I just heard on the Bruins game, that new schedules for next season have been approved.

This means that every Eastern conference team will play every Western conference team once, and teams will only play division opponentes 6 times instead of 8.

I like these changes.

yes..a lot better than the current schedule thats for sure..

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=223975&hubname=

Likewise, sounds much better than the current system.

I just worked out the numbers, and this is what I came up with:

If the league kept the current system of playing 8 games against every team in the division, it works out to 32 games per season (in Buffalo's case, 8xBoston, 8xMontreal, 8xOttawa, and 8xToronto).

With 25 teams remaining in the league to play against, and 50 remaining games in the schedule, there is exactly enough to play a home game and a road game against every single other team in the National Hockey League.

How great would that be for everyone that doesn't work in the NHL scheduling department?

The flaw with your system is it takes the conference play out...If you are going to have conferences you need to play more within your conference...

This might be the only time I'll ever 100% agree with you.

Non conference games are nice but I'm most interested in seeing the Pens play Buffalo and Toronto more than LA and San Jose because they'll all be fighting for the same playoff spots.

I am happy with the change...Currently it seems like we play Ottawa and Montreal every other game...While its fun to a certain extent, if you meet this team in the playoffs its possible to play 15 games against one team....

I think they have found a nice balance...

Fair point, I was just feeling greedy for a guaranteed Buffalo - Chicago game in Buffalo every year.

Adam,

Do you think the people are upset in Buffalo to lose the extra Leafs game?? I know those games are always sold out and bring a lot of out of town money into the city??

Actually, the game that broke the Buffalo sellout streak was against Toronto, which absolutely floored me. I think the home games against Toronto are much more important to Toronto fans than Buffalo fans, due to the easier time Toronto fans have getting their hands on Sabres tickets than Leafs tickets.

Every game in Buffalo is a potential sellout, so I don't think it really matters to Tommy G and the people of Buffalo.

I'm glad they went back. If they really want to get rivalries going, they should go to four divisions. Change the playoffs back to the old way where the first two rounds are divisional play. That will create rivalries, because teams will play each other in the playoffs a lot in consecutive years.

I guess I have an opposite point of view. The juice in the building for a Ranger rivarly game vs the Devils, Islanders and Flyers is so much more than any of the western conference teams with the exception of Detroit.

I think rivalries are great but that the NHL was really overdoing it, when you play the same team so many times in a row its hard to get the fans or the players hyped for it I think.

The other problem with the current schedule is that the NHL was trying to hard to create new rivalries within the division then to promote the old ones that had been around forever. I.e. having Detroit and Toronto in separate conferences meant this original 6 matchup only happened twice every 3 years. Finally I like it because I think there are certain teams that fans across the league want to see in their building (see: Original 6 teams, Pittsburgh) and this schedule gives more fans league wide a chance to see those teams.

Seen on Sportsnet they are also thinking of playing 84 reg season games. This is weak. I remember during the lockout one of the things the owners were saying is if they got cost certainty they might even cut the reg season to 72-74 games. Just a pile of BS to get fans on there side I guess. I deffinaly like seeing the Eastern teams travelling out west more though.