The NHL is going to look a lot different when the puck drops for the 2012-13 season.
That's because the league's board of governors approved a drastic realignment plan on Monday night. The new four-conference realignment plan will begin for the 2012-13 season.
Below are the four conferences and their teams.
Note: No names have been announced, the names below are just to sort out the four conferences.
East 1: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto
East 2: Carolina, New Jersey, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
West 1: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg
West 2: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver
The four-conference realignment also comes with a more balanced schedule. Under the new plan, the two "East" conferences will play the teams in their division six times a year — three home and three away. In the eight-team "West" conferences, teams will rotate between five- and six-game series every season.
Also, teams will play home-and-home series with every other team in the league outside of its conference. For instance, the Bruins will play as many games with the Rangers every season as they will with the Canucks.
The playoff format is also a little bit different. The top four teams in each conference will make the playoffs. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be solely teams within the same conference.
NHL.com points out that the new alignment will help "alleviate geographic concerns among several current Western Conference teams that had been unhappy about their extensive travel through one, two, and sometimes even three time zones."
It also means that East Coast teams will make even more trips out West every year.
The new plan must now be approved by the NHLPA.
