Buffalo Sabres

Thumbs down on “improved” hockey schedule

The NHL schedule for 2008-2009 comes out on July 16th, but I already know that I don’t like it. Why’s that? The NHL revamped the schedule coming out of the lockout to increase the # of intra-divisional rivalry games, so for the last three years, teams have been playing eight games per season within their own division. The loss was at the expense of inter-conference play, with only 10 games on the schedule each season for east vs west play. The result has been commonly derided as (1) reducing travel for eastern conference teams only and (2) preventing the west conference fans from seeing Crosby / Malkin / Ovechkin only once every three years.

Now, I can’t disagree with that, 10 inter-conference games is not enough. But the way they are increasing these games is by eliminating those extra divisional games, dropping the schedule back to the way it was before. I personally loved having those 8 games against the division. It built real rivalries across the season, made the individual opponents more exciting to watch. Winning the division really *meant* something.

But with the schedule the way it is now, using a Northest Division as an example, you are going to have the following:

Northeast division: 4 teams x 6 games = 24 games (29.3 %)
Atlantic division = 5 teams x 4 games = 20 games (24.3 %)
Southeast division = 5 teams x 4 games = 20 games (24.3 %)
Western Conference = 18 games (22 %)

So my team will play four whole more games against its own division than against the other divisions. There sixteen more games outside the division than in the division. Really makes that divisional crown an acheivement, huh? You think that this season the Southeast teams were barely able to put one team with enough points to be considered a playoff team, wait until this structure.

And what’s with playing 18 games against the western conference. Eighteen? Really? That can only mean divisional foes won’t even play the same opponents…this just seems stupid to me.

So what’s the solution? Not the NHLPA’s suggestion that they add 2 games and have a 2-games per season with every team in the league - 30 inter-conference games is too much for me…sorry folks, no more games in the season..it’s too long as it is. Another suggestion I’ve seen is going back to the two division system, but with 30 teams in the league this would make for unbalanced divisions or force additional expansion…which we do NOT need.

Here’s my solution, simple yet elegant: let’s drop the number of games with the OTHER divisions in our own conference to three games. Who says that we need equal number of home and away games each year against these teams? In my plan the schedule would look like this:

Northeast division: 4 teams x 8 games = 32 games (39 %)
Atlantic division = 5 teams x 3 games = 15 games (18 %)
Southeast division = 5 teams x 3 games = 15 games (18 %)
Western Conference = 20 games (22 %)

Now - you play just over half your conference games against your own division. You still get the 8 rivalry games while boosting the inter-conference games. Each Northeast team would play an extra home game against the Atlantic in 2009-2010 and an extra away game against the Southeast and then the next season that would reverse. Yet all the teams in the same division would have matching schedules. Meanwhile, 20 games against the West allows you to play 10 teams (2 divisions) each year at home. Therefore, every team would come through your arena 2 out of every 3 years. It seems like a near-perfect compromise to me.

Now if only someone could convince the powers that be to read this…

What do you think? Do you have a better idea than this? Or do you like the new schedule better? Post your comments.