NHL

Rangers not helped by NHL’s unbalanced realignment

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Rangers now officially can say the league is screwing them. And so can every other team east of the Mississippi.

Thursday, the NHL Board of Governors approved the new realignment plan set to go into effect next season, one where the Rangers, Devils and Islanders are all in a 16-team Eastern Conference, while out West it’s just 14 teams battling for the same number of eight playoff spots.

“Not that realistic of a concern,” is how commissioner Gary Bettman described the issue on a conference call. “We introduced the wild card to balance that off a little bit better. In that regard, I think it addresses what might be a concern.”

With each conference now being reduced from three divisions to two, the top three teams in each division automatically will make the playoffs. After those six, the final two qualifiers — the “wild cards” — will get in and be seeded based on point totals alone, regardless of their division.

“On balance, if you look at the rivalries and geographic groupings,” Bettman said, “this appeared to make the most sense.”

The biggest change is that the Jets — whom the Rangers played last night at the MTS Centre — will move to the more geographically friendly Western Conference, while Columbus and Detroit move to the East. And it’s those Jets, who two seasons ago were the Atlanta Thrashers, which caused this whole process to begin.

“But for the relocation, this isn’t something we would have undertaken,” Bettman said.

It also was something that was not undertaken unanimously. Yet Bettman said once all 30 votes were counted, “It was well in excess of the three-quarters that is required.”

The inequity in the size of each conference also seems to be pointing to a league looking to expand. With talk for many years about both teams in Florida relocating, if they went west — one possibly to Seattle — that would make room for a second team in or around Toronto and another in Quebec City.

“The league doesn’t foresee relocation [and] the league doesn’t foresee expansion,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said on the same conference call. “We understand in life things can change, but we don’t expect change.”

For now, Columbus will join the division with the three New York-area teams, along with Carolina, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington. The divisions are to be named in the coming weeks, and Bettman is hoping to make them “the most sensible geographic designations,” as well as “fan friendly.”

“When you’re making this kind of change, people need to adjust in their thinking of where things are,” Bettman said. “We’re hoping to use the names that make it easiest to conjure up where teams are.”

Contrary to earlier reports from the Players’ Association, the agreement will go through 2015-16, with talks for future changes — and possibly expansion — beginning anew after the 2014-15 season. Previously, the players association had said the deal would only be for two years.

The schedule is going to be such that every team in the league plays every other team at least twice — once home and once away. For the teams in the East, of the 82 regular-season games, 30 will be divisional games and 24 will be non-divisional in-conference games. Teams in the West will play more non-conference games.

“This is always a difficult emotional process, but you try to do the best you can,” Bettman said. “Now we can begin the process of preparing next year’s schedule.”