A quick post after finally getting Enterprise to run on Netflix streaming, leave it to canceling a show to make it 100 times better (I was watching the three-parter involving Captain Archer toppling Vulcan society). Plus I tried making the upgrade to WordPress 3.2…I don’t recommend it right now, it totally hosed my plug-ins and if anyone bothered checking between 9-11 PM CDT, it took my site out.
So to the heart of this post.
The AHL Board of Governors decided to re-align the 30 AHL teams into a similar arrangement as the NHL: six divisions divided between two conferences. Thus, every divisional winner gets the top three seeds and the remaining five go to the remaining teams with the most points. Never mind that the NHL may possibly ditch this next year because Winnipeg will push either Detroit, Columbus or Nashville into the Eastern Conference. My Stars are moved to the slimmer West with OKC, Houston, SA and for some reason, Abbotsford. Our former common opponents get their own division called (logically) the Midwest (almost all Illinois): Chicago, Milwaukee, Peoria, Rockford and new ‘neighbor’ Charlotte. The North Carolinan hellhole has as much in common with the Midwest as Nancy Grace has with civil discourse. Somebody had to move, looks like the Checkers drew the short straw. The North’s core is intact: Grand Rapids, Rochester, Toronto, Hamilton and Lake Erie. Maybe this time we’ll finally get to see the Rochester Americans over the Syracuse Crunch.
It’s going to be interesting. By January or later, we’re going to discover which division in the AHL is the NHL’s equivalent of the Southleast (I’m betting it will either be my West due to all the changes in the three Texas teams or the North since they were weak in 2010-11) and the Northwest; fellow hockey fans all remember when the Pacific used to in this ugly spot about 10 years ago.
Amendment/Correction, Jul 7, 2011: My friend Jeremy pointed out that six divisions might be better than four. Case in point, the result of last season’s North Division. Three teams were awarded playoff spots when only one really had enough points to be a contender, especially if the West was used as a comparison. So the divisional winner can have the pity spot and stronger teams from other regions will have the points to continue on.