Many major sports, and Rugby comes to mind especially, have 2 top-level leagues. In Rugby, there's Rugby League and Rugby Union. The idea is that there are two different perspectives on the rules of a sport. One style of plays is very traditional in nature, usually reflecting how the game is played in college. The other appeals to the big-business entertainment form of sport: sponsors, demographically-important markets, television, etc. Appealing to the latter style of play has resulted in the NHL undergoing a series of changes both over the years and recently that is no mystery to anyone reading this. The nature of the game is changing, that "old-style" of physical hockey is disappearing; I'm not even pining for the days of Gordy Howe, even when you watch footage of the days of Wayne Gretzky you realize that games like that will never be played again. The sport has fundamentally changed. And when one looks back at the days of men playing in sweaters, one must be filled with nostalgia. I think that's why the outdoor "Classic" games resonate so much.

Furthermore, there is one more, pressing bone of contention here. The big business league has said that rich American markets like Atlanta are more important to them than Hamilton or Quebec. That is nonsense. I ask you, if 1% of the viewers in Atlanta tune in to the NHL, versus 100% of Manitobans watching the Jets, which is the larger demographic. But to see Bettman pout about Winnipeg getting their team back shows a clear lack of vision regarding the game. To be perfectly blunt, this attitude is PISSING OFF Canadians who can't understand why Canada must endure having the largest concentration of hockey fans, but the least amount of teams in the NHL.

If it was one-to-one even, that would be acceptable. Likewise, the distribution of teams should be more uniform, and conform to regional realities, and taste in gameplay style. The Prairie & the West, the Great Lakes and the Rust Belt, and the Eastern & Atlantic. Back in the day, these had their own leagues, and traveled by train or bus with relative ease. In an era of great complexity and cost in travel (especially airfare) why not cut the costs of running a series by re-examining the methods of a previous era?

My idea calls for a Union of 3 Conferences, each consisting of 8 teams. There would be a greater emphasis on being a conference champion (like in Soccer: the Champions League, Bundesliga, etc.) and the higher placing teams qualifying for the grand playoff (like the World Cup to keep with the soccer metaphor.) The teams would correspond to markets that are traditional, logical places where hockey is enjoyed most; most of them being proper working-class cities, places in the heartland. Likewise, in keeping with the nod to the revival of tradition, the teams would correspond to historic franchises. These places, by the way, correspond to the places that would support hockey- proving that there might be something to the selection of these places, places rich in the soul of the game.