Conference Realignment Good for NHL

As I watched the games on Saturday’s schedule I started thinking about the remarkable lack of balance between the two conferences as far as their respective travel schedules are concerned. On Saturday Nashville went to L.A. after playing Anaheim on Friday and Columbus to Minnesota while on Sunday Chicago goes to San Jose. These are only a few examples of a number of conference games these teams, as well as other in the west, play all the time that require them to travel many miles and across 2 or 3 time zones routinely not to mention the games against eastern conference teams. On the other hand, with the exception of a few games against western conference teams, no team in the east has to leave the eastern time-zone once to play anyone in conference. It is unfair to put the burden of traveling so far so often on the players and organizations in one group but not the other. Extra travel costs a lot of money and it wears the players down a bit. My solution is to keep the two conferences but do not split it into east and west but instead perhaps north and south so that teams in both conferences travel just as much as the other. It is not only fair but it causes fans to pay greater attention to teams out west (or east) who might not otherwise do so resulting in greater U.S. exposure for the league since roughly 1/3 of the U.S. population lives in the east.