NHL schedule 2013-14: League releases regular season slate, new division names

The NHL formally announced the 2013-14 regular season schedule on Friday afternoon. This announcement coincided with the revealing of the ’Metropolitan’ Division, league realignment and playoff format alteration. Based upon reaction in the comment sections on SB Nation and in my twitter feed, it seems as though fans are dissatisfied with the changes.

For the most part, I have a hard time disagreeing with any one who is unhappy with the NHL’s decisions. At the same time, I understand why the NHL made those decisions, even though I’m not completely onboard with them.

The 2013-14 NHL regular season will feature a division realignment that will split the Eastern Conference into two eight-team divisions and the Western Conference into two seven-team divisions. This brought about a rebranding of the groupings, which will amount to an Atlantic, Central, Pacific and Metropolitan division.

In turn, the league will reconfigure its playoff formatting as well. Under this new system, the top three teams in each division will earn an automatic bid to the postseason. Each conference will be allotted two wild card playoff spots, which will be distributed to the two teams who had the highest point totals amongst non-playoff qualifying teams, regardless of division. The wild card teams will be matched against the teams with the highest points.

The NHL is realigning for the 2013-14 season, and with a six-division league being trimmed down to four divisions, the league had to make changes to those division names. After much speculation, the four division names will keep a geographical bent ... sort of, except that the Pacific, Central and Atlantic divisions will be joined with something called the “Metropolitan Division.”

The Pacific, Central and Atlantic Divisions are all traditional and what we’re used to, but Metropolitan Division is a bit of a curveball. The three New York-area teams are in the same metropolitan area and maybe Philadelphia could be lumped in there, too ... even Washington, possibly, if one wants to push it. But Columbus, Pittsburgh and Carolina are in no way in the same metropolitan area, so it’s a bit weird and a lot of people will make jokes about it.