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Schedules and stuff

by IwoCPO on 12/01/07 at 01:32 PM ET
Comments (12)

...we could always talk Army/Navy?  Nah.  First half’s almost done and this game’s over.  Scratch that idea.  We could talk Les Miles to Michigan, as Kirk Herbstreit reported on ESPN this morning?  Nope.  Miles has a presser at 1:45 to announce he’s staying at LSU.  One note on that: Michigan screwed themselves by opening their elitist idiot traps.  If they’d stayed quiet, Miles would be theirs...after today’s game.  Idiots.

Ok. The new schedule. The schedule we all wanted?  Yeah. Getting closer to it anyway. 

Every team, every year?  Yep. We’ll take that.  Less divisional games? Yep. We’ll take that too...despite my feelings that the nine game stretch against Gary’s Central was pretty interesting.  The fellas in the East are whining and in the far, far West.  But, honestly?  Screw ‘em.  Because the Wings are still taking it high and hard playing in the Western Conference.  Will this decision spice it up a bit, giving us Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Crosby, Ovechkin, Buffalo and Ottawa on a consistent basis? Sure.  Enough to solve the attendance situation? Not so sure about that. If they couldn’t fill the Joe for Calgary, I’m not sure Toronto would do it. 

Eric McErlain has a good piece at the Sporting News today.

...it seemed as if the Stars, Ducks and Sharks were battling each other at least once a week during March. Ditto that in the Central, where it seemed like the Predators and the Red Wings were more or less permanently on each other’s dance card.

When you look at it that way, it’s safe to say that overall, the unbalanced schedule failed to achieve its publicly stated goal of stoking divisional rivalries. Then again, if you really want to stoke divisional rivalries, the key isn’t overloading the regular season schedule with division games.

Instead, if the league really wants to create bad blood between teams that spills over into the regular season, it ought to think about bringing back a divisional playoff format, and re-aligning each conference into two divisions. And while they’re at it, why not bring back the names Patrick, Adams, Norris and Smythe.

Dominik Hasek’s getting bored.  In case you weren’t aware, boredom can lead to insanity.  I’m just sayin.

Kulfan

Hasek is going to start Tuesday in Montreal.

“We need to get Dom in there and get him going, and it’ll be a good environment in Montreal to do that, a good test,” Babcock said.

How is Hasek handling sitting?

“I don’t want to get used to it,” Hasek said.

Tick...tock.

James Mirtle put together a list of the NHL’s unsung heroes.  In response, Jes Golbez, compiled something similar: the overpaid schmucks.

Todd Bertuzzi, Anaheim - 13GP 1-5-6PTS -3
Do I really need to say more about this lazy ogre? He rarely breaks a sweat, routinely lets his checks go (Markus Naslund is thanking him right about now), and gets paid $4mil/season to do so.

Dustin Penner, Edmonton - 26GP 4-8-12PTS
I realize that Kevin Lowe put Penner into a position to ‘fail’, giving up the farm for a second-line winger who hadn’t proven himself.

The problem I see is that Penner has a bit too much Bertuzzi in him, in that Penner jut cruises far too often and isn’t nearly as assertive as he should be. Was less than half-a-point a game really worth all that?

Matt at On The Wings points out three Wings who are having troubles offensively.

Since the offensive leaders on the team haven’t changed in weeks, I’ll point out the guys on the opposite end of the spectrum. Aaron Downey has zero points in 13 (but still manages to be valuable to the team), while Dallas Drake has a single assist in 18 games. Johan Franzen has managed a whopping 2 points (a goal and an assist) through 15 games.

Downey and Drake? Not an issue.  We know what they bring and it’s not offense, although with the latter I think we can expect a bit more.  Franzen?  Agreed...issues. 

Brian Costello at the Hockey News says that there is no doubt who the best European in the NHL is, best Euro of all time in fact.  He stops short of calling him the best defenseman ever.  Cory Cross took that title.  But, #2?  Yep.  He uses a quote from Ken Holland to support his argument.

“For the last 10 years we’re near the top of the league in points, he plays almost 30 minutes a game, always against the other team’s best players, he’s always one of the highest-scoring defensemen, most years we’re near the top of the league in power play, most years we’re near the top of the league in penalty-killing and most years we’re near the top of the league in goals against. He plays every critical situation. We won three Stanley Cups and five Presidents’ Trophies. We’ve been to the final four times in the last 12 seasons and he has been the one constant.”

We’ll do the liveblog thing tonite.  Game time 7pm.

Filed in: | Abel to Yzerman | Permalink
 Tags: Bertuzzi, Central, Downey, Drake, Fellow+Bloggers, Franzen, Hasek, Lidstrom, Osgood,

Comments

That schedule change was a ‘kiss you sister’ !
I want to see every team at least twice a year, and make those Back to Back, Home and Home.  At least that way one set of fans will see a game with just a little excitement, intensity, and one on one battles with a recent history.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don’t live up to my expectations on 12/01/07 at 03:01 PM ET

Gramps, I think one way to accommodate you and to increase the intensity within the divisions is to include one home/home with each divisional opponent. And make them Friday/Saturday deals for the sake of attendance.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 12/01/07 at 03:04 PM ET

“...re-aligning each conference into two divisions”

Love, Love, Love this idea. I miss those days. If this was adopted you’d get your rivalries going. Gary, would get his more games against division opponents too. win-win.

Can’t wait to see the game tonight, no center ice means I get to watch very few Wings games on TV anymore.

Posted by Aaron from Phoenexico on 12/01/07 at 03:18 PM ET

I’m a big fan of Jimmy D and KH’s proposal to bump the schedule up to 84 games so that there’s a home-and-home vs. every team.  I swear, Bill, I went to a pre-season game vs. Toronto--not only pre-season, but also against the Leafs’ “B” squad--and it was PACKED AND JUMPIN.’ Toronto, Montreal, Boston, the Rags, when they come to town, it’s a hockey holiday.  BIG holiday.  The guys who don’t like the new game come down to the Joe for tradition’s sake, and the parents who want to remind their kids of the Original Six rivalries come down to the Joe, too.

I don’t mind having a less-than-full building against the Isles if that means seeing Rick DiPietro, a half-full building to see Olli Jokinen, I mean, it’s not just Crosby and Ovechkin who sell the game.  Hell, I’d think that putting Pavel and Hank in every NHL building would be good for the game, too.

You go with Kulfy, who tried to ham it up.  Kulfy’s drooling for a Hasek-Osgood cat fight, and he’s been promoting it every chance he gets.  Dom actually suggested that he’s more bored than anything else:

Hasek bored:  Dominik Hasek will have had 11 days between starts when he makes his next appearance Tuesday in Montreal.

Hasek has not played since Nov. 22. Coach Mike Babcock said Chris Osgood will start for the sixth time in the past seven games tonight at home against Phoenix.

“I’m not used to it, and I don’t want to get used to it,” Hasek said. “At least I have action in the practice, but nothing compared to the game. Of course, if you don’t play for a while you’re a little bit bored because you like the action of the game.”

He’s grumpy, not about to burst. 

Franzen’s scoring slump is a concern, definitely, but I do believe that, by the end of the regular season, anyway, we’ll be seeing the Mule plow his way through opposing defencemen as he lugs the puck up ice, backing off back-checkers and generating time and space for his linemates. 

I don’t know if I’d put Nick above Harvey, but I’ve certainly never seen a better all-round defenceman, not Coffey, not Stevens, not MacInnis, not Bourque, the only guy I would say was on par was Slava Fetisov when he was in his heyday.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 12/01/07 at 03:42 PM ET

The fellas in the East are whining and in the far, far West.

I vote for sending them an assortment of fine cheeses to go with their whines and tell them to grow up.

I like the idea of realignment into four divisions and going with a divisional playoff format.  Anyone with more than two functional neurons in their skulls could have told the BOG that if there are a ton of games in the regular season against one opponent it gets boring, and boredom breeds boring hockey and cranky fans, not intensity.

I also like the idea of going with 84 regular season games and limiting the pre-season to a handful.  More importantly the players like that idea, too, and they are going to take the punishment from an increased schedule.  If they are willing to trade preseason games for greater variety of opponents, even if it means more travel, then I don’t think it should take forever to get it done.

The problem is that not only do the owners not think outside the box, for the most part they think so far inside the box that they are precisely equidistant from all six sides.  Pity someone remembered to punch air holes in the cardboard. 

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/01/07 at 04:22 PM ET

I was always more a fan of the 5-3-2 format.  5 against divisionals, 3 against conference, and home-and-home against opposing conference, with the divisional/conference games being swapped each year to give one team 3/2 home games one year, and 3/2 away games the next year.

Probably a little too complicated, though.  Eh.  I suppose, in the end, it ultimately works out as it means that even if an Eastern team doesn’t come here one year, they’re still able to be watched on TV while your own team is at their place.

Posted by Michael from Columbus, OH on 12/01/07 at 04:57 PM ET

Someone please steer me in the right direction.

I understand that the NBA has 30 teams. They have an 82 game schedule and play every team home and home during the season.

If this is correct, couldn’t G. Bettman use this as a model. If it is not correct, I apologize.

Posted by Ted from Innisfil, Ontario on 12/01/07 at 05:17 PM ET

You’re right Ted.  The NBA does that by scheduling only four games against each divisional opponent.  Not necessarily a bad option.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 12/01/07 at 05:25 PM ET

I think the owners are underestimating the inventiveness of fan hatred for rival teams.

It is undeniably nice to have rival teams play each other in intense, hard-fought games, but it isn’t needed.

If fans hate teams, they will taunt opposing fan bases even if the teams aren’t playing each other; usually “ha-ha, you lost again, but we beat the team you are being blown out by,” “how do you like your losing streak, losers?” “at least we aren’t as bad as you are” and that ilk.

Just play a balanced schedule and let the hockey-hate develop naturally.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 12/01/07 at 06:10 PM ET

Really, imbalanced schedules make it harder to get that white-hot hate going.  You just see the other team too often.  The best rivalries come when you only see that team maybe two or three times a year.  How quickly would that Avs rivalry have died out if they played 8 times a year?

You see them one or two games during the season, then maybe every other year in the playoffs though… plenty of intervals to get all angry.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/01/07 at 08:17 PM ET

I just had to respond to this.

“Really, imbalanced schedules make it harder to get that white-hot hate going.”

I don’t think so. Just ask any team that has played the Flyers.

Posted by Ted from Innisfil, Ontario on 12/02/07 at 09:40 AM ET

That is because the Flyers are the Flyers.  I can not wait to yell things at them in person on Friday night at the Can.  Anyone have any good ideas for a sign?

I’m not thrilled with the new NHL schedule, it is a bit better but didn’t go far enough.  As usual.  I hope it doesn’t take them another three years to fix it fully.  Too many fans will be gone by then.

Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 12/03/07 at 04:27 PM ET

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