The Elephant in the room NHL news

Yesterday, Friday, January 6th, the NHL Players Association rejected the NHL proposed realignment.  In case of you were unaware of the NHL proposed realignment, it was passed by the NHL board of Governors this last month with 26 of the 30 teams in favor of the realignment. The proposed plan called for a restructuring of the 2 conference, 6 division format with the top 8 teams in each conference making the playoffs.  The new system calls for 4 conferences, two conferences of 8 teams and two conferences of 7 teams, the top 4 teams in each conference would make the playoffs, and then the first 2 rounds of the proposed playoffs would be in-conference, and then the 4 winners out of each conference would be reseeded and would play each other the final 2 rounds for the cup.  The benefits of the proposed system would keep teams playing in their local time zones for most of their games, for central division teams it would keep them from going to the west coast as often, it would move Winnipeg out of the eastern conference and south east division, and it would allow for flexibility in the Phoenix Coyotes sale and whether or not that team will relocate out of the desert.

The new system seems pretty good, particularly for the fans.  So why did the players union reject this plan? There are 2 main reasons.

Reason 1: With the CBA expiring in September the Player's Union is going to use this as a bargaining chip.  There probably won't be a lockout but this chip gives ammo for the players union.

Reason 2: This is the more serious reason for realignment not passing.  The player's union does not like the proposed playoff system.  The union feels that the teams in 7-team conferences in the new system will have an easier time qualifying for the playoffs where as the teams in the 8-team conferences will have a tougher time.  Personally as a fan I don't like this playoff system either.  This is the one part that the proposed realignment will have to address.

Hopefully some sort of realignment  passes because so many teams are affected by this.  Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, Dallas, Minnesota, and Winnipeg all are affected by this.