NHL to Balance Schedule

I could pretty much guess that pressure from the league owners and the majority of fans who wanted more variety in the NHL schedule. Actually, it is no real secret. Commissioner Bettman went ahead and openly admitted it.

"The sense of the board was we heard the concerns raised by some of the fans, and this was an attempt to be responsive to the concerns of our fans," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said.

I have said a million times that I don't want the Penguins to play anybody else other than the regional Atlantic Division + Washington. That is where the excitement is! The rivalries that gets supercharged! An east coast fan has to wait for an 11pm start for a 8pm West coast spot. Ugh! What are you people doing?

The League explains the new scheduling setup in their announcement.

Under the new format, approved at the League meetings in Pebble Beach, Calif., and scheduled to begin in 2008-09, teams will play each club in their division six times, a total of 24 games, and the 10 other clubs in their conference four times, a total of 40 games.

The remaining 18 games in the 82-game schedule will involve each club playing all 15 clubs in the other conference at least once, home or away. The three remaining games will be devoted to inter-conference “at-large” scheduling.

No mention of actually moving the games closer or fixing it so the playoffs don't get scheduled until the middle of June. That would be a great fix!

[Via: NHL.com]