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Around SBN: How A Letter From Tom Coughlin Helped One Fan's Recovery

Has the season even started? Early scheduling is a joke

I think we understand what's at stake here with the NFL playing as well and the MLB playoffs and all that. It's a time where hockey is on the back seat so we'll have to deal with that.

>> Danny Briere

When the Flyers take the ice against the Bruins tonight at the Wachovia Center, it will be their second game in 11 days. They've played just six games up until now while most teams in the NHL have played eight or nine. Sure, that doesn't seem like a big difference, but early in the season, a stretch like this without playing real live NHL hockey can be devastating to a club.

Take a look at last Saturday when the Flyers played the Panthers on five days of rest. As Ben Rothenberg put it, the team "lacked explosiveness" all game long. That's what happens when you are out of game action for such an extended period of time. The cobwebs form. To a certain extent, you forget how to play the game of hockey. And this early in the season when a team is still developing chemistry, it makes the task even more difficult and puts them way behind the eight-ball.

Of course, as the players all will say, it's not an excuse. They're right. As professionals, they have to deal with this stuff. But there's no reason for it to be taking place. As Briere said above, the NFL and MLB playoffs could be a reason for the gap in games. Well, if it is, that makes absolutely no sense, because the schedule is written before anybody knew the Phillies would still be in the postseason. As for the NFL, there is no reason why their schedule should overshadow that of the NHL  -- they only play two days a week, and those two days are the thinnest on the NHL's schedule throughout the year.

No, if there's any excuse, it would be the start of the NBA season, considering that most cities have teams that share buildings. But logistical concerns like that have been worked out between the teams and the leagues for decades now, and the NBA season doesn't even start until this weekend.

After tonight, the Flyers will feel the flipside of the scheduling coin. In November, they'll play 13 games in 26 days and in December they'll play 15 games in 27 days. That's a treacherous run that, with inevitable injury, could potentially kill a teams' hopes. But every team will go through most of the schedule like that this year. It's an Olympic year, which means that the league will stop for two weeks in February as many players travel to Vancouver to represent their countries.

With 16 days off for the Games and these 10 days off now, the Flyers will be forced to play all of their 82 games in much less time than every other team in the league. It hurts the brain to understand why this is happening. The NHL should have used every opportunity to spread games out as much as possible this year, but instead, a lapse by the league's schedulers has put the Flyers at a severe disadvantage.

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The Bruins also played on the 16th but have played 2 more games since then including last night while the Flyers were skating around in Vorhees for training camp part 2. Tough spot I expect Boston to be on us early until we get back into game speed and hopefully they will fade in the 3rd with some back to back fatigue. The Flyers should be looking to keep it close going into the 3rd and hopefully come away with a late game winner to get the much needed win.

by chrislanci on Oct 22, 2009 12:16 PM EDT reply actions  

Atlanta has had ONE HOME game in 21 days in October!
They only had THREE games total in the first 15 days of the season!

So it appears that lots of teams have screwy schedules.

All things Thrashers + stats: www.birdwatchersanonymous.com

by The Falconer on Oct 22, 2009 12:22 PM EDT reply actions  

That’s because Crybaby Bouce Boudreau complained to the league office after Ron Hainsey’s awesome “You Can’t Act” PSA last season. I loved that, in part because Hainsey’s delivery was so perfect.

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Oct 22, 2009 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions  

This is all Darroll Powe’s fault.

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Oct 22, 2009 12:38 PM EDT reply actions  

And I thought people would be blaming Cote.

by Mike B on D on Oct 22, 2009 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions  

And let’s not forget to mention the month of March, where we make up for this early season ridiculousness by playing four games a week for three straight weeks for a total of 16 games in 26 days. Ouch.

I don’t know about you, but 22 games in 6 weeks isn’t the way I’d prefer to enter the playoffs.

by eeeeee on Oct 22, 2009 1:47 PM EDT reply actions  

Blame the Olympics...

That’s the cause of all of this craziness. Normally, the NHL has 30 arenas where it can get 55 or so nights each October through April for scheduling. The problem is that this season there are 29 teams that have no problems and one team (Vancouver) that doesn’t have a home arena for about 5 weeks, and has a 14 game road swing before and after the Olympics.

This season is the first time the NHL has stopped play for the Olympics while the Olympics were being played in an NHL arena. The Caps are sitting through a 4 day stretch without a game. As another scheduling quirk, the Caps last 4 home games feature Atlanta twice and Boston twice! Over the course of 6 days, the Bruins will make both of their appearances in DC.

I don’t mind the NHL breaking for the Olympics, but if the home arena of an NHL team is being used and needs to be reconfigured (the reason for the 14 game road trip!) then that team should play 6 home games in another city. I bet fans in Seattle or Portland, OR would have loved to have had the Canucks play a few home games there…

Let's go Caps!

by MikeL-Pivonka on Oct 22, 2009 4:06 PM EDT reply actions  

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