Realignment talk: Those silly owners!

I suppose I should have seen this coming: While NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his crew at NHL HQ are as tight-lipped as humanly possible about anything dealing with prospective changes to the world of professional hockey in North America, the owners that sign his paychecks....not so much.

Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold was the one to spill the beans on this occasion, talking up the possible 2012 NHL realignment:

Our division would include the Winnipeg Jets, us, the Blues, the Nashville Predators, the Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks, and maybe the Columbus Blue Jackets… maybe not depending on if they go east or west. I am all in favor of that. I think that is a grand slam, home run, hat trick for our team.

We’re all Central Division now. All of our teams, except for Columbus, all of our teams will be Central Division. We’ll play less teams in Canada. We will play every team home and away at least one time.

So the issue of Columbus to the Eastern Conference appears to still be an open issue.

And while I suggested that the NHL realign according to longitudes, it's looking like they're talking about realigning according to time zones (more or less).

Many thanks to Mr. Leipold for being so candid.  I bet Bettman is thrilled.