West Is Best?

1) Despite having won the past 3 Stanley Cups the Eastern Conference appears to be on a down year. We admit its difficult to compare each conference especially with the unbalanced schedule, but having watched all the teams perform for nearly 90% of the season its now clear where the majority of quality teams reside.
2) While the West playoff picture cleared up quickly following the All Star break, the eastern picture remains murky, even at this late date. Some may see this as depth of quality, but having seen these teams struggle all year with consistency we see it as depth of mediocrity. The bottom 3-4 teams in the East playoff picture would probably struggle to even make the playoffs in the West. We feel only the Devils, Sabres, Penguins and Senators would be playoff teams out west, and of those only the Sabres would be a top 4 team!
3) Another possible indicator of Western strength is the amazing advantage the West has in regard to head to head match ups this season with their Eastern counterparts. Again this can't be used as conclusive evidence with an unbalanced schedule where each team does NOT play each other, but the degree of disparity can't be ignored
4) Will all this mean that the Cup will finally move west of the Mississippi for the first time since the Stars won in 1999? Not quite. With the way the playoffs are structured the East has to win but one 7 game series(The Finals) against the West to retain their stranglehold of championships. Many have used the excuse of increased travel that gives the East a slight edge come late May/June when the Finals occur. True or not, the Finals are probably not the best measure of which conference is best, but ultimately/ironically is all that matters in the end