A lesson in the Realignment: Off-season preview of the NEW eastern confrence

Midway through the month of March, the National Hockey League announced a groundbreaking realignment plan.

During the lead-up to the 2013-2014 NHL season, the Eastern Conference's Southeast division would be terminated as the Lightning and Panthers would move to the northeast while the Caps and Hurricanes would join the Atlantic and the Jets would move out of the east and join the Western Conference's Central Division. On the western conference side of things, the Blue Jackets and Redwings would both make the move to the east with Detroit joining the northeast division and the Blue Jackets joining the newly named "Metropolitan division"

The NHL saw its previous total of 6 divisions shrink to just 4 but as it did so, in came a brand new playoff format. 

As it stands, each conference will still put forward 8 teams to play in the postseason but the way they select those teams will be far different. In each of the two divisions per conference, the top three teams will make the playoffs with no further question. But for the remaining 2 spots, the winners will be decided not by their positioning in the division but by their finish in the conference. In 2014, the NHL will adopt an MLB/NFL esque wild card system where the two highest seeded teams, not already positioned in the top three seeds in their respective divisions, will then make the playoffs.

At that point, the highest seeded division winner will play the lowest seeded wild card winner while the other division winner will play the other wild card winner. From there, the 2nd and 3rd place teams in each division will play each other and out will come the semifinals where the league will then go back to following their previous playoff format.  

Confusing.

But nevertheless, with so many division shakeups, one of the most intriguing stories coming into next season is going to be: how those division changes and additions of the Wings and Jackets will affect the playoff picture.

Fact is, when you really look at it, over the past few years, the top teams in the east have been pretty clear: Pittsburgh, Montreal, Boston, and well one annual surprise. But nevertheless, in this upcoming 2013-2014 season those given finishes are bound to change and it will not be the fault of Columbus. With the shakeups of this mega off-season, two teams now in the Eastern Conference have made some huge additions, meaning that as it stands, those two teams could easily contend to go 1 and 2 in their Atlantic division. Those teams are the Bruins and Redwings.

After the Bruins lost that cutting game six of the Cup they immediately tore it up eliminating any distractions by resigning goaltender Tuukka Rask and center Patrice Bergeron and trading away Tyler Seguin. Yet that is only the least of it as in addition to dishing way Seguin, the Bruins managed to snag 30 goal scorer Loui Eriksson in return. They would add Jarome Iginla and continue to develop their big three of young defenseman, all to give them a reasonable shot at winning their Penguin-less Atlantic division.

As for the Redwings well simply the lone name of their star acquisition this off-season stands begs to pay its dividends: Daniel Alfredson.

For nearly the entire off-season, Detroit played the role of veteran stealer as they snagged both Alfrendson and Panthers veteran Stephen Weiss. 

Long story short, the Bruins and Redwings will likely be fighting it out all season long but there is one city that remains a pivotal factor in the Atlantic division title race...and that team is the team that nearly won the conference last year: Montreal.

As Bruins fans, you need no introduction to the team we have learned to hate but regardless of that even after making close to no new additions in the off-season, the Canadians won the northeast last year and all be it the only reason they did that was because of Boston’s subpar month of April, they will remain a crucial threat in the coming years.

Change can always be fun and fact is the one that now sits mere months away from this August 1st will likely not disappoint. The long awaited day when the Bruins and Redwings will be in the same division has finally been named and as a fan of the game, I cannot wait.