Despite a setback tonight in negotiations, I believe the NHL is heading for a settlement within a few days. In fact, future Hall-Of-Famer Teemu Selanne (663 career goals) flatly predicted a settlement on Monday. With this in mind, here is a primer on how a 48 game schedule would work: I originally thought that the teams, if they settled this week, could play pre-season games with "nearby opponents" (examples : Wings-Jax, Laffs-Sabres, etc...) that could be offered free of charge, as a goodwill gesture toward the fans. This is what the NBA did last year, but this will apparently not be the case. That said, something the teams COULD do, is offer intra-squad scrimmages for free, as MLB teams did in 1981 after a two-month strike. Here IS a likely scenario for a 48-games season:
Let me begin by saying that the season will almost certainly follow the template from the 1995 48-game season, which works perfectly from the script the league seems to have been following all along. First of all, January 19th is perfect for this reason, A) It's Saturday, Hockey Night In Canada, and B) January 5th and 12th are NFL playoff nights, and the NHL wants no part of competing with the colossus of american sports. With that in mind, All teams open the season on the 18th/19th, most cases being "rivalry games" Pens-Flyers, Wings-Hawks, Habs-B's-Laffs-Sabres, Kings-Ducks, etc...Then NO teams play on the 20th, and again, it's all about the NFL, as that is the date of the conference championship games. Then games are played until February 3rd, the date of Super Bowl XLVII, when possibly Les Habitants are the only team playing, since they traditionally play on Super Sunday. The season then continues until about May 1st, with the playoffs beginning about May 5th, and continuing until about June 29th.
Let me begin by saying that the season will almost certainly follow the template from the 1995 48-game season, which works perfectly from the script the league seems to have been following all along. First of all, January 19th is perfect for this reason, A) It's Saturday, Hockey Night In Canada, and B) January 5th and 12th are NFL playoff nights, and the NHL wants no part of competing with the colossus of american sports. With that in mind, All teams open the season on the 18th/19th, most cases being "rivalry games" Pens-Flyers, Wings-Hawks, Habs-B's-Laffs-Sabres, Kings-Ducks, etc...Then NO teams play on the 20th, and again, it's all about the NFL, as that is the date of the conference championship games. Then games are played until February 3rd, the date of Super Bowl XLVII, when possibly Les Habitants are the only team playing, since they traditionally play on Super Sunday. The season then continues until about May 1st, with the playoffs beginning about May 5th, and continuing until about June 29th.
No comments:
Post a Comment