Canadiens, Maple Leafs fans stoked to be in new conference with only five teams

Yes, clearly they care more about their team than we do.

After news broke last week that the NHL Board of Governers had approved the newest and most wild plan for realignment yet, it was received with varying degrees of excitement. 

Fans of teams such as the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets applaud the restructured alignment as it eliminates lengthy and inconvenient trips to the west coast, and keeps the teams in their own time zones much more often.  

However, many fans were disappointed in a return to a format in which the teams making the playoffs – four from each conference – are highly predictable and likely to be the same for several years in a row without much shakeup.  

Not all fans, though.  In fact, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs fans have fully embraced the new alignment.  The reason for such admiration being that their teams managed to strike gold in ending up the only conference to feature just five teams.  Loyal Canadiens fan Harry O’Toole had this to say:

“I absolutely love it.  Four of the five teams are going to make the playoffs, ya know, out of us, the Leafs, Ottawa, Buffalo and Boston.  Ottawa and Toronto are usually terrible, and if they don’t build a concrete wall around the crease in Buffalo, they’ll never do anything, so I LOVE our chances in this new setup.  We’ll be in the playoffs every year!”

Maple Leafs diehard, Richard Face:

“I love how the league trimmed the fat with this.  Depending on scheduling, we could spend weeks at a time in Canada, just like it [censored] should be.  If you ask me, ‘Conference C’ stands for ‘Conference Canada.’ “

Canadiens apologist, Amanda Blowe:

“It’s just great to be a conference with real, high quality teams that are right around the corner.  And Ottawa.”

Loyal, but cynical Maple Leafs season ticket holder, Dixon Hand:

“Well, in that format, we might actually make the playoffs once in a while, so I’m down.”