First it was Redwings owner Mike Ilitch, now it's Richard Peddie, President of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd, coming out in support for change to the NHL schedule.
Ilitch didn't go into specifics, but wanted to see more games against Eastern teams. Richard Peddie however, wants to see the NHL have a schedule similar to that of the NBA. This would include every team in the NHL playing home and away against each other.
I believe the premise of trying to breed divisional rivalries, by playing each divisional rival 8 times was flawed. Rivalries are built on the battles that count and those battles are found in the playoffs. Rivalries cannot be artificially created, if anything they lead to boredom.
I think I speak for most fans, when I say I whole heartedly agree with Mr. Peddie. I would love to see less games against divisional rivals, especially if it means I get to see my team play every team in the NHL home an away.
This is my solution, each team plays their divisional rivals 6 times, the rest of their conference 3 times alternating the 3rd game's location each year and finally they play every team in the other conference twice. This would result in a 84 game schedule, that's an increase of only 2 games per team.
I feel the extra 2 games would be very beneficial, not only the teams and the fans, but more importantly for the popularity of the league.
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4 comments:
If they did that, it would mean Sidney Crosby being seen more around the league, and in Detroit's case, less home games vs Columbus and Nashville, and more chances to see some of the Eastern teams in the Joe Louis Arena.
i would like to see every team in the league play and the owners wont whine about the revenue from 2 more games.
crosby hitting every market is good for the league and the owners pocket books. as well as crosby hitting every market it also means the cup champs play in every city as well.
however if they change to this policy i do not want to see owners whining over the travel costs they have in the past.
The cost of traveling more to the east should be offset by the revenue generated from the extra home game. I did the math and each team plays half those extra 3rd game in conference, home and away it works out as 42 games at home 42 away. So my plan truly does work out well.
This sounds great from a revenue perspective, however western teams have long lamented the travel schedule incurred from inter-conference play. I would be very surprised if the western teams agreed to increase their already significant amount of airmiles. For that matter, how many eastern teams are willing to take on another time-zone crunching western road trip? I say leave well enough alone, the rivalries will develop in due time. Familiarity beeds contempt.
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