NHL Schedule to Change

[Webhamster]

Hmm not bad schedule planning but I have to wonder is the season long enough as is?? why not start the season end of Sept and go all the way to end of March or eariler and start the playoffs on Arp 2? and have the playoffs end on last day of May? that would do it if so?

I'm with that. I hate the fact that the finals go into June now. The season should end on March 31st and the playoffs no later than May 31st. I think that by eliminating some of the long breaks in the season would go a long way to accomplishing this. I'm sure there's a way to fit 82 games into an Oct 1st to March 31st timepsan.

[CoryB]

There were obviously less teams then so it was much easier to schedule, but it worked well in the 80's. There were the obvious rivalries, which, for the most part are created and solidified in the playoffs anyway, and we got to see all the teams at home. Back then it was 3 games per year with the the other conference, one year twice at home, next year twice at their arena. At least two games per year (1 home 1 away) with the opposite conferences would be much better than what we have now. The 2 games against the opposite conference, 3 games with the rest of your conference and 6 with the division is workable. They played an 84 game season from 91-92 to 93-94, so it has been done.

Why buy seasons tickets to see mostly the 4 other teams in your division? This isn't baseball and it shouldn't turn into how that sport works.

[JQK]

Why buy seasons tickets to see mostly the 4 other teams in your division?

Because those are the games that mean the most and are most fun to watch.

Devils-Rangers

Devils- Flyers

Devils-Penguins

Rangers - Islanders

Rangers - Flyers

Flyers - Penguins

Flyers - Islanders

Every game is a rivalry and means more to the fans.

I'd buy season tickets to see more of those games.

[rams80]

Why buy seasons tickets to see mostly the 4 other teams in your division?

Because those are the games that mean the most and are most fun to watch.

Devils-Rangers

Devils- Flyers

Devils-Penguins

Rangers - Islanders

Rangers - Flyers

Flyers - Penguins

Flyers - Islanders

Every game is a rivalry and means more to the fans.

I'd buy season tickets to see more of those games.

Yes...but the Atlantic Division is also simply a renamed Lester Patrick Division that Washington got booted out from. The other five divisions, which have less of a mutual history, don't have the natural rivalries that developed in the playoffs. Honestly, I think a good portion of the NHL's fanbase would rather the league stop trying to ram artificial rivalries down our collective throats.

[jkrdevil]

Why buy seasons tickets to see mostly the 4 other teams in your division?

Because those are the games that mean the most and are most fun to watch.

Devils-Rangers

Devils- Flyers

Devils-Penguins

Rangers - Islanders

Rangers - Flyers

Flyers - Penguins

Flyers - Islanders

Every game is a rivalry and means more to the fans.

I'd buy season tickets to see more of those games.

Yes...but the Atlantic Division is also simply a renamed Lester Patrick Division that Washington got booted out from. The other five divisions, which have less of a mutual history, don't have the natural rivalries that developed in the playoffs. Honestly, I think a good portion of the NHL's fanbase would rather the league stop trying to ram artificial rivalries down our collective throats.

Which is why the NHL needs to go back to 4 divisions with divisional playoffs. That way rivalries can build. With the amount of teams in the league now you won't have the problem of sub .500 teams making it and one of the leagues best missing because of the division their in. If you drop conferences and just reseed after the divisional playoffs that will also help give you a better Stanley Cup Final than the it did with the Wales and Campbell conference.

[CoryB]

Because those are the games that mean the most and are most fun to watch.

Devils-Rangers

Devils- Flyers

Devils-Penguins

Rangers - Islanders

Rangers - Flyers

Flyers - Penguins

Flyers - Islanders

Every game is a rivalry and means more to the fans.

I'd buy season tickets to see more of those games.

There are 25 other teams in the league. While the divisional rivalries make exciting hockey, playing every team gives variety. There's no way an eastern and western team can be rivals in this system. With the Oilers alone, we had the Islanders, Flyers and Bruins, which we played more than twice every three years. Not any more. There is no rivalry between us and Carolina, for example, because we never play them. Stanley Cup finalists should have that...

And as we don't get to see every team, we don't get to see every player. Because Ovechkin and Crosby are on eastern teams, the west fans rarely get to see them. How could it possibly been a positive if the Oilers of the 80's never played the Eastern conference - no one would have seen Gretzky or Messier. Why is that a positive now?

[spyboy1]

the biggest problem i have with the current schedule is the tv problems. since dallas is in the central zone and most of the teams are on either the east or west coast, we either see early stars games or late stars games.

Welcome to the world of the Minnesota Wild fan. We have the exact same situation where none of the teams on our division are in our time zone either. We might as well be in the same division with Tampa Bay like the Viking used to be.

The NBA type schedule is a horrific idea.

Personally I don't care about not seeing the stars from the other conference live. I don't watch hockey (or really any other sport) to watch a specific star player. I like watching intense games particularly rivalries.

Says the fan of an Eastern Conference team.

We in the Western Conference would like to see Ovey and Crosby more than twice every 3 years. I would also like to not be put through 8 St. Louis-Columbus games a year.

What he said. The current schedule is just horrid as far as value for my ticket money goes. LA, Columbus & Nashville 4 times a year and Brodeur, Sundin and Crosby once every three years? Just horrid.

Proposal: Lengthen season 2 games-to 84.

Home and home with other Conference: 30 games

3 games against non-divisional conference foes (they can sort out the odd game): 30 games

6 games in division: 24 games

Complaints?

I have the same kind of plan in my head, only with just two divisions per conference. I've posted it here before. Then the first two rounds of the playoffs are inside your division. Now that's how you build rivalries. When you have a chance to end someone's season and you face them over and over in the playoffs.

And those playoffs should never, ever go past the end of May either.

[VitaminD]

Nah. The return to divisional rivalries was one of the few good things Bettman's been able to come up with in his reign as NHL czar.

Growing up, we had Flyers' season tickets. Nothing was better than having the () Rangers for home-and-homes. As I got older, it became the Devils and Penguins that made the best games. It was playoff-level intensity for two games in November, and it was great.

One of the reasons we dumped our season tickets, was that for every good game I wanted (NJ, Ottawa, NYR), I had to sit through a lot of crap - Atlanta, Anaheim (when they were lousy), Buffalo (when they were lousy), Nashville. It just wasn't affordable to suffer through 30 bad games to enjoy 10 good ones.

If you're in a Western market, and you want to see Crosby, Ovechkin, and the other young talent, turn on Versus. Or get Center Ice. Either way, they'll be around. Once a season or every other season is STILL better than what you get in MLB of the NFL. Aside from guaranteed home dates with Dallas, Washington and the Giants, how often do we in Philadelphia get to see LT? Peyton Manning's played in Philadelphia once that I can remember, and that was back when the Vet was still around. Baseball's even worse; Ichiro's played in Philadelphia ONE SERIES since he came over from Japan.

Leave the NBA-style schedule to the NBA. Hell, they don't even let them think about fighting any more; what do they need intense intradivisional rivalaries for anyway?

[DDR]

All I'm saying, is that nobody's been able to adequately explain to me why it's better that the Original 6 doesn't play each other every year.

[CC97]

Which is why the NHL needs to go back to 4 divisions with divisional playoffs. That way rivalries can build.

Agreed! Those old divisional rivalries were huge because the same teams were always meeting in the first rounds of the playoffs... Leafs/Senators was a nothing rivalry until they kept meeting in the playoffs somehow.

[Mac the Knife]

Each team plays the other four teams in its division four times each (two home, two away), for 16 games.

Each team plays the 10 other teams in its conference 3 times each (rotating between two home, one away and one home, two away), for 30 games.

Each team plays the 15 teams from the other conference twice each (one home, one away) for 30 games.

Reduce the regular season to 76 games. If the NHL's that desperate for revenue from gate, expand the playoffs (dare I say that?) to 10 teams in each conference, with the 7, 8, 9 and 10 seeds playing a three-game "play-in" series, giving the higher seeded teams a probably much-needed rest and the lower seeds a more difficult trip through the playoffs.

[DDR]

Of course, this scheduling format won't be in effect very long. Just until the NHL expands to Vegas and KC.

[wdm1219inpenna]

Of course, this scheduling format won't be in effect very long. Just until the NHL expands to Vegas and KC.

To me, it seems simple. N.H.L. means National Hockey LEAGUE....as in one LEAGUE....

All the teams in the LEAGUE should play against all the other teams in the LEAGUE at least twice a year (once at home, once on the road). Keep the division rivalries, but make it fair and equitable.

With the National Football League, it's impractical to do so. For one team to play against the other 31 teams in one season is unreasonable. A 16 game season in 17 weeks is fine for the NFL, and their current set up to me is as close to perfect as you can get. True, the Eagles will only host the Chargers once every 8 seasons, but that's just the nature of the beast.

With 82, or is it 84 regular season games in the NHL, there is NO reason why teams can't play 2 games at least vs ALL opponents.

The reason the NHL regular season won't start in September is because the baseball pennant races are heating up then, plus the start of the college and pro football seasons. Hockey already has trouble with tv ratings as it is, so starting in September would make it worse I believe.

For me, there are TOO MANY teams in the N.H.L. playoffs, thus diminishing the meaning of all these "rivalries". Sub .500 teams making post-season, 16 out of 30 teams making the playoffs, and all 4 rounds being 7 games long. Play 1 game, day off, play game 2, day off, play game 3, 2 days off, play game 4, 2 days off....takes too long. Frankly, when I see that the HOCKEY, the ICE HOCKEY playoffs, and Championship Series, the Stanley Cup, are being played on FLAG DAY (American), it's ridiculous. Very FEW people want to sit in their house during the SPRINGTIME to watch a primarily WINTER sport being played INDOORS on ICE!!! End the PLAYOFFS March 31st!!!

[JQK]

Playing the teams in the other conference twice a year? If it was 21 team league again, sure, but not now.

I saw a plan someone put up there for only 16 divisional games, and 30 out of conference games? Are you serious?

Divisional games come first, above all. There should always be more divisional games. If that sacrifices some games against the other conference, so be it.

You wanna take away Devils-Rangers and Leafs-Senators, Boston-Montreal for Rangers-Columbus? Flyers-Phoenix?

No thank you...

[NJTank]

I think once a year for other conference rivals will be good one year at home the next year away.

[Mac the Knife]

Fair enough criticism, JQK... howzabout this as an alternative:

Each team plays the other four teams in its division 8 times each (four home, four away), for 32 games.

Each team plays the 10 other teams in its conference twice each (one home, one away), for 20 games.

Each team plays the 15 teams from the other conference twice each (one home, one away) for 30 games.

82 game regular season like in the old days.

My gripe with hockey isn't that the regular season is too long; it's that (i) too many teams (still) make the playoffs and (ii) the playoff series are too long. A team that plays .500 in any sport shouldn't be rewarded for that performance with a playoff berth, and long gone are the days when the NHL needed to have 16 of 21 teams in the playoffs just to keep afloat.

Maintain an 80+ game season, but slice the number of playoff qualifiers from 8 per conference down to 6, or even better - 5. Let the #4 and #5 seeds battle in a one-game play-in game, or if you must a best-of-three series. Have all rounds except the Stanley Cup Final be best-of-five games rather than seven. Wrap up a season while there's still snow on the ground in at least one city where the NHL plays.

[jkrdevil]

Fair enough criticism, JQK... howzabout this as an alternative:

Each team plays the other four teams in its division 8 times each (four home, four away), for 32 games.

Each team plays the 10 other teams in its conference twice each (one home, one away), for 20 games.

Each team plays the 15 teams from the other conference twice each (one home, one away) for 30 games.

82 game regular season like in the old days.

My gripe with hockey isn't that the regular season is too long; it's that (i) too many teams (still) make the playoffs and (ii) the playoff series are too long. A team that plays .500 in any sport shouldn't be rewarded for that performance with a playoff berth, and long gone are the days when the NHL needed to have 16 of 21 teams in the playoffs just to keep afloat.

Maintain an 80+ game season, but slice the number of playoff qualifiers from 8 per conference down to 6, or even better - 5. Let the #4 and #5 seeds battle in a one-game play-in game, or if you must a best-of-three series. Have all rounds except the Stanley Cup Final be best-of-five games rather than seven. Wrap up a season while there's still snow on the ground in at least one city where the NHL plays.

If you are going to have a conference based playoff system teams in the same conference have to face each other more than twice a season.

You all know my solution and so I'm not going to go over it all again in every detail as far as the alignment goes. You go 4 divisions with 7 or 8 teams. You play every team outside your division twice and the rest of the games are divisional games (6 games against each for 7 team division, 6 games against 3 teams and 5 games against the other 4 in an 8 team division). Divisional playoffs first two rounds, reseed for the final 2 rounds. No conferences. That also gives the league 3 rounds in the playoffs they can call championship rounds (Division Final, Cup Semi-final with the Wales and Campbell trophies [league assigns trophy to matchup], and the Cup Final). It satisfies everyone those who want a greater emphasis on divisional rivalries that will develop under this system and those who want to see every team in every city every year.

[STL FANATIC]

All I'm saying, is that nobody's been able to adequately explain to me why it's better that the Original 6 doesn't play each other every year.

Why is it necessary that they do? Because the NHL tries to market them on a faux name?

It's been a long time for most of those rivalries, and the whole "Original Six" is an inaccurate name that hits one of my pet peaves big time.

The primary rivalries should be within conference and division at this point, and they are. And those are the games that should happen very often.

[OMMF]

All I'm saying, is that nobody's been able to adequately explain to me why it's better that the Original 6 doesn't play each other every year.

Why is it necessary that they do? Because the NHL tries to market them on a faux name?

It's been a long time for most of those rivalries, and the whole "Original Six" is an inaccurate name that hits one of my pet peaves big time.

The primary rivalries should be within conference and division at this point, and they are. And those are the games that should happen very often.

And to tack on, if the O6 should play each other more because of their relationship then bring on the 8 game series' between the Next 6 or Class of '67. Philadelphia-LA, Pittsburgh-St Louis, use Dallas for Minnesota and San Jose for California/Oakland and you have the makings of some barn-burning games. Also, Edmonton, Carolina, Phoenix and Colorado must also play each other 8 times as they are group that came in from the WHA.

Man, this schedule just writes itself.