I think the realignment of the NHL Divisions is spot on. For one the Red Wings are finally in a division where the teams are in the same time zone. If you look at the map, that was probably the overall goal of the realignment. There are four divisions, The Atlantic, The Metropolitan, The Central, and The Pacific.

The Atlantic consists of, The Boston Bruins, The Ottawa Senators, The Montreal Canadians, The Toronto Maple Leafs, The Buffalo Sabres, The Detroit Red Wings, The Florida Panthers, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is one of the divisions who have 8 teams, the others have 7.

The Metropolitan Division consists of, The New York Rangers, The New York Islanders, The New Jersey Devils, The Philadelphia Flyers, The Pittsburgh Penguins, The Washington Capitals, The Columbus Blue Jackets, and The Carolina Hurricanes. This is going to be  the biggest rivalry division. With the Caps and the Pens, The Pens and the Flyers, Isles and the Rangers. The division games between these teams are going to be very exciting.

In the Central Division, it consists of, The Chicago Blackhawks, the raining Stanley cup Champions, The St. Louis Blues, The Minnesota Wild, The Winnipeg Jets, The Colorado Avalanche, The Dallas Stars, and the Nashville Predators. This Division, is one of the least competitive divisions. I am not saying that the teams are bad, but I am saying that the Blue and the Wild are the two dominant teams in the division.

The Pacific Division consists of, The LA Kings, The Calgary Flames, The Anaheim Ducks, The Phoenix Coyotes, The San Jose Sharks, The Vancouver Canaucks, and The Edmonton Oilers. This Division is made up of mainly newly formed teams, none of the original six. But these teams are getting better and based on last years performance, some are Stanley Cup contenders.

To go along with the Realignment, the playoffs are going to work differently.

“The top three teams in each division will make up the first 12 teams in the playoffs. The remaining four spots will be filled by the next two highest-placed finishers in each conference, based on regular-season points and regardless of division. It will be possible, then, for one division to send five teams to the postseason while the other sends three.

The seeding of the wild-card teams within each divisional playoff will be determined on the basis of regular-season points. The division winner with the most points in the conference will be matched against the wild-card team with the lowest number of points; the division winner with the second-most points in the conference will play the wild-card team with the second fewest points.

The teams finishing second and third in each division will play in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of each series will play for berths in the Conference Championship series.

The two divisional champions in each conference will then play in the conference finals to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.”

– Credit to Donald Wood of the Bleacher Report 

http://bleacherreport.com/users/348984-donald-wood

This was the most helpful thing I read that explained the NHL Playoffs.  The Playoffs are a bit confusing but as the season goes on, if you keep up with the NHL, they will explain the playoffs more in-depth.