Metropolitan Division: Sounds Like Fun

Picture Source: www.tomfulery.com

The Carolina Hurricanes open up the 2013 season in the same league and same conference, but in a different division.  With the new realignment plan the teams are now split into 2 conferences(East and West) and 2 divisions within each conference.  The realignment has moved Detroit and Columbus to the Eastern Conference and Winnipeg to the Western Conference.  The reasoning behind this is obviously so teams can play others in their time zone.  Above is a map of the new realignment to help illustrate this change.

Now for the fun part.  The Hurricanes are part of the Metropolitan Division.  The teams that make up this division are; Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Washington Capitals.  That list can be summed up in one word, scary.  Scary, yet do-able.  I think there are a lot of tough teams in our division, but I feel as though we have the potential to be one of them.  Now Canes fans, we know that every time we play the Penguins the seats are 60% them and 40% us.  Hell, half of the teams in our division have fans that either A; travel well, or B; have fans here.  With that being said WE need to fill those seats.

The playoffs are decided by the top 3 teams from each division and then 2 wild cards from each conference.  The two wild cards are the best teams from that conference that didn't make the top 3 from their division.  This means there is a possibility that the Metropolitan Division could send 5 teams to the playoffs(fingers crossed).

So what can be gathered from this post?  We are in a division that sounds like a flavor of ice cream.  We play some difficult teams in some difficult venues.  We have to play these difficult teams 4 or 5 times this season.  Finally, PLEASE support our team(buy tickets) so we don't have to yell over the Penguin fans(or Flyers, or Rangers, or Devils, or Washington).  Tickets go on sale September 6th, mark your calendars (wink wink).