HockeyDirt Solves the NHL's Scheduling Problem

With this week's decision to stick with the status quo & retain the current unbalanced schedule, the NHL has satisfied no-one. 

When the league's governors met in Dallas they agreed that the current scheduling arrangement is a disaster.  Unfortunately they were unable to agree on a fix.  The problems with the current arrangement are well documented.  The most ridiculous by-product of the current sked is that the league's most marketable young stars, Sidney Crosby & Alexander Ovechkin only make an appearance in Western conference arenas every 3 years.  You can only imagine how frustrated Western fans must get when they see NHL marketing focused on Sid the Kid and have to wait months or even years to see him.

The league's inability to come up with a fan-friendly schedule is baffling & here at HockeyDirt we think we have the answer. 

• Current Schedule - 32 divisional games, 40 conference games, 10 inter-conference games
• Proposal 1 - 24 divisional games, 40 conference games, 18 inter-conference games
• Proposal 2 - 28 divisional games, 40 conference games, 14 inter-conference games
• Mlakar Proposal - 28 divisional games, 29 conference games, 25 inter-conference games
• HockeyDirt Proposal - 32 divisional games, 20 conference games, 30 inter-conference games

In order to change the schedule the NHL rules demand agreement from 2/3s of the league governors, so support from 20 out of 30 teams is needed.  Proposal 1 - a weak compromise that fails to ensure that teams in every market get to see every team at least once - only garnered 18 votes.  A second proposal that solved nothing got 19 votes, still not enough. 

Ottawa Senator's President Roy Mlakar thinks he has the answer, but his plan was neither discussed nor put to a vote.  The problem with Mlakar's proposal is that it leaves teams playing odd-numbered games against divisional, conference and inter-conference opponents. 

HockeyDirt proposes retaining the current emphasis on games against divisional rivals.  In order to have home & home match-ups against non-conference teams, the schedule must include 30 inter-conference teams.  This will ensure that fans in San Jose get to see Crosby & Malkin at least once while Pittsburghers get a look at Thornton, Marleau & Cheechoo.  In order to accommodate more inter-conference play the league must sacrifice non-divisional games against conference opponents. 

Under the HockeyDirt plan each team will play 8 games (4 at home/4 on road) against divisional rivals, 2 games (1 at home/1 on road) against conference teams and 2 games (1 at home/1 on road) against non-conference teams.  Clearly this proposal involves more travel and more fatigue.  In order to compensate for this, the league should dramatically eliminate preseason games, thereby allowing the regular season to start a little earlier.  For the first five games of the season teams should be permitted to carry expanded rosters, allowing them to evaluate players in game situations. 

The HockeyDirt schedule proposal has the advantage of being balanced while retaining divisional rivalries and ensuring that every team plays in every NHL market at least once a year.  Hopefully the league will listen to its fans & ignore the whining of penny-pinching NHL owners looking to save a few bucks on their travel budgets.

Comments

[Randy Charles Morin]

I think you are about the 100th person to propose this exactly schedule in the last 6 months. This is what the fans want, but the owners are 100% against this. And they aren't gonna forfeit pre-season game revenues either.

[David]

If this is what fans wanted, attendance and ratings would indicate it - but they didn't pre-lockout and it's doubtful they would now.

While travel costs are nice to save on, that's not why east teams aren't voting for a "balanced" schedule, it's because interest in the games would fall and they'd be hurt at the gate and on tv.

Two games against anyone not in your division? I know everyone thinks the world wants to see Crosby and Ovechkin, but you're scheduling a lot of bad games for 2-4. Does the Northwest really want to play the Southeast division teams the same number of times as the Pacific teams?

Mlakar has the best plan so far IMO, although I think it can still be worked on. I don't see any issue with an odd number of games if you just flip home/away advantage around each year.

[Bill]

Interesting idea but there is a downside, it seems to me. Let's say that you have a couple of weak sister divisions. It could mean that teams roll over their divisional rivals and don't have to face conference rivals sufficient times to let those teams level the playing field from the impact of a few weak teams. Take this year, for example, teams that get to feast on Philly would pad their records and then would have very little exposure to their rivals in other divisions in their conference. You would have strong potential for aberrations in playoff qualification.

[MT]

Re Comment from Bill: Fair enough, but this can only truly be avoided with a completely balanced sked - each team playing all others - or at least all within their conference the same number of times. Ask the Wings/Preds about feasting on divisional opponents - they love it!
Re Comment from David: I can't find the data, but my understanding is that attendance is weak for games against other conference teams relative to attendance at divisional/inter-conference games - but you make a strong point about lost tv audiences/revenues due to overly late/early game start times in the case of inter-conference matchups.
Re Comment from Randy: I'm aware we're not the first with this, but thanks for the reminder. Preseason revenues can't be that significant can they? Most teams heavily discount those games.

[Jeff]

The NHL should take a page from the NBA and look at how they do their scheduling. All teams play each other at least twice.

All the NHL has to do is adopt that format and apply it to their teams. That way you are guaranteed of playing all the teams from the other conference at home and away.

The main difference being is that you may play some of the teams within your Conference 3 games and other teams 4 games. But at least you play the non-conference teams twice and I think that is definitely good exposure for the fans because we'd get to see all the best players from the West twice.

And that is how you get better ratings and a better following for your league!

I mean after all back in the 80s and early to mid 90s that is how the NHL had the schedule. I can always remember playing Vancouver twice, Edmonton twice etc.

Being a Boston fan I like seeing the Western teams come in.