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Check out the NHL Super Schedule

by Forechecker on 10/06/08 at 11:29 AM ET
Comments (2)

As the Rangers, Lightning, Senators and Penguins return from their European adventure, there is sure to be some hand-wringing from their fans that unfair travel requirements are going to undermine the start to their season.

Outside of perhaps the Lightning, those claims are pure hogwash.  The other three teams have it relatively easy when it comes to travel.  For all the details behind the 2008-9 Regular Season schedule, including how many total miles each team will log and the relative strength of opposition each night, check out my NHL Super Schedule.

Posted as a Google Spreadsheet that is freely available for download (you can export it easily to your favorite spreadsheet program), the NHL Super Schedule includes data for each game of each team’s regular season.  You can find the number of days that have passed since their previous game (a “1” indicates games on back-to-back nights), the distance traveled, and the 2007-8 final statistics (such as Goals For/Game) for that particular opponent.

Those of you who dig that sort of thing can easily break down strength of opposition by division or conference, along lines of analysis like opponent’s power play or penalty kill percentage, and shots for/against, among others.  For example, I’ve summarized total travel miles for each team, along with the number of back-to-back games to be played this year, in the table below:

If there is anybody with a right to complain, look to the teams traveling over 50,000 miles (San Jose, Calgary, Dallas, Phoenix and Vancouver), or with high numbers of back-to-back games (Columbus leads the league with 20 such dates).  Washington, New Jersey, Philadelphia and the Islanders are the only teams traveling shorter than 30,000 miles, and Colorado has a mere 8 back-to-back contests coming up on its schedule (welcome words to Old Joe Sakic, I’m sure).

You can take a sneak peek at the Super Schedule right here, or you can open up the whole sheet and Export it to your own PC for fun & games.

Filed in: NHL Statistical Analysis | On the Forecheck | Permalink
 

Comments

genius.

Posted by RWBill from the Old Dominion, waitin for Jan 31 Wings invasion on 10/06/08 at 06:46 PM ET

Wow. How on earth did Colorado get away with only 8 back to back games. I know not every team will be equal, and division/conference layout will keep travel pretty good for some teams, bad for others - but it seems the schedule makers could have done a better job forcing Colorado into another few back-to-backs and letting up on someone else.

Posted by Paul Nicholson from Nashville, TN on 10/06/08 at 08:25 PM ET

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About On the Forecheck

Dirk Hoag is the Forechecker, churner of NHL stats and analysis.  Having started over 10 years ago writing for websites like In the Crease and e-Sports, Dirk launched On The Forecheck in 2005 to cover the Nashville Predators as well as apply statistical analysis to NHL hockey. 

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