Here is my alignment and its scheduling:

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division:

New Jersey
N.Y. Islanders
N.Y. Rangers
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh

Northeast Division:

Boston
Buffalo
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto

Southeast Division:

Atlanta
Carolina
Florida
Tampa Bay
Washington


Western Conference

Central Division:

Chicago
Columbus
Detroit
Nashville
St. Louis

Northwest Division:

Calgary
Colorado
Edmonton
Minnesota
Vancouver

Pacific Division:

Anaheim
Dallas
Los Angeles
Phoenix
San Jose

Here is my scheduling format for each team:

30 games against non-conference teams [a.k.a. East vs. West or vice-versa] (2*15)
40 games against teams from the same conference but not your division (4*10)
24 games against teams from the same division (6*4)

Sum that up for a total of 94 games in one season.

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

Hockey needs less games, not more. Doesn't sound like that's necessarily going to happen (although it could... stay tuned).

24 games in division, 50 outside. Sounds sensible enough. Maybe 16 and 50 works better.

82 regular season games is already too many.

You should be forced to sit through a lot of games vs. division rival Columbus Blue Jackets, to get a sense for that.

74 is good. I like a balanced schedule. the 4 x 6, plus the 25 x 2 works out well. The NHL season was 74 games in the last 1960s for a stretch. It has crept upward.... 74, 76, 78, 80, 82.

Plus what Pounder proposed lets every team see every other team come into their building at least once. When you have a schedule, where you don't even see another team certain years, it feels like the league has gotten too big. If Mario Lemieux is playing, and I am a season ticket holder for a team in the Western Conference, I want to see him at least ONCE during the season. Right now the 82 game schedule doesn't offer that for a lot of the inter-conference match-ups.

A lot of fans have responded to various surveys, and overwhelmingly suggest that the regular season be shortened, especially since it means so little with regard to earning any kind of advantage going into the playoffs.

How about the following:

30 games against non-conference teams [a.k.a. East vs. West or vice-versa] (2*15)
40 games against teams from the same conference but not your division (4*10)
16 games against teams from the same division (4*4)

Sum that up for a total of 86 games in one season. My final offer.

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

The new schedule will involve 32 division (4 x 8), 40 OOD conference (10 x 4) and only 10 games vs. the other conference. Maybe each team will play home-and-home against one OOC division or perhaps one game vs each team in 2 OOC divisions.

Hey Westwolf, I think my scheduling format seems to fit better (perfectly better), for now. If 2 new franchises come, I think of making a new scheduling format (which it would be soon, if possible). Catch up with you guys later.

John :)

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

30 games vs. Non-Conference opponents (15 x 2)
30 games vs. Conference opponents outside your own division (10 x 3)
20 games vs. Division opponents (4 x 5)

That would be a total of 80 games.

If you want to shake up the alignment,

Atlantic - NYI, NYR, NJ, FL, TB, BOS, MON, WAS
Central - BUF, PIT, PHI, TOR, OTT, ATL, CAR
Midwest - DET, NAS, DAL, STL, CHI, CLB, MIN
Pacific - VAN, ANA, LA, PHX, SJ, CAL, EDM, CO

Everyone still gets 30 non-conference games. Teams in the Atlantic and Pacific divisions would get 21 games against the other division in their own conference and 29 games against division rivals (and possibly a permanent rival for that extra division game, such as BOS-MON or FL-TB). Teams in the Central and Midwest Divsions play teams from the other division in their own conference 24 times, and play teams within their own division 26 times (6 x 4 and 2 extra games).

WBYeager, maybe yours sounds better than mine. I'm impressed.

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

Will the NHL add 2 more franchises so the league can have a total of 32 teams? If so, here is my alignment and its scheduling:

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division:

Atlanta (heading from the Southeast Div.)
Florida (returning from the Southeast Div.)
New Jersey
N.Y. Islanders
N.Y. Rangers
Philadelphia
Tampa Bay (returning from the Southeast Div.)
Washington, D.C. (returning from the Southeast Div.)

Northeast Division:

Boston
Buffalo
Carolina (returning from the Southeast Div.)
Montreal
Ottawa
Pittsburgh (returning from the Atlantic Div.)
Toronto
[new franchise]

Western Conference

Central Division:

Chicago
Columbus
Dallas (returning from the Pacific Div.)
Detroit
Minnesota (heading from the Northwest Div.)
Nashville
Phoenix (returning from the Pacific Div.)
St. Louis

Pacific Division:

Anaheim
Calgary (returning from the Northwest Div.)
Colorado (returning from the Northwest Div.)
Edmonton (returning from the Northwest Div.)
Los Angeles
San Jose
Vancouver (returning from the Northwest Div.)
[new franchise]

Here is my scheduling format for each team:

A.) - 32 games against non-conference teams [a.k.a. East vs. West or vice-versa] (2*16) [1 home & 1 road]

B.) - 24 games against teams from the same conference but not your division (3*8)

-----Note: "Objective B" will be based on a two year
rotation

Ex: Colorado vs. West Conf. - Central Div. (Year A or Odds)

CHI - (@), (v.), (@)
CBJ - (v.), (@), (v.)
DAL - (@), (v.), (@)
DET - (v.), (@), (v.)
MIN - (@), (v.), (@)
NSH - (v.), (@), (v.)
STL - (@), (v.), (@)
[?] - (v.), (@), (v.)

Ex: Colorado vs. West Conf. - Central Div. (Year B or Evens)

CHI - (v.), (@), (v.)
CBJ - (@), (v.), (@)
DAL - (v.), (@), (v.)
DET - (@), (v.), (@)
MIN - (v.), (@), (v.)
NSH - (@), (v.), (@)
STL - (v.), (@), (v.)
[?] - (@), (v.), (@)

C.) - 28 games against teams from the same division (4*7) [2 home & 2 road]

Sum that up for a "returning" total of 84 games since the 93-94 season.

Take care, everyone!

Yours truly,

John

P.S.: About the 2 new franchises, if it's possible, it would depend on the NHL commissioner and staff.

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

Westwolf has the correct new scheduling format in Reply #4 above.

The 10 OOC games is a 3-year rotation, wherby you play all 5 teams from one OOC division at home, and play all 5 teams from a different OOC division on the road.

The OOC divisions played in a given year are the same for everyone in your division.

As a Penguin fan in St. Louis, I personally would rather have seen the teams in the other conference once a year, rather than every 3 years, but at least it's fair and balanced with regard to who your division rivals have to play.

All in all, I think the NHL changes are all positive. Not sure exactly what the game will look like until we see it, but a more open game will be a breath of fresh air. Some of these 1-1 games with a lot of "trapping" are rather mind-numbing. I like the shoot-out concept and elimination of ties, however I think the points per game should be:

Win in regulation = 3 (it will still be 2)l
Win in OT / shoot-out = 2
Loss in OT / shoot-out = 1
Loss in regulation = 0

Every game should be worth the same number of points (3), otherwise you can have collusion between 2 teams playing a late season inter-conference game to let the game go to OT, and split 3 poing (2 and 1 or 1 and 2), rather than play to win all point in regulation.
But the NHL has that flaw now...

I understand you comments but what does "OOC" and "OOD" mean, respectively?

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

Out of conference. Out of division.

I've seen a couple of games with no red line.

First: WPHL (now dba CHL) New Mexico vs San Angelo. Game went something like 8-2. Low level skill meant that a lot of "passes" aimed from the back to the opposing blue line became icing, which REALLY slowed down the game... hence the reason the NHL is going to waive icing when it looks like a pass is attempted.

Second: Salt Lake City, 2002 Olympics, Sweden vs Czech Republic. Sweden was so confident that it used four forwards per line... and won. They won 2-1. Defensemen are less likely to join the attack in order to cover cherry pickers with more ice to cover. However, the game did have a lot more back-and-forth rather than getting stuck mid-ice like so many NHL games do. Of course, 100' wide ice might have something to do with that.

In short, this is a risk. This doesn't address all the problems.

A shorter schedule would actually help more. Less games, more energy applied to each game, more energy leads to more action. If NHL attendance suffers a significant drop at reduced prices, this might even happen.

NCAA,
I did not make the post you may be referring to, but OOC generally denotes Out-Of-Conference, and I assume, OOD pertains to Out-Of-Division.

Post note: Opps, I see pounder clarified also.

I understand carefully. But show a detailed explained example just like I did. (In terms of OOC and OOD). I want to be sure just in case. Thanks and have a great day.

John

P.S.: The points should be valued like this:

Win in regulation = 4
Win in OT = 3
Tie (if there is no shoot-out) = 2
Loss in OT = 1
Loss in regulation = 0

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

Why should the points be valued as such?

Sports fans demand a form of simplicity by rule. People generally don't want to spend time assessing calculations.

3-1-0 is simple.

That should tell you, BTW, what I think of the shootout. Last time I was subject to one of those (in Boise), I stood behind one goal in the open concourse and turned my back. I might go full moon next time. ;) Skills competitions to break ties don't enthuse me... and you don't even want to ask me about "Kicks From The Mark" to decide soccer games.