Quote:
Originally Posted by Southside
The difference between early January and end February is 7 weeks. Sure it's all random, but the fact remains there is less schedule left in front of you. It will have an impact.
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By the end of February there's usually around a 4 or 5 game difference between the teams who played the most and the teams that played the least. Some teams have played significant more home games, others have had to travel far more or had more back-to-back games etc. The schedule is far from balanced on any given night even by the 82nd game given the travel the west has had to do.
If anything, I would argue that this evens it out as now every team gets at least a 5 day break in their schedule in the second half of the season.
Again, we're essentially looking at taking one game in January/February and rescheduling it and letting the players go home for those off-days. It's not really a significant change, which is why the NHL agreed to it in exchange for an All-Star format change.
Unless you're a schedule maker, it's not a big deal.