04 June, 2013

2013-14 NHL Realignment

After much debate between the players and the league, the NHL is realigning the league. It probably about time to do so since the NHL is the last major sports league to get the geography right. To be fair other leagues have had geographical issues when it comes to the divisions. For example the Atlanta Braves played in the National League West from 1969 to 1993. The Falcons, also of Atlanta played in the NFC West (sense a pattern here with Atlanta yet?) from 1970 to 2001.

One of the reasons why the realignment issue came to light was because the Atlanta Thrashers (see what I mean), who played in the Southeast Division, moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba (to reclaim the Winnipeg Jets mantle, a team that moved to Arizona to become the Phoenix Coyotes in 1997 after coming into the NHL from the WHA in 1980) which is nowhere near the Southeastern portion of the United States. On a side note, the Thrashers were the 2nd NHL franchise to get awarded to Atlanta, the Flames started playing in 1973 then bolted for Calgary after the 1980 season. Twenty years later the NHL decided it was a good idea to give Atlanta another shot at the NHL because two decades had passed and it should work right? Not so much, the Thrashers lasted 11 underwhelming seasons and 1 playoff appearance before bolting to Western Canada (another pattern emerges). So the league had to do something about the ridiculous travel issues that having the Jets in the Southeastern Division held.

So this is what they came up with for realignment....


Basically, Columbus and Detroit get moved from the Western Conference into the Eastern. If you've noticed that the once symmetrical conferences are now a bit lopsided, then you're very astute. Instead of two 15 team conferences, we've got a 14 team and 16 team conference. This is nothing new as MLB had 16 National League teams for a few years before moving the Houston Astros to the American League West for the 2013 season.

Here's the geographical theory of the new realigned divisions...



As you can see, Detroit moving to the Eastern Conference tips the balance of power to the East. A tough pill for hockey fans to swallow was the loss of the Wings/Hawks rivalry. Instead of meeting six times a year, they will now only meet twice a year. Is Detroit/Chicago a great Original Six rivalry? Sure it is but let us allow history to be the judge. Chicago won their first Stanley Cup in 1934 by defeating the Red Wings. After 23 years of Cup futility, the Blackhawks beat Detroit in 1961 (Chicago wouldn't win another Cup until 2010 while Detroit would drink from Lord Stanley's chalice four times in those 49 years). From 1926 to 1967 the NHL was only six teams, in that time Chicago and Detroit played each other for the Stanley Cup a total of two times. Once in 1934 and again in 1961, both Chicago victories. During that time the Blackhawks went to the finals six times and were crowned champions three times (1938 being the other). Detroit on the other hand, played in 13 Stanley Cup finals with seven titles.

As history will show, the bulk of the championships were won by the Montreal Canadiens (the Habs more less dominated the NHL from 1926 to 1979). You can even go as far as saying that the top tier of the Original Six was Montreal, Toronto and Detroit with Chicago, New York and Boston being the also-rans. Make no mistake, Detroit and Chicago have a good rivalry but I wouldn't put it up there with the Yankees and the Red Sox (it should be noted that any rivalry is only as good as its participants, if both teams stink, is it still a rivalry?). Hawks fans had to watch the Wings be the "Yankees of the NHL" from 1996-2009 while the Hawks languished in mediocrity and by mediocrity I mean they made the playoffs once between 1998 and 2008. Both teams didn't do much during the time the NHL expanded between 1967-1996. The Hawks did manage to get to the Finals in 1971 and 1992, both losses but the Wings were just bad making the playoffs three times from 1967-1983. I'd like to note that the NHL was a 21 team league from 1981 to 1993 and they still sent 16 teams to the playoffs. It wasn't that hard. A lot of lousy teams got in.

The problems that I can see (as well as others) will come during the playoffs. In 1974 the NHL had enough teams to go to a four division format (here's its history below)...



 As noted before from 1981-1991 the NHL had 21 teams and 16 of them made the playoffs, 4 teams per division. In the Wales Conference, the Adams Division playoff winner played the Patrick Division winner. In the Campbell Conference, the Norris and Smythe division winners faced off. The point is, the same teams played each other every year, that's why things were changed around when the next wave of expansion hit in the 1990's. Since I'm from Connecticut I can say that that in the Adams Division, the Bruins, Canadiens were always in the playoffs (they never missed it, look it up) with either the Sabres, Whalers or Nordiques rounding it out. So the Bruins and Canadiens usually met in the Adams Division finals (except of course in 1986 when the Whalers took the Canadiens to seven games in the conference final, the highlight of their existence from 1979-1997).

The new playoff format will consist of the top 3 finishers in each division followed by the next 2 teams with the most points. So you could have 5 teams from one division and 3 from another which does reward a better regular season (unlike the format format from '81-'91). But you have the possibility to see the same match ups year after year.

Make no mistake the realignment makes sense. However, all the big market team (except Chicago) are in the East. Los Angeles is not a great hockey area despite the Kings winning the Cup in 2012 and it didn't help that there were rumors that the team was going to move to Seattle. The rivalries are kind of there in the West but not too many people outside of the cities involved know about them (or care?). Things should be all right as long as there's no labor disputes to muck things up.

Thank you for your time and as always your thoughts & comments are welcome.

02 June, 2013

DJ B-Clear's Summer Movie Preview - June

May starts off the Summer blockbuster season. June may not have the big hitters like Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness but there are some interesting features to say the least. Shall we?

June 7th

  • The Internship: and team-up once more in what looks to be an obvious attempt to rekindle the magic from The Wedding Crashers. The premise here is that they lose their sales jobs but Vaughn manages to con their way into an internship with Google. Lots of inappropriate humor and hackneyed jokes that are recycled from similar films. I've seen the trailer a few times and I didn't think it was that funny.
  • The Purge: Written and directed by , the United States is riding a wave of prosperity. Unemployment and crime are almost non-existent due in part because the government allows for a 12 hour period beginning at midnight of June 7th to allow citizens to do as they wish with no repercussions. For this period, all crime (mostly violent) is legal. The night brings us to the home of the Sandin's. When the alarm sounds they lockdown their home and settle in for the long night. A stranger being hunted gets to the house and pleads to be let in. The father, , warns not to let him in but his kids don't listen. The stranger, , is thankful but the people after him are determined to kill him and they decide to include the Sandin's in the process. The trailer looks interesting and this could be worth seeing.
  • Much Ado About Nothing: directs and updates this Shakespeare classic with a modern twist.
  • Passion: The legendary directs this sexually charged thriller with and . From the trailer I was able to deduce that McAdams is a high powered executive with a taste for the weird and Rapace is her assistant or whatever who gets entangled into the weirdness of McAdams personal life. DePalma hasn't directed a film since 2007 and this film is his 5th since 2000 and the reviews of those films were mixed at best and that's why I'm hesitant about the film. I don't particularly care much for McAdams either. There's enough red flags here that one should be tread lightly around this title.
  • Wish You Were Here: An Australian thriller starring as half of one couple who travel to a remote island off Cambodia with another couple. So that's 4 people who vacation together but only 3 come back under mysterious circumstances. Suspicions mount as Edgerton's world starts to crumble. Drugs are implied here but there's a lot of mystery within the trailer. This looks like it might be worth seeing as Edgerton's star is on the rise and sometimes foreign thrillers are better than American ones.
  • Violet & Daisy: Writer and director brings us a black comedy about a pair of female teenage assassins ( and ) who think they're taking an easy job but get more than they bargained for from their target (I think it's ). The trailer has a lot of imagery that may not make sense and there's a little Thelma & Louis between Bledel & Ronan but what you need to know about the film is that it was made in 2011 and is now seeing the light of day. That usually means bad things. However, the film gets a 7/10 based on the 407 users who rated the film on IMBD.com. So it could be worth seeing since Fletcher has a solid past and Ronan has been excellent in her short career.
  • Syrup:This looks like its a satirical look at marketing and consumerism in America. "Syrup" denotes some sort of beverage that a new ad exec has come up with a marketing plan to sell an "image." The product doesn't matter, it's the image people want. From the trailer there's some sexual tension/innuendo between the good looking cast. I suspect there's a possibility of some sort catharsis that makes some cast members realize what jerks they are. Looks to be a bit like 2009's The Joneses with the social commentary.

June 12th

  • This Is the End: Ensemble comedic cast that includes the likes of Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson. Everyone plays themselves as the apocalypse hits Hollywood. The trailer shows possible aliens/monsters but not zombies or robots (rest assured that's how its going to go down) and how celebrities will handle the new world order or what's left of it. There's a few scenes where they "survivors" make fun of their former dead pals (I think Hill & Rogen take a few shots at Michael Cera), Emma Watson has a cameo where she beats up the group and steals their food and there's a particularly funny scene where Robinson is drinking his own urine from a chilled martini glass. A lot of potential for laughs here but I'm not sure I'm in to this type of film seeing how I've hit middle age. Though, in the right scenario this could be fun.




June 14th

  • Man of Steel: An all-star cast that includes , , , , and hunky as Superman. You've also got General Zod and his lackeys doing bad things and it's directed by badass director Zack Snyder. The trailers for this film look very cool and rest assured I will be waiting in line for this.
  • The Bling Ring: The latest directorial effort from , deals with the actual true events of a group Beverly Hills 902010ers who are so bored with their privileged lives they decide to rob celebrity homes (in real life they apparently they knocked over Paris Hilton's place more than once). Coppola has done some very good work in the past and I've enjoyed her work but this looks like something that's been done before. The perps (all good looking) all want to live a "celebrity lifestyle" but don't want to put the work in (you know with acting or being an heiress) so they turn to crime. There appears to be a little social commentary when talks to the press after a day at the courthouse.
  • Berberian Sound Studio: plays an British sound engineer brought into work on an Italian horror film and starts a slow descent into madness as the film starts to get a little to real. Directed by . The trailer looks pretty creepy and this could be worth a look.
  • Vehicle 19: (apparently his character was on vacation from the Fast and the Furious franchise) finds himself in need of a rental car (most likely South Africa but it's just a guess) but gets a little more than he bargains for when "he gets the wrong rental car scenario", the one with an unconscious, tied-up girl in the trunk (played by in a plot directly from The Transporter) who just could be a witness or a reporter that knows about widespread government corruption. Walker, who's done nothing wrong, finds himself chased by police and manages to drive around at high speeds without ever stopping for gas. Based on the trailer I saw this doesn't look to be too original.

June 21st

June 28th

  • The Heat: and star in the outdated plot theme of the straightlaced uptight cop (Bullock) teaming up with the unconventional slob of a cop (McCarthy) to solve an unsolvable crime. Bullock gets to play the Benjamin Bratt role from Miss Congeniality and McCarthy plays the Bullock role from the same film (prior to Bullock being "made over" by Michael Caine of course). Here's another film that's plagued by a lack of originality.
  • White House Down: This film follows the same pretext (by same I mean almost exactly frame by frame) as Olympus Has Fallen, released earlier this year to mediocre reviews and ticket sales (at best). In this particular version the President is played by (he must owe someone a favor) and the dude who saves the day is super stud .
  • Byzantium: and star as 200 year old vampires who are seeking refuge from the past. But when you're undead & immortal, the "past walks with you (it's a line from the movie)." Directed by and brought to us by the same group that gave us Interview with a Vampire. The trailer gives you a lot of blood imagery, period piece shots and a good amount of pasty skinned people. Now I'm a bit worn out by the steady stream of vampire films (mostly the ridiculous Twilight saga) so at best I'm non-committal to seeing but in reality I probably won't. That's not to say that this could be an interesting film. The trailer did a nice job of making it appear interesting but that what a trailer does.
  • I'm So Excited!: Directed by , comes a comedy about a whacky flight crew trying to make sure the passengers are comfortable on their doomed flight. Almodovar has done excellent work in the past and if you've seen his films before this will most likely be worth seeing if you can find it in your town.