Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Hawks/Wings rivalry in jeopardy

With the Atlanta franchise moving to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season and becoming the new Jets, the topic of re alignment has moved from College Football to the NHL.  It has already been stated by Commissioner Gary Bettman that Winnipeg will move to the Western Conference for the 2012-13 season.  Winnipeg is currently playing in the Southeast Division with Washington, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Florida.  That being said it’s a given that Winnipeg must move west with them being located geographically northwest of St. Paul, Minnesota.  The leading candidates to replace the Jets in the Eastern Conference are the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Nashville Predators.  Detroit being in the Eastern time zone does not like having Conference games on the west coast start at 10:00 p.m. local time and have wanted to move East for a while now.  If Detroit moves, what becomes of the Hawks/Dead Things rivalry that has become more relevant in the last three years with the Hawks putting themselves back on the hockey map?  Currently Central Division rivals that face off six times per year what will happen if Detroit moves East?  Will they play only once or twice per year?  Playing the hated Red Wings is  important for many reasons.  As a Hawks fan I look forward to playing and beating the Wings as many times a year as possible.  More importantly, the Wings have been the model of consistency and a winner for over fifteen years now.  To be the best you need to play the best and model yourself off the best.  I don’t believe the Hawks would be where they are today if they hadn’t modeled themselves off and molded themselves to beat the Red Wings.  I hope if the Wings do move East that the league goes to a more balanced schedule so this rivalry can remain intact for years to come.  I have also heard rumblings of the league going to fifteen teams in each conference with a seven and an eight team division in each conference.  I would favor this and the return of divisional playoffs.  Many hated rivalries were born out of the old divisional playoffs and rivalries are what makes hockey great.