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The National Hockey League’s Southeast Division is made up entirely of expansion teams,  although one team,  the Carolina Hurricanes,  has its origins in the World Hockey Association.

The Washington Capitals were one of two teams formed by the NHL,  for the 1974-1975 season (the other expansion team that season was the Kansas City Scouts,  who are now the New Jersey Devils).  The creation of the WHA in 1972,  and the NHL’s subsequent expansion (4 teams in 3 years),  meant the pro hockey talent pool had been thinned out considerably by 1974,  and the expansion Capitals set the record for the worst-ever season by an NHL team,  with a .131 winning percentage (8-67-5).  Since those poor first few seasons,  the Capitals have stabilzed as a relatively competitive franchise,  but the Capitals have no Stanley Cup Titles.  Washington did make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998,  but were swept by the defending champions,  the Detroit Red Wings. 

The Hartford Whalers joined the NHL as one of the four former WHA teams,  in the 1979-1980 season.  17 years later,  the hockey club was unable to secure new facilities,  and moved south,  in 1997,  to become the Carolina Hurricanes.  After several seasons of mediocre play and horrible attendance,  the Hurricanes built up a respectable fan base and became competitve.  They made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002,  losing to the Detroit Red Wings 1 game to 4.  Four seasons later, in 2006, the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup Title,  defeating the Edmonton Oilers in 7 games. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning were formed for the 1992-1993 season.  The hockey club went through a nightmare first decade,  and were deep in debt by the turn of the century.  In 2000-20001,  they became the first NHL team ever to post 5 straight 50-loss seasons.  New ownership and management resulted in a stunning tunaround for the Lightning,  though,  and the team,  led by a host of young talent,  stunned the hockey world by winning the Stanley Cup Title in 2004. 

A year after Tampa Bay joined the NHL,  the league added another team in the state:  the Florida Panthers,  who were formed for the 1993-1994 season (along with he Mighty Ducks of Anaheim).   The Panthers have no Stanley Cup Titles,  but made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996,  in just their third season,  losing to the Colorado Avalanche in a 4 game sweep.

The Atlanta Thrashers were formed for the 1999-2000 season,  marking a return of NHL hockey to Atlanta, Georgia after a 17-year absence.  The Atlanta Flames had existed for 8 seasons,  before seeing the light,  and moving to Western Canada to become the Calgary Flames.  Hopefully history wiill repeat itself,  and this hockey club will finally realize that ice hockey basically has no place in the Deep South,  the land of NASCAR,  and will move up north to a more deserving locale,  like,  say,  Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,  or Kitchener, Ontario.  A place where kids actually play ice hockey.

It seems this wish,  for Canada getting another NHL franchise,  may come true,  thanks to the sorry state of the economy…{see this, from On Frozen Blog : How About a Depression-Led Realignment ?  from January 11, 2009. }. [Note: the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 2011 to become the Winnipeg Jets (II).]

Thanks to the contributors to the pages on NHL team on Wikipedia  {Click here}. 

Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page  {Click here}.   Thanks to NHL.com shop {Click here}.   Thanks to NHL Uniforms.com  {Click here}.

The National Hockey League’s Central Division has two teams that date back to the 1926-1927 season…the Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Cougars  (Detroit adopted the Red Wings nickname in 1932;  Chicago changed the spelling of their nickname to one word in 1986).

The Detroit Red Wings have won 11 Stanley Cup Titles,  and won the 2008 Title,  making them cup-holders  {see this: Traditions and anecdotes,  from Wikipedia}.  The Red Wings have won 4 Titles in the last 12 seasons.   The Chicago Blackhawks are a far less successful franchise,  with just 3 Stanley Cup Titles.  Chicago has not won a Stanley Cup Title since 1961  (they did make it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1992,  but were shut out by the Pittsburgh Penguins).  

The Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings will square off in an outdoor hockey game,  in what the NHL calls the Winter Classic,  on January the 1st,  at Wrigley Field,  home of the Chicago Cubs baseball club.  Here is the site associated with the game  {Click here (NHL.com/ Event home) }.  

{Click here, for the webcam showing preparations at Wrigley Field.  (Note:  there is a nice video feature called ‘Wrigley Rink Build’ on this page,  to the right of the center screen,  and three boxes down.) }

The previous two NHL-regular season outdoor games were held in gridiron football stadiums,  the original match at Commonwealth Stadium,  in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,  on November 22, 2003.   The game was between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens,  with the Canadiens winning 4-3,  in front of 57,167 fans.  The temperature  was -18 Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit),  with a wind chill of minus 22 Fahrenheit.    Here is an account of the game from the ESPN archives  {Click here}.

5 years later,  the Buffalo Sabres hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rich Stadium,  in Orchard Park, NY,  home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.  The Penguins beat the Sabres 2-1,  with rising star Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal in the overtime shootout.  71,217 attended the game (an NHL record,  surpassing the Edmonton-Montreal outdoor game 5 years earlier).  The temperature was 0.5 degrees Celsius (33 degrees Fahrenheit) with intervals of light snow falling throughout the game.   The teams wore vintage uniforms,  with the Penguins sporting powder blue uniforms for the first time since 1973,  and the Sabres in their original colors of white,  royal blue,  and yellow.   Here is an account of the game from NYTimes.com  {Click here}.  Here is a 30-second home video posted on Youtube showing the crowd {Click here}.

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The weather is a concern for the January 1st game in Chicago  {see this (Yahoo Sports, from Dec. 27) }.  

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The remaining 3 teams in the NHL  Western Conference, Central Division are the St. Louis Blues (established for the 1967-1968 season),  the Nashville Predators (established for the 1998-1999 season),  and the Columbus Blue Jackets (established for the 2000-2001 season).   There are no Stanley Cup Titles between these three hockey clubs,  although the St. Louis Blues made it to the Stanley Cup Finals three straight seasons (their first three seasons),  from 1968 to 1970…The West Division was made up of all expansion teams from the 1967-1968 season,  and the imbalance in talent between the new hockey teams and the ‘Original Six’ teams in the East Division was shown by the fact that the St. Louis Blues were shut out zero games to 4 games in three straight Stanley Cup Finals.   Speaking of weak expansion teams,  the Columbus Blue Jackets have never made the playoffs in their eight seasons of existence.   The Nashville Predators are pretty competitive,  though,  and have made the playoffs the last 4 seasons (losing in the first round each time).

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From the Jersey Database site’s blog, here is an article called ‘The complete jersey history of the Detroit Red Wings’ {click here}.

Thanks to the NHL shop at NHL.com  {Click here}.   Thanks to NHL Uniforms.com site {Click here}.   Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page  {Click here}.   Thanks to the contributors to the Wikipedia pages on the NHL {Click here}.

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The National Hockey League did not have a presence in Canada’s western provinces until the Vancouver Canucks were awarded a franchise for the 1970-1971 season.   However,  there are Stanley Cup Title winners from Western Canada,  and the American Pacific Northwest,  dating back to 1915.

The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (or PCHA)  was a small,  but innovative league that existed from 1912 to 1924.  The Patrick brothers,  Lester {see this} and Frank {see this},  were the creators of this league,  which originally featured just 3 teams in British Columbia, Canada…the Vancouver Millionaires,  the New Westminster Royals,  and the Victoria Aristocrats.  

The Patrick family had just come into a fortune,  after selling their lumber business to a British concern,  and the Patrick brothers convinced their father to invest in their hockey league venture.  

The warm climate of the Canadian Pacific coast necessitated the building of artificial ice rinks.  The arena in Vancouver that the Patricks built,  called the Denman Street Arena,  had a 10,500 capacity,  remarkable for a city that then had a population of just around 100,000.  It was at that time the largest ice hockey arena in the world.   Another innovation made by the Patrick brothers was the creation of the blue line,  the first step in the evolution of  the modern offside rule for hockey.  They pioneered the use of player’s numbers on uniforms.  They first began recording assists on goals.  They invented hockey’s penalty shot.  Finally,  the Patricks first introduced the concept of a post-season playoff format,  in 1918. 

By 1915,  the trustees of the Stanley Cup decided to allow PCHA teams to compete for Stanley Cup challenge matches.  That same year,  the Vancouver Millionaires,  led by Frank Patrick,  defeated the original Ottawa Senators 3 games to zero,  to win the Stanley Cup Title.

The PCHA had expanded to include American teams in 1914 (first in Portland, Oregon;  then in Seattle, Washington;  and later in Spokane, Washinmgton).   In 1917,  the PCHA’s Seattle Metropolitans defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 1,  to win the Stanley Cup Title.   This was the first Stanley Cup Title won by a team from the United States.

The PCHA was able to achieve its high level of competitive play so quickly because of its raids on east-coast talent,  circa 1911-1914.  Several players who went on to become members of the Hockey Hall of Fame,  like “Cyclone” Taylor,  and Newsy Lalonde,  joined PCHA teams,  and Taylor was instrumental in the Vancouver Millionaires’ 1915 Stanley Cup Title.

The Western Canada Hockey League (or WCHL) was established in 1921,  designed to be a sister-league to the PCHA.  The winner of a playoff between the PCHA and the WCHL would go on to play the winner of the NHL for the Stanley Cup Title.  This system existed for 3 seasons (1921-1922 to 1923-1924).  The four founding teams of the WCHL were the Edmonton Eskimos,  the Calgary Tigers,  the Regina Capitals,  and the Saskatoon Sheiks.

  
But by the spring of 1924,  the PCHA found itself in dire financial straits,  and was forced to fold,  with two of the teams,  the Vancouver Maroons and the Victoria Cougars,  joining the WCHL.   The next season,  the Victoria Cougars,  led by coach/defenseman Lester Patrick,  defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 1,  to win the 1925 Stanley Cup Title.   This was the last time a non-NHL team won a Stanley Cup Title. 

A year later,  the WCHL also went bust.  The Patrick brothers were able to find most of the WCHL players employment in the NHL.  In fact,  for all intents and purposes,  in the fall of 1926,  the Victoria Cougars became the NHL expansion team called the Detroit Cougars…most of the players on the Victoria team moved to the Detroit team.  [The Detroit team  changed their name to the Red Wings,  in 1932.]    However,  the NHL does not consider the Detroit Red Wings to be a continuation of the the Victoria Cougars,  despite the similarity of most of the player roster (and the Detroit franchise’s original nickname itself ).   A similar thing can be said for the Chicago Blackhawks,  who were also formed as an NHL expansion team in 1926.  In their case,  the original Chicago team was comprised mostly of players from the WCHL’s Portland Rosebuds.  This was a team that originated in 1921 as the Regina (Saskatchewan) Capitals.

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The World Hockey Association was formed in 1972,  and began play for the 1972-1973 season.  Like the PCHA 60 years earlier,  the WHA of the 1970′s attained a good measure of instant credibility by raiding talent (from the NHL).  Players like Bobby Hull (joining the Winnipeg Jets) and Gerry Cheevers (joining the Cleveland Crusaders) made the NHL soon realize this upstart league would not be a flash in the pan.  By 1974,  WHA teams like the Winnipeg Jets began signing European players like Swedes Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson,  drawing on a pool of talent on the other side of the Atlantic,  something the NHL had traditionally ignored.  This is one of the greatest legacies of the World Hockey Association,  pioneering the use of foreign talent.  Today,  the NHL has a considerable fan base in Europe,  which would almost certainly not exist had the NHL remained so hidebound in it’s refusal to seek talent outside of Canada. 

One reason why the WHA was able to compete somewhat successfully with the NHL in the 1970′s was that the WHA introduced top-flight hockey to cities in Canada that had had to make do with minor league hockey previously…Edmonton, Alberta;  Winnipeg, Manitoba;  and Quebec City, Quebec.  And when the WHA eventually folded, after the 1979 season,  3 of the 4 WHA teams that were allowed to join the NHL as expansion teams were Canadian…the Edmonton Oilers,  the Quebec Nordiques,  and the Winnipeg Jets  [the Hartford Whalers were the fourth team].

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 Below is a small chart showing the 5 teams in the NHL Northwest Division;  read left to right for each team…

Two of the five teams in the NHL’s Western Conference, Pacific Division trace their roots to the WHA.  The Edmonton Oilers are the only one of the four WHA teams in the NHL to still be in the same location.   The Quebec Nordiques are now the Colorado Avalanche.  [Of the other two WHA teams which joined the NHL in the 1979-1980 season,  the Hartford Whalers are now the Carolina Hurricanes,  and the Winnipeg Jets are now the Phoenix Coyotes.] 

In 1980,  one year after the 4 WHA teams joined the NHL,  the Atlanta Flames,  an 8-year old NHL expansion team,  moved to Alberta, Canada and became the Calgary Flames.

That accounts for four of the five teams in the NHL’s Northwest Division.  The fifth is the Minnesota Wild,  who were formed in 2001,  as an expansion team.   2001 was also when the current NHL divisional alignment was established.

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The Stanley Cup Title has been won 8 times by NHL teams which are currently in the Northwest Division.    The Edmonton Oilers have won 5 Stanley Cup Titles,  the last in 1990.

The Calgary Fames won their Stanley Cup Title in 1989.    The Colorado Avalanche have won 2 Stanley Cup Titles,  their first in 1995 (the first season after the franchise moved from Quebec to Denver, Colorado).   The Avalanche won their second Stanley Cup Title in 2001.   In recent years,  the Calgary Flames lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning (in 2004);  and the Edmonton Oilers lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes one season later (in 2006).

Thanks to the contibutors at Wikipedia to the pages of the NHL {Click here (set at the history of the NHL)},  WHA  {Click here},  PCHA  {Click here},  and WCHL  {Click here}.

Thanks to “The Official National Hockey League 75th Anniversary Commemorative Book”,  edited by Dan Diamond…particularly the chapter called ‘The Making of the NHL’,  by Brian McFarlane  (first published by McClelland and Stewart, Inc.,  Toronto,  in 1991).

Thanks to the site called Western Hockey Legends (PCHA and WCHL Hockey Teams)  {Click here}.

Thanks to the Logoserver site (set at PCHA logos here;  WCHL logos here) }.    Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page  {Click here (set at Pro Hockey logos) }.

Thanks to NHL.com shop  {Click here}.

Thanks to NHLUniforms.com  {Click here}.

This post begins my series on National Hockey League Divisions.   Each team’s current home and away jerseys are prominently shown;  third jerseys and secondary logos are also shown.   Within each teams’ rectangular box,  there are two smaller boxes…the upper box shows notable uniforms and logos from the past.   The box in the lower left shows each NHL team’s minor-league affiliates.   The entire 30-team NHL,  by divisions,  is shown at the top. 

The NHL is divided into two 15-team conferences (the Eastern and Western Conferences),  each with three 5-team divisions.  The current schedule has the teams playing fellow division members 6 times,  and fellow conference members 4 times,  with the remaining 18 games played versus the 15 teams in the other conference  {see this,  from a hockey blog on the New York Rangers called The 5-Hole.com}.  

8 teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs,  which includes the 3 division-winning teams plus the 5 other teams with the best records in each conference.   The NHL used to be criticized for having too many teams qualifying for the playoffs:  teams with losing records often qualified,  25 years ago or so.   That is no longer the case,  as expansion has swelled the ranks to where a team almost definitely has to have a winning record to make it to the post-season.   Of course,  hockey purists might insist that this is no improvement,  as the 30-team NHL has watered down the talent-level.   But with the influx of overseas talent currently in the league,  hopefully this is not a problem.   Hockey’s real hurdle has always been the lack of major-media-outlet exposure,  but it seems that the internet,  and fans’ ability to get NHL games and news there,  has allowed the whole professional game to find a comfortable niche.   The biggest problem with hockey’s ability to attract new fans (or lack thereof) has always been the fact that it doesn’t translate well onto the television screen.   There is nothing like seeing an NHL game in person.   It is an intense thing,  viewing the precision and fluidity of the players as they glide across the ice,  engaged in a game that melds graceful athletic prowess with sudden episodes of brutal physical collision.    

The current conference/divisonal set-up dates back to the 1998-1999 season;  the current team alignment dates back to the 2000-2001 season,  when the last two expansion teams,  the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild,  were added.

The Pacific Division has two teams that have won the Stanley Cup:  the Dallas Stars,  in 1999,  and the Anaheim Ducks,  in 2007.

Thanks to NHLuniforms.com site  {Click here}.   Thanks to NHL.com shop {Click here}.   Thanks to the contributors to the pages on NHL teams on Wikipedia  {Click here}.   Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page  {Click here}.   Thanks to Icejerseys.com  {Click here}.