re div and conf names maynard ramsey cs laurentian ca roger maynard writes in bu edu jason gibson writes i can live with the other changes that have been made e g the playoff format change but the change to the division and conference names really annoys me batman was on tsn last night saying that changing the names would make the game easier for the occasional fan to follow he should have said what he meant that changing the names will make the game easier for americans in non hockey cities to follow i don t know of too many of my friends who had a hard time following which teams were in each division even a minimal amount of exposure to the game allows a person to quickly pick up on this there is nothing wrong with making the game easier for americans to follow the more fans the merrier and even if you dislike the occasional fan there is always the chance that these fans will become fanatics i am glad that the names are being changed for another reason the names patrick smythe norris adams and campbell are all the names of so called builders of the game this is the same type of thinking that put stein in the hall of fame this is absolute nonsense the real builders of the game are richard morenz howe conacher orr etc if you are going to name the divisions after people at least name the divisions after people who deserve it i think that you are incorrect roger patrick smythe and adams all played or coached in the league before becoming front office types hence they did help build the league although they were not great players themselves i agree that a name is a name is a name and if some people have trouble with names that are not easily processed by the fans then changing them to names that are more easily processed seems like a reasonable idea if we can get people in the arena door by being uncomplicated then let s do so once we have them they will realize what a great game hockey is and we can then teach them something abotu the history of the game the history of the names can be put rather succinctly all of the aforemen tioned used the game of hockey to make money can you imagine a pocklington division a ballard division or how about a green division no i would not want to see a ballard division but to say that these owners are assholes hence all nhl management people are assholes would be fallacious conn smythe for example was a classy individual from what i have heard also isn t the point of professional hockey to make money for all those involved which would include the players what i think you might be saying is that the players have not made as much money as should have been their due and it is the players that are what make the game great not the people who put them on the ice so naming division after management people rather than players is adding insult in the form of lesser recognition to injury less money than was deserved evan pritchard number or depending on the hockey pool epritcha psych uiuc edu
