And the last couple years he was in LA it was musical goaltenders. I don't think they ever had much outside the Dionne/Taylor line.

[ruxpin]

Dionne was one of the most underrated superstars...ever. He's still solidly in the top 5 of all time for pts, and the playoff series, I don't blame him one bit. For the most part, the Kings secondary scoring was horrid. He had a solid 45 pts in 49 playoff games ya know.

I am okay with Dionne being in the Hall, but I suppose a player should at least have won a 7 game series to be in...personal stats notwithstanding. Dionne is my exception to most of the rules I would usually cling to regarding the Hall.

[jammer2]

@ruxpin Yeah, he was certainly Hall worthy, first ballot even. When you're chipping in a smidge under a pt per game in the playoffs, you really have to look at other extenuating factors that don't involve Dionne's play (like the secondary scoring, goaltending, the defense etc). There is only so much one guy can do, looks to me like Marcel did his part.

[J0e Th0rnton]

Dionne was one of the most underrated superstars...ever. He's still solidly in the top 5 of all time for pts, and the playoff series, I don't blame him one bit. For the most part, the Kings secondary scoring was horrid. He had a solid 45 pts in 49 playoff games ya know.

Dionne scored at a rate of 1.50 points per game on average in the regular season, and yet dropped off to 0.91 in the playoffs.

that is a huuuuuge drop in personal production.

Granted I did not see a lot of him, but the Kings fans I know told me his game was simply, well, predictable, and not dynamic. And they accused him of disappearing, being shut down and only scoring points in games when they were losing 6-1 already. When Kings fans tell me Joe Thornton looks outstanding in the playoffs in comparison......I have to believe Dionne was pretty subpar at crunch time.

Granted NOBODY could have lead those teams to cups. All I am saying is that his personal production suffered at a time when he was supposed to be elevating his game. He was the #1 target for shutdown in the regular season as well.

[jammer2]

@J0e Th0rnton Marcel Dionne, not dynamic?? Someone was feeding you bad info. That guy lifted people out of their seats. Almost a ppg in the playoffs is a very respectable number.

Only 3 players ever scored at a rate of 1.5 pts per game in the playoffs, and 2 of the 3 are named Wayne and Mario. Guys that didn't put up a pt per game in the playoffs....Steve Yzerman, Stan Mikata, Rocket Richard among many others...yet they are considered all time greats. Marcel gets a bad rap all the time. Sure they those guys had cups to show for their efforts, but also had great supporting casts. 0.91 pts per playoff game puts in and around the top 60 of all time, not shabby for a guy with little to no defense on his team and no secondary scoring to take the heat off him. He played with dogged determination, did everything humanly possible to help his team advance.

[jammer2]

@J0e Th0rnton This is a nice video, the Marcel stuff starts at the 3 min mark....enjoy!

At the 20 min mark, Jaques Demers comments on the fact people thought Marcel was not a winner, outright saying it was not true. Also a testimonial from Bobby Clarke who called him "very" determined. Danny Gare saying he made those around him better....on and on great players complimenting his skill and determination...this guy was the opposite of lazy. Marcel himself states in this video that the single thing he was most proud of was not taking shifts off...he came to play...every game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a80vh3dPILI

[J0e Th0rnton]

@J0e Th0rnton Marcel Dionne, not dynamic?? Someone was feeding you bad info. That guy lifted people out of their seats. Almost a ppg in the playoffs is a very respectable number.

Only 3 players ever scored at a rate of 1.5 pts per game in the playoffs, and 2 of the 3 are named Wayne and Mario. Guys that didn't put up a pt per game in the playoffs....Steve Yzerman, Stan Mikata, Rocket Richard among many others...yet they are considered all time greats. Marcel gets a bad rap all the time. Sure they those guys had cups to show for their efforts, but also had great supporting casts. 0.91 pts per playoff game puts in and around the top 60 of all time, not shabby for a guy with little to no defense on his team and no secondary scoring to take the heat off him. He played with dogged determination, did everything humanly possible to help his team advance.

Certainly if you look at career numbers. However, many many great players have kept their season average points per game close to their playoff average(Looking merely at their prime years).

The guys you mentioned all played in the low scoring periods of hockey(Half of Yzerman's career was DPE, and he has a very good playoff PPG in the 80's)). Marcel played in the, well, highest scoring times ever. His drop in numbers compared to his regular seasons were astronomical. Yzerman did get comparisons to Dionne before he won finally the big one of course. Much like Joe Thornton does now.

[flyercanuck]

The only good thing that comes out of this stupid name is that with the Vezina trophy in hand, BOBROVSKY is officially the #1 cop of Metro Division!

[B21]

How can the names Smythe, Adams, Norris, and Patrick identify a location to a new fan? Essentially then they have no meaning. If you first look at the NHL is divided between the East and the West. The Atlantic ocean lines the East from North to South, the metropolitan division is the center of that north / south region, just as a city is the center of the suburbs and surrounding countryside. Anyway that is just how I can relate to the names.

If they kept the Atlantic division the same for the most part what would they call the combined divisions of the northeast and southeast?

I do prefer the name "Metro" as opposed to "Metropolitan" chances are most on TV and radio will shorten the name also.

This. I think the fact that the DC/Philly/NY teams are in the same division is what is driving the name. "Metropolitan" is bad but "Metro" is actually kinda cool.

[ruxpin]

The only real problem I have with realignment is when I am on my cell phone on THIS SITE! I keep clicking on "Atlantic Division" looking to go to the Flyers link and see all these bizarre names. Then I remember they're in the really oddly-titled "Metropolitan Division." Grrr!

[Dynamo 47]

Just another in a long list of reasons that I HATE what Bettman has done to the game.

The stupid Metropolitan division. Look at the division groupings. You have Northeast and Canadian cities with the two Florida markets. The chart alone should support contraction for the two Florida teams.

Perhaps what is most upsetting to me is the playoff formats. There is no reseeding after the initial round of the playoffs. Teams face other teams in their divisions so in a division with two strong teams one could be eliminated early.

The whole thing sucks.

[dilbert719]

The divisional alignment is acceptable, if you take into account the financial boost the Florida teams will get from having that many Canadian teams in their division. The names are just dumb.

This could have been resolved, if the NHL had the basic sense to revert to the old conference names.

Wales Conference

Eastern Division: MTL/TOR/BOS/BUF/DET/OTT/FLA/TB

Mideast Division: PHI/PIT/NYI/NYR/NJ/CAR/WAS/CMB

Campbell Conference

Western Division: ANA/LA/SJ/PHX/VAN/EDM/CGY

Midwest Division: CHI/DAL/COL/MIN/WPG/STL/NAS

Simple, clean, reasonably descriptive, nothing wrong with that, and all it takes is freeing up the word "Eastern."

[hf101]

Perhaps what is most upsetting to me is the playoff formats. There is no reseeding after the initial round of the playoffs. Teams face other teams in their divisions so in a division with two strong teams one could be eliminated early.

I dunno, I kind of like the new format. 5 teams from one division have a chance to make the playoffs. Maybe this setup gives more importance to the regular season for each division as the top 3 automatically get in the playoffs? I think in the old format there was still the same chance a 7 or 8 team could beat two divisional leaders. What I like though is removing the 3-6 matchup.