September's World Cup of Hockey has left an impression on the NHL schedule that will be felt right through 2016-17.
The season started a week later than usual but will still end by the second week in April. That means every team will need to squeeze its 82 games into seven less days—not a huge change, but one that effectively snatches one practice or off day from every team each month.
The league schedule also has another new wrinkle this year—a "bye week." Nearly every team will receive a stretch of five days off without games or practices sometime during January or February, per the Associated Press (via USA Today).
The bye week was negotiated by the NHL Players' Association as compensation for agreeing to change the All-Star Game to a more intense three-on-three tournament format starting last season.
The bye week will be a great opportunity for players to recharge their batteries heading into the playoff stretch run, but this will mean less days off between games for every team around the league.
Considering that the standings at Thanksgiving are usually a pretty good indicator of April's final p ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Carol Schram
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October 20th, 2016 by Carol Schram Leave a reply »
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