If I had Gary Bettman's job for a day there is one thing I would do and it would have nothing to do with collective bargaining agreements, head-shot  rules, or bankruptcy proceedings/ownership issues surrounding the Phoenix Coyotes. (Although, if I had a second day in office, that team would be called the Winnipeg Jets again.) My one legislative act would be to reinstate the old conference and division names. The Clarence Campbell and The Prince of Wales Conferences. How much better does that sound than the Eastern and Western Conferences? And we'd once again have the Norris, Adams, Smythe and Patrick Divisions instead of the geographical names. Of course there are two more divisions now then there were before the name changes so we'd have to come up with the names for those. We could have the LaFleur and Gretzky divisions or maybe the Howe and Orr. Come up with a few choices and let the fans vote on it. Hockey has the coolest trophy names in sports. We don't have the Commissioners Trophy or the FedEx Cup, we have the Stanley Cup. It's not just the MVP or the Most Sportsmanlike, it's the Hart and the Lady Byng. We should go back to having the most colorful division names as well. It just seems like hockey was trying to be like all the other sports when they changed the names but I think those little traditions are worth conserving.

And while I'm on the topic old NHL names I really miss the old arena names. I know we could never go back to them because of all the money genereated by corporate sponsorships but I think the rink names now are really ugly. Off the top of my head, I believe there are only 3 rinks in the league without a corporate name. Madison Square Garden, Nassau Memorial Veterans Collesium, and Joe Louis Arena. I miss the names like Maple Leaf Gardens, he Montreal Forum, Northlands Colesium, The Great Western Forum, Boston Garden, The Spectrum. Those names sounded poetic and tough. Now all the rinks are named after banks and big corporations. I know it's just the way of the world these days but it's too bad. Just some thoughts from a hopeless romantic.

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