I don't think the Yankees, Boston, Toronto and Baltimore really care about making three trips to Florida in one season to play one team in MLB. If they do, they don't complain about it like NHL teams/fans do.
All those teams - Detroit, Boston, etc - have to make two, three trips max down there (playing them both same trip), big deal. If they weren't in the same division they'd still be making one trip down there anyway. So you're really talking about one or two extra trips 'max'. You can combine it with a couple other non-conference games down south and have a four-five game road trip. It's the Florida teams themselves that lose out travel-wise but presumably they'll get plenty of $$$ for their travel woes with four Original Six teams coming in and northern transplants.
Besides, it's still significantly less travel than the two divisions in the West have to deal with. I think the NHLs main concern is that the teams are playing in the same timezone. Imagine that, they're actually thinking about the fans for once.
Edited by Lateralous, 14 March 2013 - 04:36 PM.
