The Schedule Whiners
The NHL can do no right according to some.
You want more passion in your games? Have some rivalries says the NHL, and out come the whiners. “We don’t get to see every ‘Original Six’ team every year!”
Huh?! So? Who cares - the Wings played the Canadiens once in the 2003-04 season. Memorable it wasn’t - but hey - the jerseys were old school and we wouldn’t want to miss that! Complaining that the Habs-Wings game is being replaced by a divisional game against the Predators or Blue Jackets is just asinine. The Predators and Wings are developing a nice rivalry, one that probably would have blossomed well if there was a season last year (as they played a six-game playoff series against each other during the 2003-04 playoffs). The Blue Jackets are another new team, yes, but you’re also talking about adding games against the Blues and Blackhawks - and remember, rivalries will only grow with the increase in number of games played.
The reality is the Wings will play the Habs, but instead of once per season, it’s twice in one season every three years. The reduction is one game per three seasons. Wow, break out the Kleenex, I can only imagine the intense game that we’ll all miss.
I’m surprised there are some in the hockey blogging circles that disapprove of the schedule change.
Eric McErlain oozes with sarcasm:
Here in Washington, it means six more games with Carolina, Atlanta and Florida. I’ve died and gone to heaven!
Yup, and also six less games against teams like Minnesota, Anaheim and Phoenix - or were you dying to see the Wild come to town and play the Caps? Maybe the Caps could get revenge for that game they played in 03-04.
The point is, for every seemingly boring intradivision game added (Atlanta should be a fun team to watch this season), there’s one taken away; and the one added has the potential to be great through some home and home series and constant play. Washington also gets the Stanley Cup champs added to their schedule twice more, a plus to some, a minus to others (depends how bad you want to win those games).
Brett Mirtle isn’t thrilled about the change either:
Some may say that the added divisional emphasis is long overdue. But, keep in mind that it comes with a price tag. A steep one. There will be no visits to Canuck-ville (or many Western teams) from the likes of Mario Lemieux, Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and the defeding Cup Champs, Dan Heatley & Ilya Kovalchuk, Martin Brodeur, Alexander Ovechkin, and more importantly, the NHL’s new poster child, Sidney Crosby.
As a fan of hockey in general, I’m a little ticked off. As a fan of the Canucks, I’m downright choked.
As a fan of hockey I can see your point, although I’ll assume you’ll be watching many of those players on tv as well. As a fan of the Canucks I have no idea where you’re coming from. How many other Canucks fans are dying to have Brodeur and the Devils come to town? Come to think of it, how many fans of any team in the West do you think are saying to their buddies, “man, it really sucks we won’t see Martin Brodeur and the Devils live this season”? I’m going to go out on a limb and say somewhere close to none.
But, and this is a big but, as I mentioned the reality of it is there’s only a loss of about a game over the course of three seasons - not really something to be up in arms about. Could you possibly miss seeing a star who bounces around teams within that time? Perhaps, but that could have happened anyway (depending on which interconference team played at home with the old format).
Of course, not everyone is down on the new schedules.
The NHL finally made a great decision about trying to add emotion back into games - give it a season, maybe even two, some passionate games go a long way.
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