Hockey in the UK is to undergo major changes for the 2012/2013 season and is going to go all NHL like with the current ten elite sides being split into two conferences North & south.
North Conference..Braehead Clan..Edinburgh Capitals..Dundee Stars..Fife Flyers..Hull Stingrays
South Conference..Belfast Giants..Sheffield Steelers..Nottingham Panthers..Coventry Blaze..Cardiff Devils
In both conference’s each team will play each other four times at home and four away for a total of 32 games in addition there will be crossover games between the two conferences so say my team Fife Flyers they will play all five teams in the south conference twice at home and twice away an additional 20 games giving an overall regular season of 52 games.
The end of season play off system will remain the same with the top four sides in each conference going forward to the home & home play off quarter finals with each conference winner being the top seeds at the quarter final stage then the four quarter final winners will advance to the end of season play off weekend.
The challenge cup will change as well it will still be split into to sections of five teams and play each other home and away but instead of the top two as last season it will now be the top four that will advance to a home and away quarter final semi-final and final.
At first i thought the changes were made to help clubs out financially as a lot of sides are struggling so making the conferences more local and cutting down on travel costs for clubs.
But if that was the case surely Hull would be in the the south and Belfast in the North maybe the bigger teams are fed up of turning up and not really getting competitive games against the teams in the lower half of the league
This probably gives my team Fife Flyers a better chance of making the play off s as they should at least on paper be playing teams of a similar standard as themselves apart from Braehead who i would think will win the North conference with a bit to spare the only problem i have with our conference is apart from Breahead you have the the teams that filled the bottom four places in the league last season.With playing these teams so often over the season things might get stale and boring for the fans even with so many “local derby’s” i fear the novelty of these might wear off quickly.
Only time will tell if it is a success
Icebhoy's Blog 