The National Hockey League appears headed for a January start date for the 2020-21 regular season after clearing the recent financial hurdle between the League and the NHLPA.
And among the several new factors in the game will be a temporary divisional realignment. For the Detroit Red Wings, the proposed divisional realignment would reignite some old rivalries.
According to NHL Insider Pierre LeBrun, the Red Wings would be within a division that features their former Central Division opponent Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators:
Not finalized yet, and still subject to change, but the 2020-21 four-division re-alignment currently looks like this according to sources:
Bos-Buf-NJ-NYI-NYR-Pha-Pgh-Was
Car-CBJ-Det-Chi-Fla-Min-Nas-TB
Ana-Ari-Col-Dal-LA-SJ-STL-VGK
All-Canadian teams
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) December 9, 2020
Additionally, all Canadian teams would be confined to their own division.
“There are a lot of things we have to do to return to play. For us to return to play, we’re not going to play 82 games, obviously, and we have travel issues because of the restrictions at the border between Canada and the U.S. You can’t go back and forth, so we’re actually going to have to realign,” Bettman told NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
“If everything stays the way it is, we’re probably going to have to have a Canadian division and realign in the U.S., and we’re trying to focus on dealing with all of those challenges.”
– – Quotes via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com Link – –
There many more traditional “rivals” that the Wings would not get to play in all the other divisions proposed!!! Chicago is fine…but the rest of what makes up their temporary division seems lukewarm, at best, when you think of rivals!!! Sorry, but once again the Wings are getting the short end of the stick and it just further reinforces why I ended being a fan of NHL Hockey years ago…