NHL Playoffs (ice hockey) + bracket challenge!

[Yuki]

1) The Canadian dollar remained under $0.80 for 2 decades back in the days. On the other hand, it seems that the NHL is more worried about the big fluctuations than it being low. For example, Bettman mentioned that it went under $0.70 for a while, so perhaps if it remains at $0.78 all the time they might be more inclined to expand?

Pierre Dion, head of Québécor, mentioned today that during the negociations, the dollar were in the $0.70s, and they were afraid it will go as low as $0.60.

2) Quebec City cannot be moved to the west physically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9RuaB3c9FQ

In all seriousness, the league can definitely move teams between conferences, especially those close to Central US/Canada, like St. Louis or Minnesota. If you remember, before the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, it was a good 15-15, the then new Jets even played in the East for at least a season before the NHL remade all the divisions and made the conferences 16-14.

3) Other teams don't want to lose 2 players in one go.

Could easily be avoided with a relocation, or to a letter extent, not expanding at the same time as Las Vegas.

[JWinslow23]

National Hockey League = A challenge! I take you on! = "A nice goal, Lee!" "Thank you!"

[Dream of Omnimaga]

@Juju the issue about the dollar is that couldn't they just sign some agreement about how as soon as the dollar is high enough for QMI's liking, they pony up the $500M USD and get awarded a team the next semester (IIRC they award expansion teams in January and June)? I mean, if the dollar is at $0.85 at some point and they know it's gonna go back down, then they could do it as fast as possible before it starts dropping again.

As for the conference balancing BS I don't buy it. I know Detroit and Columbus wanted to be in the East but weren't the Leafs and Lightning in the West for a while? Also if conferences are such an issue, then what will the NHL do if Seattle arena project is truly dead for 20 years and the Coyotes fail to get a new arena and lease with Glendebt? If they rule out any Eastern relocation sites then the NHL is in deep serious trouble. Also, some people thinks the new alignment was set up purposely to keep Quebec out of the league.

Hopefully QMI do a press conference explaining where the decision to postpone Quebec bid came from. They have a lot of damage control to do, though, on both sides, in order to not lose Quebec market. A lot of people already canceled their Vidéotron or TVA Sports/RDS subscriptions following the announcement and when the Nordiques left in 1995, many people stopped following hockey entirely. The latter could easily happen again now to a lower extent, although people will probably move on. I know that for now I am not following the NHL anymore, though (I already stopped following anything except the last few games of the season and playoffs since the 2013 Coyotes deal fiasco). Among my favorite teams, I had the Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Capitales (baseball) and Quebec Remparts (junior hockey) in order. It looks like the Capitales baseball team might be first now (I already went to two games this season and I normally go to one every two year)

[Yuki]

Yeah, there's a few technicalities and inconsistencies I don't buy either. Québécor can and will pony up the amount needed for a team. Bettman said the Canadian dollar is a problem, yet Dion said they never went to that point yet. And if conference balancing is a problem, just redo them, FFS. Bettman said 16-14 and 17-15 conferences are a different deal, why not move a team over the other conference? Seems no one brought this question up, ever. Probably because the travel problems or something, it's pretty delicate as I understand. Yet the teams in Florida are in the same division as those in Northeast, oh well, I could rant a whole lot on that.

Anyway. Pierre Dion and his team are going back to Québec as of right now, go through every media tomorrow and answer any question about that. Let's see what Dion have to say.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I have the feeling that either Dion was scared that the dollar would go too low and asked the NHL to wait, or someone among the 10 owners who voted quebec down used the dollar excuse. Most likely Jeremy Jacobs. I also don't buy the travel issues, because if western teams are forced to play within 3 different timezones so often, then why would Eastern teams get a free pass?

Anyway this is an idea of what could a new WHA look like at its peak, if done well and if enough wealthy owners are found:

WHA West:
-Seattle
-Portland
-Saskatoon
-Milwaukee
-Houston
-Kansas City
-Cleveland

WHA East:
-Quebec
-Hartford
-Hamilton
-Toronto
-Halifax
-Atlanta

Of course they would need a large enough arena to play in, ideally with 10K seats minimum like in the KHL with a few larger arenas, revenue sharing, a lower salary cap/floor, lower expansion fees. But the most important thing would be TV/advertising revenues. It would be a setback from the NHL, but at this point I wouldn't mind supporting a brand of hockey that is inferior to the NHL, but superior to the AHL (the AHL is annoying because your favorite team players always get recalled by their NHL teams). Some markets above are underserved NHL markets, former NHL markets or markets that are too small for NHL but could potentially support a WHA team.

To save on travel costs, they could do like in baseball and play series of two games against the same team at the same venue each time. New team names would have to be found, though, since the NHL owns the rights to the Nordiques, Whalers, Barons, Scouts, Thrashers, Tigers and Quebec Bulldogs/Athletic Club names, while the AHL most likely owns the Aces, Citadelles, Whale and a few other names.

[Yuki]

A new league who does things a bit different than the NHL could work, although they'd have to make sure it works. Leagues that competes with the NHL rarely worked in recent times. There's indeed a bunch of towns we would want a NHL franchise in, but couldn't because the NHL's rules are rather stringent and they probably don't want 45 teams at the same time. (Well, at the same time, the major league of baseball works as 2 leagues of 30 teams each...) Look at the last NHL expansion, only 5 groups applied, 3 of them backed down by themselves, one got delayed and only the other got their team. If the new league's requirements are less stringent, pretty sure most of the towns you named would apply and get a team.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah, the issue with the WHA is that they often awarded cheap franchises to people who had no money to pay players and they also did the mistake to expand in existing NHL markets. While expanding in big NHL cities gave the league credibility, they had serious attendance issues since people there already had a better hockey brand. Toronto had good attendance in the WHA (even better than Quebec for a while) but the Leafs owner charged them so much for leasing Maple Leafs Gardens that they went out of business.

They would need to get good arena deals/leases, good ownership, revenue sharing and a good base to start. And if some of the aforementioned cities can't provide that then at least if they can start with 8 teams then it would be amazing. But only as long as they start with Seattle, Hartford and Quebec IMHO.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Wait what?? @Juju

http://www.tsn.ca/blueliner-blockbuster-habs-trade-subban-to-predators-for-weber-1.517918

[Yuki]

Well, it's been a while there's been rumors about Subban... I was liking him. Oh well, Weber is a good choice, let's see if this transaction was worth it.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I'm thinking this is a very risky move. While Weber is good, what if it does like Gomez, Brière, Smith-Pelly and Vanek? I'm thinking that if this trade fails on Montréal's end then bergevin will be fired. Also lol now some Habs fans are rooting for the return of the Nordiques because of the trade. I bet they'll still sellout the Bell Center every night next season, though.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

So I know the NHL season hasn't started yet, but the World Cup of Hockey is ran by the NHL so I'm rooting for Canada and Team North America (the latter only has players under 23 years old). Seems like USA will have better luck next time, though, as they're already out. Is anyone else following the WCH2016?


Also not related to hockey nor NHL, but I read somewhere that several St-Louis Rams are e-mailing the Canadian Football League to convince them to expand in St-Louis and other American cities like they did in 1993.

[Unicorn]

I'm rooting for the same teams, though I want NA to win more than canada, as canada has kind of one every international event in the past few years.

But that NA game today

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah lol. As for Team NA the reason I also root for them is because of how many prospects they have and they're really fun to watch.

That said, I did not attend the WCH exhibition game in Quebec because I was kinda boycotting NHL preseason gimmicks due to the expansion outcome for Quebec and the fact they only use us for exhibition games, but I wouldn't have minded attending one of the round-robin matches if they were held here. That said, though, the pre-season games were much better than the NHL pre-season games overall.

[Yuki]

Yeah, Team NA is pretty interesting, Team Canada kicks butts as usual like in pretty much every event, I'd say the final will be between both of them.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Since when both teams pull out their goalie at the same time in the NHL?