NHL Realignment and the Blue Jackets: It’s the schedule, stupid

Hockey’s return from the South to Winnipeg is not just good for Canada and their efforts to reclaim their national pastime. It’s also potentially good news for the Columbus Blue Jackets. As talk about NHL realignment intensifies, most Blue Jackets fans feel a move to the Eastern Conference could be a much needed boost to a franchise struggling to keep its fans and attract revenues.

But, in typical hockey fashion, NHL brass is now looking for a fix to a problem it created. It’s never been about alignment of the conferences and divisional structure (though fixing that won’t hurt). It’s the scheduling formula - and it’s horrible.

After the 2004-2005 lockout, the NHL realigned into its current two conference, six division structure. Initially, teams played division foes eight times, other conference rivals four times each, and 10 remaining games against two of the three divisions. In 2008-2009 hockey reduced the division games to six against each rival and added 8 games against the other conference to ensure every team played each other at least once. The initial realignment proposed to cut down on travel expenses - but for Columbus, this meant playing only playing 18 of its 82 games (22%) against opponents in the Eastern time zone. And when the league shifted to its current schedule format, Columbus did add eight Eastern time zone games bringing the total to 24 of 82 games (30%). And while the Jackets do now play 26 games (30%) of its games in the Central time zone compared to 32 games (40%) prior to the change, Columbus still plays 32 games (40%) against teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. For a team in Ohio, this is silly for television purposes, establishment of geographic rivals, fan away-game travel, and most important, general fan interest.

Traditional hockey cities and geographical rivals show up at Nationwide Arena once every two years while teams like the Sharks, Ducks, and Coyotes come to visit three times in a single season. Nothing against those cities out West, but most fans, and more specifically Ohio hockey fans, have little interest in seeing those teams. Ohio fans grew up around the Red Wings, Penguins, Sabres, and Maple Leafs, not the Disney-esque newbies on the other side of the country. They simply don’t see enough of what they would consider hockey teams they could relate to and establish a rooting interest for or against them. Apathy towards many Columbus opponents abounds. They rarely interact with fans other than Red Wings and Penguins fans, and they rarely play the Penguins!

Word is the NHL will be realigning around time zones, creating a larger 16-team Eastern Conference full of teams from the Eastern time zone while creating a 14-team Western Conference with teams from outside the Eastern time zone. Using the current formula, Columbus would only play 16 games (20%) against teams from the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Playing another 10 games (12%) against teams in the Central leaves the other 56 games (68%) to be played in the Eastern time zone. That feels right for a team from Ohio.