In yesterday's Rink Notes post, Colby Cosh made a trenchant observation about the proposed schedule change that would shave 10 games off the schedule and eliminate interconference play:
Anything that limits the burden of travel in the NHL would, of course, be more disproportionately good for my Oilers than for any other team. It still seems deeply impractical, since it means half the league will never see a given star on home ice. No more Habs or Leafs visits to Edmonton, and no more chances for fans in the US northeast to see Sakic, Forsberg, Naslund, or Iginla live. No more chances for old Nords fans to root for the Avs in Montreal. A whole category of Original Six matchups (Chicago-New York, Detroit-Boston) permanently relegated to oblivion. That's all pretty hard to swallow. Hasn't the league gone quite far enough in this (essentially corner-cutting) direction already?
For a good primer on how the scheduling system works currently, click here for a Gary Thorne Column from USA Today last Spring that discussed some of the problems with the current schedule, as well as examined the possibility of the eliminaton of interconference play altogether. The current schedule is as follows:
Teams play division opponents six times.
Nondivisional conference opponents play each other four times.
There are 15 interconference games -- which means interconference games rotate sites each year.
Teams also play three discretionary against interconference rivals, with teams submitting their preferences to the NHL schedule makers for consideration.
The proposed new schedule looks like this:
Each plays its four division rivals eight times for a total of 32 divisional games.
In addition, it will play its 10 remaining conference rivals four times each for a total of 40 conference games and a grand total of 72 games.
In a second comment, Colby continued:
Or, to put it another way, think about draft day. "The Washington Capitals choose Alexander Ovechkin first overall. [Cheers] Too bad you fans in Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Vancouver, and Los Angeles will probably never get to see your teams play against him. In fact, he might as well be in a totally different league. Sorry about that!" Marketing genius at work!
I see Colby's point, but as it stands today, NHL fans only get to see the superstars from the outside their conference once every other year anyway. The bigger problem for the NHL is the interminable length of the season -- one that starts in the midst of the baseball playoffs and the first few weeks of the NFL season, and finishes off its championship when most folks are thinking about heading to the beach.
I was on IM last night with Jeff Grimshaw, and he mentioned that there was a time when hockey started in October and finished in May. There was a time when every playoff series played on back-to-back nights, with days off only for travel. We used to have playoff series that were over in a matter of days, not better than a week and a half.
We've got to get back to a more compact schedule. So here's the challenge Off Wing readers: devise a 72 game schedule that preserves interconference matchups in one form or another. Some ideas: why not take a look at the way the NFL handles things, with teams splitting their non-divisional schedule based on where they finish in the standings. Leave your ideas in the box below.
How about a 74-game schedule? 6 games * 4 teams == 24 divisional games, 4*10 == 40 non-div conference, and 10 inter-conference games. Set your inter-conference games so each division plays 2 of the 3 opposite-conference divisions and doesn’t play one (essentially the inverse of MLB). If you want the Canadian teams to always play each other, allow the Northeast and Northwest to be permanently paired.
Another variation of the 74 game schedule would be six games against division opponents, and two against every other team in the league.
I remember the best of five opening round and the back to back games in the playoffs. It did two things, it made the playoffs shorter and it kept older stars from hanging around and therefore kept the salaries lower as well. Teams needed a blend of youth to keep going through those very, very hard and instense playoff series, something that has changed.
In case the NHL decided to contract 4 teams, leaving 13 in each conference:
Play conference rivals 4 times (12*4=48), out of conference teams 2 times (13*2=26), for a total of 48+26=74 games.