Facebook TwitterText Share This: |  NHL Realignment: League
Approves New Look, Playoffs for Next Season  New York, NY
(WBEN/CBS) In the final step of this long saga, the NHL Board of
Governors has approved realignment, meaning the new layout of
the league will take effect next season.  The news doesn't
necessarily qualify as a surprise. The big obstacle wasn't
really the Board of Governors approving the new realignment
plan; it was the NHLPA giving its consent. That happened last
week and set the wheels in motion for what was an inevitability:
the NHL's landscape will be changing.  The realignment talk was
precipitated by the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to
Winnipeg before before the 2011-12 season. The Jets have
remained in the Southeast Division in the last two seasons, a
problem that needed to be rectified. The result was not just a
simple swap of one team in the West for one team in the East; it
was a revamping of the entire divisional format.  Winnipeg goes
to the new Western Conference while the