NHL schedule to change for the 2008-2009 season

One topic that comes up between a lot of NHL fans is the schedule.

For the most part, it currently sucks. It’s nice to have a lot of battles going on between the divisional teams, but the fact that the current setup only allows games between certain teams once every three years, it can be annoying.

For instance, Sidney Crosby[wiki], the league’s number one guy, has been in the league for nearly three years now, and he finally made it all the way out to Vancouver for his first game ever just a week ago. It was hugely anticipated and lived up to the hype, but it took a long time before we got the chance to face the Penguins, a team that is chalk full of some amazing talent.

As fans, that’s tough, and it goes beyond Crosby. There are others that we want to see on a regular basis, and that’s going to change. It might not be the best setup, but it will be good to know that at least once a season, we’ll see every team in the league.

The NHL board of governors meeting Thursday didn’t go that far, but did decide to change the schedule so teams will play each other at least once next year.

A concession the players will welcome, for sure. New faces, new uniforms and, more importantly for fans, new battles to wage. […]

Colorado’s Andrew Brunette, who’s played in Minnesota and Atlanta, is tired of seeing Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson – even if he’s a buddy from their Wild days.

“I’m really against eight games with teams in your division. And fans want to see players on the other side of the league every year, in their building. Not every two or three years, that’s just not right. It would be more travel for us, but that’s OK with me.” [edmonton journal]

So this is a great step in a better direction, but nothing is completely perfect yet. There are some teams that will only be played once, so it will place certain match ups in one team’s rink, then the following year will place the same teams in the other team’s arena. Not the most perfect setup that fans would like to see, but it’s better than waiting three years to see said team again.

One thing that desperately needs examination is the structure of the schedule. The Canucks have had a very strange go so far, especially at the beginning of the season where there were nearly a week between games, and that happened about twice. Now there are numerous, back to back nights on the road where the team is in one city and in another for the next night. On top of that, there are weeks with four games in seven nights. Or it’s eleven games in fifteen nights. Either way, that’s a lot of travel, bouncing around time zones in some situations.

What happens when that occurs? Playing that often on the road wears a player down, and the team is suffering from it. The flu is making its way around, and it goes beyond just players. Recycled air on the charter flights spread the illness, and I’ve heard from friends that people working at the games inside GM Place have been getting sick as well. True that it is flu season, but I find the coincidence fairly interesting.

To go even further, players want the schedule to change just a little bit more.

Paul Kelly, the new executive director of the NHL Players Association, also addressed the league’s owners during a late-afternoon session to open the board’s two-day meeting at an elite resort on the Northern California coast. […]

Kelly even said the players would entertain the notion of an 84-game season — allowing every team to play a home-and-home series against one division in the other conference each year — if owners agreed to reduce the number of preseason games. Bettman said the owners could be open to the notion, but it hasn’t been formally proposed yet. [si]

I’m down for that. The idea calls for shaving off some pre-season games, and that wouldn’t be horrible either. As long as the players are up for it, I think it’s a good idea. Just don’t extend the season any further into the spring than it already has. As a fan, I’m always up for more hockey.