Does anyone feel that the NHL season is too short? Do you not get enough hockey after 82 regular season games and four rounds of playoffs to satiate your addiction?The answer is YES, if you are NHLPA head honcho Paul Kelly. In his mind, it's really quite simple: one more home game per team equals more revenue which equals more money for his players.
The Board of Governors is rumored to be heavily leaning towards adopting this measure, since it would also mean more money for the owners to pocket. Lovely.
Kelly initiated the 84-game talk for a variety of reasons. One extra home game per team - which is the net result of going to 84 games -- would obviously positively impact Hockey Related Revenue and since the players share in that, the NHLPA is all in favor of increased revenue. Who isn't?
But Kelly's desire for two extra regular season games would come at the expense of two to four pre-season games and that, really, is the key.
Now, I, along with many others, would have no problem with reducing the exhibition schedule. All too often, exhibition games involve prospects who have no real shot at the NHL this season, or any other season. Exhibition games don't mean much, and aren't providing us a lot of entertainment. You'd figure players already train so well in the off-season that many exhibition games aren't needed to them to get into game shape.
Unfortunately, The Powers That Be don't seem to realize that the fans get 'hockey fatigue' far too often, as the playoffs end later and later each season. Unless your team is involved in those late playoff rounds, or you are a serious hockey fan, it is very hard to maintain interest in hockey games that are played in June. Hell, I'm a die-hard hockey fan, and my mind begins to wander and my interest begins to wane after the second round is completed.
If the NHLPA and NHL were smart, they'd reduce the exhibition schedule by two games, and then keep the 82-game schedule as it is. One home game per year is not going to provide a monster boost to salaries, and will hinder the opportunity to shorten the season to a more reasonable level.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-25-2008 @ 12:42PM
YzermanZetterberg said...
My understanding is that Kelly's proposal limits preseason games to five (vs. the current average of seven and maximum of nine) and shortens training camp to 15-17 days instead of the current 20. The other good thing to come of it could be each team having a "home and home" series with every team in the other conference (i.e., every city gets a chance to see Crosby, Ovechkin, and other stars at least once per season).
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1-25-2008 @ 1:17PM
Brad said...
As long as they can keep this from pushing the playoffs back any, I like this idea, especially since it opens up more possibilites schedule-wise. I'm not a fan of having only 18 interconference games per season, I don't like the lack of uniformity in having the 3 wild card games (seems unfair, with other teams in the same division who might get and advantage or disadvantage based on who they have to play), so the fact that these 2 extra games would allow for a 20 or 30 interconference game schedule is nice I think.
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1-25-2008 @ 5:17PM
Colonial said...
"Unless your team is involved in those late playoff rounds, or you are a serious hockey fan, it is very hard to maintain interest in hockey games that are played in June. Hell, I'm a die-hard hockey fan, and my mind begins to wander and my interest begins to wane after the second round is completed."
Really? I'm the opposite. The season is so long that I get burnt out shortly before the trade deadline and the playoffs (ie: hockey that matters) sees a return of my interest.
Sometimes I wish the season was much shorter. My brother is a huge NFL fan and thats one thing that I'm envious about with his league. The season is so short every game matters. Its hard to get excited to watch my Pens play the Islanders for the 5th time a year.
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