Game #28: Minnesota Wild at San Jose Sharks, Tuesday December 6, 2011 at 9:30pm (CST), HP Pavilion [GAME PREVIEW]

All you need to know today, is the official announcement by the NHL Board of Governors.  If you’re like me, you hated waiting up until 9:00 (on rare occasions 10:00) at night for a divisional game to start.  Now it was one thing for those late starts on a Friday or Saturday night, but we all know that NHL hockey, unlike football, is a seven day a week game.  Now we’ll still be stuck with the games against game against the other conferences on the West Coast, but having more games in the Central Time Zone simply puts a smile on my face.

One of the main things that the National Hockey League looked at when devising this realignment was travel.  Prior to the re-birth of the Winnipeg Jets, teams in the Northwest Division, closely followed by the Pacific, had one of the most brutal travel schedules.  Between the two furthest points of the Northwest Division, Minnesota and Vancouver, you’re looking at about 1800 miles.  When you’re playing each other six times, those miles add up.  Heading up to Calgary and Edmonton weren’t a walk in the park either. 

The additional concern was that of time zones.  In the Western Conference, all four of the main North American time zones were involved.  Both the Northwest and Pacific Divisions had three of the four time zones.  While the time changes can be difficult on the players, the biggest impact was on that of the fans.  Like I said earlier, I really dislike game in Vancouver because they normally have a start time of 9:00pm.  On occasion we might get a weekend matinee in Vancouver, but that is the exception and not the norm.  Sure, we won’t be rid of those games completely, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.

I am truly enjoying some of the ticked off comments on the NHL’s Facebook page.  Clearly most of the outrage is coming from the fans of current Eastern Conference teams.  For fans in the Western Conference, just the realignment by time zones is a matter for rejoicing.  We have had to bear the countless late nights, unlike fans in the Eastern Conference where ALL of their conference games, they could be in bed by 10:00pm on a regular basis.  The other spark of outrage comes from those in the current Northeast Division.  They feel sullied by the inclusion of Tampa Bay and Florida in their new conference.  To those fans, I say, get over yourselves.  Trust me, you’re not that special.

It will be interesting to see how this all works out in the long-run.  It seems that they still need to finish ironing out the playoff format, but at least now that they’ve realigned the league, they can sit down and hash out the rest.  Should make for an interesting off-season this year. 

Injury Report:

Minnesota:   Guillaume Latendresse (concussion), Marek Zidlicky (concussion), Justin Falk (chest),  Niklas Backstrom (groin)

San Jose:  Antero Niittymaki (hip), Doug Murray (hand)  

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