Obiter Dicta Issue 8 - January 6, 2014 | Page 14
PAGE 14
sports
The west is best
ANDREW CYR
Sports Editor
THE NHL’S WESTERN CONFERENCE has reigned supreme over the Eastern
Conference for the better part of a decade.
Since the end of the 2004-05 NHL lockout,
Western Conference teams have consistently
gotten the better of Eastern Conference
opponents, winning close to 60% of intercon ference games in each season. In addition, the West had produced 5 of the last 7
Stanley Cup Champions. However, the level
of dominance of the Western Conference has
reached new heights this season, as Western Conference teams have won an unprecedented 68% of inter-conference games so far.
With the possible exception of the Pittsburgh Penguins or Boston Bruins, all of the
NHL’s powerhouse clubs reside in the West.
This has resulted in a disparity in the standings, as point totals in the Western Conference soar to new heights, while teams in the
East wallow in relative mediocrity. Teams
like the Phoenix Coyotes and Minnesota
Wild are battling for playoff position, despite
being on pace for greater than 100 points.
Moving to the West has been a rude awakening for the Winnipeg Jets, who battled for a
playoff spot in the Eastern Conference last
season before being moved as a result of the
conference realignment. The Jets have been
all but eliminated from the Western Conference playoff picture, despite hovering around
.500 on the season. Such a record does not
cut it in the Wild West.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Red Wings, who
moved to the East as a result of the realignment, have seen their fortunes improve as a
result of the move. The team has managed
to remain in the playoff race despite recent
losing streaks that would have buried the
team in the more competitive West. The
same can be said for the home-town Maple
Leafs, whose habit of getting badly outshot
by opponents would surely sewer the team
against the big guns of the Western Conference.
The Western Conference’s domination of
the East in the NHL is nothing new. However, it appears that this trend has expanded
into other sports. The inequality between
the Western and Eastern conferences in the
NBA is even more extreme that in the NHL.
Only two teams sit above .500 in the NBA’s
Eastern Conference (Indiana and Miami),
whereas nine teams have such a record in
the West. Like the Leafs, the Raptors have
benefitted immensely from this gap, as they
currently sit 4th in the Eastern Conference,
Monday, November 18, 2013
while they would sit near the bottom of the
Western Conference standings. Even as the
Raptors trade away many of their star players, in what appears to be an effort to acquire
high draft picks and rebuild the team, they
are buoyed by the mediocrity of their conference peers.
In the NFL, the AFC and NFC West divisions were, until recently, considered the
weakest divisions in each Conference. This
season, however, the top team in each Conference resides in the West division. The
AFC West-leading Denver Broncos are the
AFC’s number one seed and appear to be a
strong favourite to represent the Conference
in the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, the Seattle
Seahawks own the best record in the NFC.
Each of Denver and Seattle are pushed by
strong competition within their divisions,
and it is likely that the AFC West and NFC
West will each produce at least one wildcard
team.
Interestingly, however, the dominance
of teams from the West does not extend to
baseball, where the top teams in each League
still reside in their Eastern and Central divisions.
While it is likely that the dominance of
Western Conference teams in each of these
sports is a mere coincidence, other theories
have begun to emerge. In the NHL, for
example, it has long been posited that Western Conference teams play a more structured,
defensive style than their free-wheeling Eastern Conference counterparts. When these
two styles clash, the team-oriented Western
Conference teams tend to emerge over the
Eastern Conference teams, who rely more on
individual skill. Certainly, a higher level of
competition in one group will eventually lead
to improvement for all teams in that group,
as they try to gain an edge over one another.
Given the relative novelty of Western
dominance in basketball and football, possible explanations are only beginning to formulate. Is there a geographical explanation?
Is there something in the water or the air out
West that helps athletes perform their best?
Do they thrive away from the glare and pressure of East-coast media?
It is unlikely that we are going to receive
a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon any time soon. For the time being,
those Leafs and Raptors fans that are enjoying the teams’ recent success should thank
the sports gods that their teams remain in
the cushy confines of their leagues’ Eastern
Conferences.
© 2012–2013 Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. All rights reserved. | 416 869 5300
Cassels Brock
2013/2014 season
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