At first I thought it was just a hoax on Twitter, but the source was credible.
"NHLPA rejects League Realignment Plan. NHL says next year will be played under current system."
That was the first tweet by Sportsnet from Canada, which was followed up with this tweet from ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun:
"NHLPA says extra travel was major concern as well playoff structure ... Union says it consulted with players on conf(erence) calls."
After that it was a steady stream of speculative tweets from the hockey press corps trying to decipher the real meaning behind the NHL Players’ Association’s stunning no vote on a realignment plan that was widely applauded when it was approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors in early December.
Conventional wisdom is that NHLPA believes that several owners had serious misgivings about the realignment plan from the very beginning but approved it anyway to give the impression of a united front. The plan created four conferences, altered the playoff format and included a home-and-home series between every NHL club.
With the Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire at the end of this current season, the players’ union wanted to let it be known that they’re ready to dig in, and by voting realignment down, they could splinter the owners before the CBA negotiations begin.
Others feel that the players were sending a clear message to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, the architect of the realignment plan, that he can’t ramrod his every whim and desire down their throats.
Whatever the reason, the Red Wings find themselves on the short end of the hockey stick again. They’re in the same position they’ve always been in -- locked into a schedule full of staggered starting times, extensive regular-season travel and most likely cross-country travel during the playoffs.
Detroit fans will miss out on the opportunity to see every NHL team and their stars at least once a year. Instead it will be a steady diet of usual suspects -- Columbus, Nashville and St. Louis.
It’s truly amazing how East Coast-centric the NHL really is. Many owners out east were extremely upset that realignment would increase their travel costs since they would visit every NHL city once a year.
So, while many owners might publicly be unhappy with the rejection of realignment, I can’t help but think that privately they’re overjoyed because their bank accounts will not be taking a hit.
It highlights the NHL’s biggest problem: Nobody is on the same page. While more superstars are being sidelined with concussions, players and the league can’t even come to an agreement about how to handle this growing problem.
There are so many agendas in the NHL between so many factions that what’s best for the game gets lost in the mix.
As far as realignment goes, there are two groups working against this plan.
The first is the Eastern Conference. They love the fact that a majority of their teams' travel is in the Eastern Time Zone. It’s not as if their fan base is clamoring for more games with the Canucks and Coyotes. You can’t really miss or demand for more of something that you never had.
The other group is the NHLPA. In its current form, the union has several concerns, such as increased travel for all teams, more back-to-back games and the unfair advantage a conference of seven teams has over a conference of eight teams when competing for a top-four finish and a playoff spot.
Some concerns are valid, and it can be argued that realignment should be an issue for the CBA bargaining table. But the owners are so divided on realignment that it could cause a cataclysmic upheaval, which would be a significant negotiation advantage for the players.
That’s why this plan was rushed to the table. Bettman and the owners do not want realignment tied into the CBA. The division between owners is far greater than the division between players and owners. And the players know it.
So, Red Wings fans sit back and relax because realignment is dead. It might never be resolved because it comes down to money and the CBA. The best Detroit fans can hope for is a division swap with Winnipeg.
Worse yet for Detroit and its fans, many Eastern Conference teams really don’t want the powerful Red Wings in their conference. And as we’ve witnessed before, what's best for the Wings and the NHL is never part of the real conversation.
