National Hockey League
How hockey teams got their nicknames.
Eastern Conference
Find out how NFL teams in the Eastern Conference got their nicknames from the Columbus Blue Jackets
to the Ottawa Senators.
Eastern Conference NHL Franchises »
The NHL consists of thirty teams with twenty-three located in the United States and the other seven residing in Canada.
All of the teams are divided into two conferences: the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference. The league realigned to the current
format after the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to become the Winnipeg Jets in 2011.
There are 16 teams in the Eastern Conference, and only 14 in the Western conference due to that more teams are located well east of the
Mississippi River. In each conference are two divisions - the Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions in the Eastern Conference and the
Pacific and Central divisions in the Western Conference.