Fishbowl Favouritism - Welcoming the West

Yeah, I'm Biased:

I'm a Leafs fan, there's no two ways about it. Call'em the Buds, the Boys in Blue, Leafs, Laughs... Yeah, even the Laughs and I'll call'em my team.

As such I've had a Leafs Line series for almost as long as I've had a blog. You've probably read it at least once and yes, I vehemently support Toronto and you'll have noticed that as well. With that said I think it's about time I evened things out a little.

Welcoming the West:

I'm not going to start supporting Boston, Ottawa, or Montreal, but I AM going to be welcoming a second team into the Leafs Line type articles. The team is going to be nominated by my Facebook friends and through comments and suggestions made here by readers. You can pick any Western conference team, comment with the team name or city at the bottom of this post and have your vote counted in the decision. 

Now, in case you're not familiar with the division between the Eastern and Western conference team sets... Actually, if you're not familiar with the East-West division in the NHL you probably shouldn't be voting but hey, democracy lets anyone in these days. In all seriousness, the teams are divided into two conferences that USED to be based on their relative location in North America however with the shuffling of hockey clubs, buying, selling, moving etc. the East-West label is sometimes just an organizational formality. Here's the separation as it exists today.

The Teams:

Note, the ATL Thrashers have become
the Winnipeg Jets.

The conferences are divided top and bottom here. East's on the top, and the West is on the bottom.

The list of teams (just in case you're not so hot with the logos) runs down like this:

Eastern Conference:

• Winnipeg Jets
• Boston Bruins
• Buffalo Sabres
• Carolina Huricanes
• Florida Panthers
• Montreal Canadiens
• New Jersey Devils
• New York Islanders
• New York Rangers
• Ottawa Senators
• Philadelphia Flyers
• Pittsburgh Penguins
• Tampa Bay Lightning
• Toronto Maple Leafs
• Washington Capitals

Western Conference:

• Anaheim Mighty Ducks
• Calgary Flames
• Chicago Blackhawks
• Colorado Avalanche
• Columbus Blue Jackets
• Dallas Stars
• Detroit Red Wings
• Edmonton Oilers
• Los Angeles Kings
• Minnesota Wild
• Nashville Predators
• Phoenix Coyotes
• San Jose Sharks
• St. Louis Blues
• Vancouver Canucks

Just a reminder, you can select ANY team from the Western conference to be the newest member of the NHL News segments here on the blog. The only reason I'm not looking to add in an Eastern Conference team is simply to spread out the focus rather than to bring it in purely on the East. Also, this means you'll get a wider range of news as two teams from two conferences will have a vastly different playing schedule with their respective paths crossing less often.

If you have a favourite team, and I'm sure you do, vote them in. I'll be collecting everything that comes my way and announce the new series addition in about a week.

So vote it in folks! And enjoy your swim!

Joshua J. Taylor