The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

A decision that will be welcome by most, every NHL team is guaranteed to play each other at least once after many complained of the current format that saw teams not visit certain cities in three years. The other major change was, instead of facing division rivals eight times over the course of the season, they would cut it back to six games to accommodate facing a great number of different opponents.

I wasn't too critical at the time when they decided to have eight intra-divisional games between each six-team sector. It seemed to make sense: Sens fans, for instance, loved the rivalry between the Leafs and Canadiens so why not have more of it? The problem was, of course, this also meant eight games for teams no one cared to see as much, like the Bruins and at an earlier time when the Sabres were a bottom-of-the-barrel team. Also the games didn't come across as special as they once did: it was too much of a good thing. In addition, this year Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto will not face their Canadian Western cousins: Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. There always seemed to be an extra electricity in the air when these teams faced each other, and depriving the fans of these games turned out to be a mistake worse than originally thought.

Before everyone craps on the NHL for trying this out, remember some leagues, such as the NFL, have cases where certain teams don't play each other for years unless they make it to the Superbowl. I guess the reasoning with the NHL was that it wouldn't be too bad because they would, at the very least, make sure each team faced each other twice over a three year span. They must have thought this would be enough to appease fans when you compare it with other leagues. However, give them credit, after the first three year cycle they realized it wasn't working so they reverted to the former schedule.

And that was a smart decision.