NHL Realignment: Florida Teams Will Add Travel While Western Teams See Some Balance

Travel was one of the big concerns as we debated NHL realignment, especially for Western Conference teams. As it stands under the new four-conference system, the league will see a bit more balance when it comes to travel.

Dirk Hoag at SB Nation's Nashville Predators blog On the Forecheck crunched the numbers on the league's new alignment. Teams will play five or six games against other conference opponents, while a home-and-home will be played against each opponent from other conferences. Taking that into account, here's the breakdown:

Central Conference	Avg. Dist.	West Conference	Avg. Dist.
Chicago Blackhawks	434	Anaheim Ducks	743
Columbus Blue Jackets	524	Calgary Flames	875
Dallas Stars	846	Colorado Avalanche	886
Detroit Red Wings	530	Edmonton Oilers	1008
Minnesota Wild	557	Los Angeles Kings	737
Nashville Predators	549	Phoenix Coyotes	812
St. Louis Blues	460	San Jose Sharks	745
Winnipeg Jets	863	Vancouver Canucks	895
AVERAGE	595	AVERAGE	838
East 1 Conference	Avg. Dist.	East 2 Conference	Avg. Dist.
Boston Bruins	637	Carolina Hurricanes	366
Buffalo Sabres	535	New Jersey Devils	173
Florida Panthers	1087	New York Islanders	191
Montreal Canadiens	617	New York Rangers	177
Ottawa Senators	576	Philadelphia Flyers	164
Tampa Bay Lightning	1013	Pittsburgh Penguins	289
Toronto Maple Leafs	553	Washington Capitals	195
AVERAGE	717	AVERAGE	222

Travel is still obviously very easy for the teams in the mid-Atlantic U.S., and that's really to be expected with how the teams are in close quarters there. The teams in the old Northeast Division will see much more travel, but considering a good chunk of that extra travel will be to sunny Florida, they don't really get to complain.

The Panthers and Lightning might get to complain, but they get plenty of home games against the Canadiens and Maple Leafs to fill their seats. Money always mitigates concerns, and it's not as if they're traveling outside of their own time zone for those games anyway. NHL players getting on planes isn't exactly like you and I getting on a plane.

Detroit and Columbus might still be playing outside of their own time zone, but the travel for them is certainly much easier, with less trips out to the far reaches of the Western half of North America. Travel is still tough for teams way out West, but that's really just a fact of life for everything in the Western portion continent.

Things are spread out there, and there's nothing the NHL's Board of Governors can do about basic geography.

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