Puck Theory

I heard an interesting idea on the B.S. Report the other day regarding the NHL. Simmons said that the NHL should contract to 24 teams with twelve being Canadian and twelve being American. This sounded interesting but contraction is always tricky. Lets see how it would play out:

CANADA:
Current Teams
Montreal Canadians
Toronto Maple Leafs
Ottawa Senators
Vancouver Canucks
Edmonton Oilers
Calgary Flames

Wow, only six current teams left. Sad. It can be done though.
Welcome to the League!

Quebec Nordiques
Winnipeg Jets
Toronto Team #2

To get the last three you need to rely on rabid Canadian fans to fill the arena.

British Columbia team #2. Needs balance with Vancouver. In Victoria maybe.
Halifax. Nova Scotia has people, needs a team and is on the East coast.
The last team has be in either Ontario or Quebec province. I would like to see it in Waterloo just to see how many over dramatic Waterloo lines the media could come up with. Don Cherry might just explode.

United States:
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red Wings
Philadelphia Flyers
Boston Bruins
Pittsburgh Penguins
New Jersey Devils
New York Rangers
St. Louis Blues
Colorado Avalanche
San Jose Sharks
Minnesota North Stars
Hartford Whalers

Tough choices. Here's the explanations.

Washington Capitals - D.C. just doesn't feel like a hockey town, maybe not even a sports town. The Skins, Nationals, Bullets (never Wizards) all have been poisoned by D.C. and now suck. Besides, why should all of America subsidize Canada's national sport in our capital?
Carolina Hurricanes - A mistake that needs fixing. Easy call.
Buffalo Sabres - Heartbreaking, they fall prey to there being too many teams in New York and the Hartford mistake being fixed. New York's loss is Connecticut's gain.
Tampa Bay Lightning - Tampa is still in Florida right?
Florida Panthers - See Tampa.
New York Islanders - tough call but NYC doesn't need three teams within 4 minutes of each other. If you want to kill off the Rangers or Devils, I'm willing to listen.
Atlanta Thrashers - please.
Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings - All the pacific is going to be represented by San Jose which has a good fan base with money. Nobody cares about hockey in Los Angeles when Gretzky isn't there and nobody cares about Anaheim, period. If you don't believe me just ask yourself why the MLB Angles had to add Los Angeles to their team name.
Nashville Predators - Mistake from the start.
Columbus Blue Jackets - Good market but a newbie caught in a numbers game.
Dallas - You stole it from Minnesota and don't deserve it.
Phoenix - You stole it from Winnipeg and then went bankrupt so go screw.

I think this could be a viable plan. A Canadian city only needs 70,000 people to support a team so some of those small markets could work out well. Contraction would make all these teams better as well with less diluted talent pool. Awesomeness ensues.