NHL Realignment: Four Conferences in 2012

The NHL Board of Governors recently convened and have decided upon a new alignment consisting of four Conferences.  The vote by NHL teams was 26-4 in favour of the realignment.  The drastic new look goes into effect in 2012, and the teams breakdown as follows (sorted by last season's point totals):

Conf A	Pts	Conf B	Pts
Vancouver	117	Detroit	104
San Jose	105	Nashville	99
Phoenix	99	Chicago	97
Anaheim	99	Dallas	95
Los Angeles	98	St. Louis	87
Calgary	94	Minnesota	86
Colorado	68	Columbus	81
Edmonton	62	Winnipeg	80

Conf C	Pts	Conf D	Pts
Tampa Bay	103	Washington	107
Boston	103	Pittsburgh	106
Montreal	96	Philadelphia	106
Buffalo	96	NY Rangers	93
Toronto	85	Carolina	91
Ottawa	74	New Jersey	81
Florida	72	NY Islanders	73

Some quick observations...

1) All-Canadian Playoff matchups are much more likely in this scenario with Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in one Conference, and Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto in another.

2) Winnipeg would not see a Canadian team in the playoffs unless it advanced to the Semi-Finals (through two rounds successfully).

3) Eastern teams have a 57% chance of making the post-season (4/7) compared to a mere 50% chance for Western teams (4/8)

4) Applying this model to last season's standing reveals that Los Angeles with 98 points would fail to qualify for the post-season, while five teams that did qualify had fewer points.  Keep in mind that these points were obtained under a schedule of playing different teams at different frequencies, so it's not necessarily an example of things to come.

5) The alignment presently suggests eight (8) team divisions would play each other five or six times. In the seven (7) team divisions, they would play each other six (6) times.

6) Existing geographical rivalries should be maintained around the league, while in the next season, some new rivalries should intensify as each Conference appears to have some front runners. Key Conference Matchups include Vancouver / San Jose, Detroit / Chicago, Boston / Buffalo, and Philadelphia / Pittsburgh / Washington

7) Based on last year's standings, Conference D appears to be the strongest:

Conf D	93.9
Conf A	92.8
Conf B	91.1
Conf C	89.9

8) Each team would play teams outside of their Conference twice - one home and one away.

9) Playoffs: Top four teams in each conference play each other (#1 vs #4, #2 vs #3)

What are your thoughts and comments?