1999; The Year of Changes
If anybody remembers 5 months ago, my first article here was titled "1998; The Year of the Upset." Well, you can make 1999 another year with a label. The 1998-99 season is filled with changes in hockey.
There is realignment in the NHL this year, the most drastic since 1974-75 when the introduced the 2-conference, 4-division setup. Now it's 2-conference, 6-divisions. Here are the divisions:
| Atlantic | Northeast | Southeast |
| New Jersey | Boston | Carolina |
| N.Y. Islanders | Buffalo | Florida |
| N.Y. Rangers | Montreal | Tampa Bay |
| Philadelphia | Ottawa | Washington |
| Pittsburgh | Toronto | Atlanta* |
| Central | Northwest | Pacific |
| Chicago | Calgary | Anaheim |
| Detroit | Colorado | Dallas |
| Nashville | Edmonton | Los Angeles |
| St. Louis | Vancouver | Phoenix |
| Columbus* | Minnesota* | San Jose |
* is for teams that are not in the league yet. Atlanta Thrashers begin play next season, 1999-2000. The Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets enter in the 2000-2001 season.
The reason for the change is mostly Leafs President, Ken Dryden, a former Montreal goalie, who wanted Toronto and Montreal in the same division to refuel the greatest rivalry in the history of sport.
For any of you who read the Toronto Star on October 6, 1998, the top sports story was the Star rating the broadcast teams for the 1998-99 season. A whole new team is CTV Sportsnet, which goes to air October 17th! I know that for people subscribing to Shaw, it's on channel 30, starting October 17th, though the preview runs from the 9th to the 16th on channel 17. Other cable companies, I'm not sure, but CTV Sportsnet kicks off on the 9th, coincidentally, the same day the NHL season starts.
CTV Sportsnet beat out TSN for the national cable rights, broadcasting 44 NHL games this season, 30 regular season and 14 playoff games. They also own the exclusive regional rights to Vancouver with 30 games, Edmonton and Ottawa, with 20 games each, and 10 games of Calgary. But TSN still has the Leafs, and the producers go to bed every night praying that they do good, or right now, praying that the preseason is a prelude to the regular season. I'm also excited because it's the first time in Toronto at least that a station has been carrying regular CHL and AHL games. Global does 10 Saturdays for OHL every year and TSN does games when there's nothing else, but it's not enough. To see how the Toronto stations fared (CBC, CTV, Global, ONtv and TSN, click here).
Another change, TV-wise, is CBC. Molson Hockey Night in Canada is now Hockey Night in Canada, after Labatt beat them for main sponsorship rights. While the general format is still there, there are numerous cosmetic changes. New theme music, graphics and studios are there, but so are the old reliables in Bob Cole, Harry Neale, Dick Irvin, Chris Cuthbert, Ron MacLean and the hockey institution himself, Don Cherry. (BTW Grapes, congrats on the Ice Dogs' recent success. Who cares about winning when you have the toughest team in the league and the most peanlty minutes!) More Sunday games, a Monday game, Marc Crawford and some timely guests pale in comparison to their biggest change. A couple years ago, they moved games from 8:00 to 7:30. Now, with double-headers an official mainstay, games have been moved to 7:00 Eastern so people don't fall asleep watching the end of a west coast game at 1:30 in the morning.
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