In the comments thread of my recent post, "Crosby for MVP", one reader posted the suggestion that there was Eastern bias toward the Western Conference.

"Schedules, TV coverage, reporting, and yes, even balloting is strongly eastern biased, and traditionally has been so for some time."

I briefly responded to those comments later in the thread but felt it was a topic worth pursuing further.

This isn't the first time I've read and heard of supposed bias against the NHL's Western Conference from hockey fans, but a closer examination of the facts suggests otherwise.

First, scheduling in terms of travel is considerably tougher for Western teams, but that's the result of geography. All the Eastern Conference teams are within one time zone and in many cases a quick one or two hour plane trip apart.

In the West, however, the teams are spread further apart and between four time zones (eastern,central, mountain and pacific). It's unfortunate, but not the result of any bias against them (hat tip to Paul Kukla and Barbara Stephenson for reminding me that Detroit and Columbus are in the Eastern time zone).

TV coverage is also the result of geography. With all the Eastern teams within one time zone, they're going to get a favorable TV schedule. Unfortunately for Western teams, those time zones work against them, resulting in their games being televised much later in the East and thus a perceived lack of coverage/interest.

To counter this, Western games could start earlier, but that would be unfair to those teams and their fans. The travel schedule in particular for Western teams is tough enough without taking away some valuable rest time to an earlier start.

There is obviously more favorable coverage of the Eastern teams than the Western clubs, which again is unfortunate and again due to geography and time zones, not bias.

Geography and time zones have nothing to do with balloting, but as I noted in response to this comment, the winners of the recent NHL awards clearly indicates no bias against Western players.

"The professional hockey writers association votes for the Hart, Norris, Calder and Selke trophies. The GMs vote for the Vezina winner, and the NHL Broadcasters Association votes for the Adams winner. I fail to see where bias enters into it.

Four of the last six Hart winners were from the West, as were three of the last seven Calder Winners, three of the last six Adams winners, five of the last 8 Selke winners, and 7 of the last 8 Norris winners.

Since the GMs select the Vezina winners, and there can be no suggestion of too many GMs in the East, then obviously a number of Western GMs believed only two Western goalies of the last 13 Vezina winners were worthy of the award."

So much for "bias" against the Western Conference.