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The home of the NHL Realignment Project — and everything around it

Endless possibilities, zero consensus. This journal collects the things a hockey reader keeps coming back to: how a season is put together, why conferences and divisions matter, what relocation and expansion actually change, which hockey books hold up, and how to read the news without being sold a story. Nothing here is a prediction and nothing is a guarantee — just careful explanations and good arguments.

How an NHL Season Is Structured, Part by Part

Tom Fulery
IndependentWritten by readers for readers. No league, club or agency involvement.
No invented numbersEvery figure is either publicly checkable or absent from the text.
Opinion is labelledAnalysis, argument and opinion are always marked as such.

The journal at a glance

SectionWhat it coversWhat to keep in mind
HockeyThe league, the season, the rolesStructure before highlights
NHL Realignment ProjectMaps, conferences and travelAssumptions come first
The Hockey Book of the WeekHistories, memoirs, tacticsRead the sources list
SportsOther games in comparisonEvery sport builds its own season
Fun and GamesQuizzes, polls, fan debatesFun without the low blows
NewsFollowing and verifying storiesCheck the original source

Hockey All articles →

Hockey

How an NHL Season Is Structured, Part by Part

Preseason roster sorting, the long regular season, the trade deadline and a playoff format that plays like a different sport, explained part by part.

Hockey

Reading NHL Standings: Points and Games in Hand

What points actually reward, why games in hand confuse everyone, which tie-breakers decide seasons, and three ways to read the same table calmly.

Hockey

What a Goaltender Actually Does Between the Pipes

Positioning before reflexes, reading the play rather than the puck, and the routine that holds a goaltender together across a long, uneven season.

NHL Realignment Project All articles →

NHL Realignment Project

What Realignment Means for a League and Its Fans

Moving teams between conferences and divisions looks like a map exercise, but the promise and the cost land on rivalries, travel and the playoff path.

NHL Realignment Project

Conferences and Divisions: How They Shape a Season

Grouping decides the schedule, the playoff path and how often rivals meet. What conferences and divisions actually control, and why fans argue about them.

NHL Realignment Project

Travel, Time Zones and the NHL Schedule Debate

Distance is the easy part. Time zones change the body clock, which is why a genuinely fair schedule is harder to build than it looks on a map.

News All news →

Following Hockey News Well: Sources and Habits

A short list beats a long one. How to separate reporting from opinion, build a daily routine that fits a real life, and stop refreshing the feed.

Reading Trade Rumours Without Getting Fooled

How a single report becomes a rumour, why most of them never happen, and the language to watch for when reading a trade story during rumour season.

When Rules Change: What Fans Should Watch

Rule changes arrive slowly. What to check when one is announced, why the announcement is not the implementation, and how to follow it to the ice.

International Tournaments: Following the News

Different clocks, rosters that depend on availability, and national teams that are not clubs. How to follow a burst calendar without missing the story.

How to Verify a Hockey Claim Before Sharing It

Ask where the number came from, separate a measurement from an estimate, check the date, then decide whether to share it. A short verification checklist.

NHL standings today: points, games in hand and goal difference

Live NHL standings with points, games played, goal difference and streak for all 32 teams, plus what the numbers actually say about games in hand.

NHL 2026-27 so far: 32 teams and what the first weeks show

The 2026-27 NHL season in numbers: scoring rate, goal difference spread and the teams setting the pace, taken from the live standings feed.

Latest from the journal

Hockey

Special Teams Explained: Power Play and Penalty Kill

What the penalty box changes, why a power play chooses between patience and pressure, and how killing a penalty is really about what to concede.

Hockey

Why Line Changes Decide More Than Highlights Do

A shift is a budget. Line matching, deployment and change management explain why tight games turn on quiet decisions rather than one replay.

NHL Realignment Project

Relocation and Expansion: How Cities Join a League

Ownership comes first, then the building question. The steps between an idea and a roster, why expansion differs from relocation, and why it takes years.

NHL Realignment Project

Building a Realignment Map: Assumptions First

Start with assumptions rather than the map, decide how to count, and accept that goals trade against each other. Where armchair projects usually fail.

The Hockey Book of the Week

Why Hockey Books Still Matter in a Highlight Era

Long form forces a writer to commit to an argument. What histories, memoirs and tactics books give a reader that a highlight never will, and how to read them.

The Hockey Book of the Week

Classic Hockey Histories Every Reader Should Try

A good history explains an era instead of listing results. What to look for, why eras are the natural unit, and how to read a history critically.

Read it for the hockey. This journal explains how the sport works; it does not predict results and does not sell anything. Where a number is not publicly checkable we say so instead of inventing one.