The NHL Schedule

Everybody knows by now how unbalanced the NHL schedule when it comes to playing teams in the opposing conference. It seems like we've been talking about it for years. For example the Detroit Red Wings played the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, and Boston Bruins only once this season, and didn't play the New York Rangers at all. Those are all "Original 6" teams. That's just a shame.

But the worst part is the way the final month of the regular season shakes out. The Wings have 13 games during the month of March and all but two are division games. They played their final game against the east on March 2 when they beat Buffalo 4-2. They will host Dallas on the 13th, which will be a fantastic showdown of the two best teams in the league. But after that, the remainder of the games are against the rest of the pitiful Central Division. Three against St. Louis, four against Nashville, three against Columbus (all in a 7 day span), and one against Chicago.

The fact of the matter is, the Wings will play only one playoff team (Dallas) the entire month of March. Not quite the playoff primer a good team would like to play through on the way to the post season. Supposedly there will be some changes to the schedule next season which will allow all teams to meet each other during the regular season. That's a start. But the NHL still has a long way to go with its schedule.