Imbalance between Eastern and Western conferences starting to spark concern

The 2025/26 NHL season has been a major success thus far, and with the upcoming 2026 Olympic Games, the National Hockey League is hoping for one of the best seasons in league history.

Through two months, there's been plenty of drama, physicality, shocks and major upsets, and with the Stanley Cup Playoffs still four months away, plenty can change between now and then.

However, one major issue keeps popping up on social media, and that is the disparity of successful teams in the Eastern Conference compared to the Western Conference in the current NHL standings, with social media analyst JFresh quick to point this out recently.

If things continue the way they've started thus far in 2025/26, seven teams in the West are expected to tally 80 or less points this season, but in the East, just one is expected to hit that 80 point mark, that being the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It's unclear exactly why things have gone this way, but given the young stars emerging in the West like Macklin Celebrini, it's safe to say that there's incredibly exciting teams all over the league.

Ultimately though, it ends up being a bad look for the league if the 16th placed team in one conference would finish 11th in the other ahead of five other teams and tied with two others, so we will wait and see how this plays out and if the NHL can find any way to fix this glaring issue.