From Hamilton to Quebec City

Yesterday, in my JN 229 class, we were doing our blog presentations, and one of my fellow students is writing his blog on the possible re-location of Phoenix to Hamilton. So I decided to comment on it.

As we all know, Phoenix is not coming to Hamilton, I wanted to weigh in on the positives and negatives on a team in Hamilton if that happened, and like my classmate Kyle, I'll look at the proposed Quebec City location and weigh in on the pros and cons, I will do this in the view of a Leafs fan.

Pros:
- For one a 7th Canadian hockey club, besides Bettman, who would complain about that?
- You would attract fans from outside the Hamilton area. Living in Brantford for school, I can understand how it would be a pain in the arse to get to a Leafs game, however, a short little drive down the 403 and you're in Hamilton to watch the Hamilton Coyotes. Hamilton could take advantage of this Leafs fandom an attract fans who may not get to see many NHL games.
- It would bring Western Conference teams we rarely see here in Southern Ontario. Since the Leafs move to the Eastern Conference, it's been increasingly more rare to see teams such as the LA Kings or the Dallas Stars. Hamilton would end up being in the Western conference and therefore we would get to see these teams more often.
- If the Leafs play like crap, we could drive over to see Hamilton, this would force the Leafs to actually play well, or else they may actually lose some fans too.

Cons:
- The purported 2nd battle of Ontario would never be a "battle." With Hamilton in the Western Conference, the Leafs and Coyotes would see each other once maybe twice a year if we're lucky. Which doesn't make sense seeing as it's closer to their other rivals in Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo, and Philadelphia.
- No rivals. One of the issues with the Phoenix Coyotes is that they have no rivals! I feel Hamilton would be no different. Their closest rival would be the Leafs...in the opposite conference. The next closest team to Hamilton is Detroit, and I highly doubt we will see a Hamilton-Detroit rivalry as big in caliber as the Detroit-Colorado rivalry.

The Divisions would be divided like so if Hamilton made it to the NHL:

Central:
Hamilton
Detroit
Chicago
Columbus
Nashville

Pacific:
San Jose
LA
Anaheim
St. Louis
Dallas

Northwest:
Would stay the same

As you see, Hamilton would kick St. Louis out of the Central division and push them into the Pacific Division

Quebec City

Now what would happen with Quebec City, we already know that Bettman is talking to Quebec City mayor Regis Lebaume. This one seems possible guys, but what are the pros and cons?

Pros:
- QC has a fan base. I'm sure some of the Nordiques fans that bit the bullet and became Habs fans may go back to the Nordiques.
- A renewed rivalry. Montreal and QC...watch out folks these ones are beauties.
- History. Since the Nordiques already have some history, they will not be starting from scratch.
- A team name. They already have the team name, Quebec Nordiques has a better ring to it than Hamilton Coyotes.

Cons:
- What would happen to the attendance at the Q? We all know that Quebec City is home to the Quebec Ramperts of the QMJHL, would their attendance suffer? The attendance skyrocketed since the departure of the Nordiques.
- The Leafs would move once again into the Western Conference. And as a result, we would lose such great rivalries as: "The Battle of Ontario, The Leafs-Habs rivalry, "The Battle of the QEW," and Leafs-Flyers rivalry.

Here's what the divisions would look like:

Eastern Conference:

Northeast Division:
Quebec City
Montreal
Boston
Buffalo
Ottawa

All other Eastern divisions the same

Western Conference:

Central Division:
Toronto
Detroit
Chicago
Nashville
Columbus

Pacific:
St. Louis
San Jose
LA
Anaheim
Dallas

Northwest Division would stay the same.

So as you can see, Quebec would kick out Toronto and Toronto would kick out St. Louis who would replace Phoenix in he Pacific division. I guess the bright side if the Leafs moved to the West would be a renewed rivalry with Chicago and Detroit, fellow Original Six teams. Anyways, that's all for now, until next time friends.