[SCF] Florida Panthers (EC-WC2) vs Vegas Golden Knights (WC-1)

[FlamesAddiction]

I agree, by June, unless my team is still in, I am not making time to watch the playoffs any more. If everything aligns and I am not doing anything else, I'll throw a game on and watch a little, but not really into it by then.

They should start training camps right after Labour Day, and then the regular season in mid-September. Just skip pre-season games altogether. Try to get everything completed at the end of May.

It didn't help that the scheduling for the finals killed momentum and took them out of the daily news cycle.

[keratosis]

Vegas won the cup?

[Shazam]

Kessel wins another cup. Damn.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Kessel wins another cup. Damn.

Even got to eat a hot dog at the same time.

[Engine09]

82 games is too much of a grind for a sport like hockey, injuries happen but perhaps the playoffs would be more exciting if the season was shorter and everyone wasn't so beat up.

Agree with most everyone here, far less preseason games, start the season earlier and award the cup at the end of May.

[SuperMatt18]

October 1st as opening night, and the playoffs ending by June 1st seems too easy.

[Rick M.]

They should never have gone beyond 70 games per season. I am amused to see they’re taking about 84.

[dino7c]

Bob finishes with an .844 in the Finals

talk about turning into a pumpkin

[Locke]

Originally Posted by dino7c

The finals being a laugher didn't help

Yeah...there is an element of this.

Every game barring 2 being complete blowouts made it largely uninteresting.

The fact that the Panthers essentially just got rag-dolled took a lot of the fun out of it.

[FlamesAddiction]

They will never go to fewer regular season games unless all teams agree to a unilateral ticket price increase across the board. The players would never agree to decrease revenue. It would also have to make up for ad revenue losses.

If you want to shorten the length of the season, you have to decrease the pre-season or condense the schedule. The latter half isn't going to happen either.

[Mathgod]

Trimming down the preseason seems like a no-brainer.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

Trimming down the preseason seems like a no-brainer.

But isn’t that just free income that they don’t pay the players for? I mean I guess it’s a moot point when the players get 50/50 revenue split so it shouldn’t matter.

[2macinnis2]

I can’t help but think Darwinism is going to take hold at some point in this league, and load management will become an effective and pervasive strategy.

For teams solidly in playoff positions, playing top players for 82 games in the regular season is counterproductive, for all the reasons previously stated.

They can add games to the regular season, but it won’t mean those games will be of equal value to what we have now (which is clearly diminishing as it is).

[This post is terrible]

Originally Posted by 2macinnis2

I can’t help but think Darwinism is going to take hold at some point in this league, and load management will become an effective and pervasive strategy.

For teams solidly in playoff positions, playing top players for 82 games in the regular season is counterproductive, for all the reasons previously stated.

They can add games to the regular season, but it won’t mean those games will be of equal value to what we have now (which is clearly diminishing as it is).

I agree with this, elite power forwards should not be playing more than 60 games a seasons as they seem to have the shortest amount of effective hockey years.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Mathgod

Trimming down the preseason seems like a no-brainer.

Nope, not gonna happen. Every NHL locks in their season ticket holders with 3-4 useless games at full price, plus a couple thousand others that want to see the battle for roster spots.

Not a chance in hell the NHL gives that up, it's free gravy.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by This post is terrible

I agree with this, elite power forwards should not be playing more than 60 games a seasons as they seem to have the shortest amount of effective hockey years.

The NHL seems to always be behind on analytics and pushing new ideas in terms of player/game management.

I suspect the next thing we see in the NHL is load management for star players, trying to get them to a certain number games like coaches do with starting goalies. The bubble teams will still have to go all out until April, but teams safely in playoff spots will start to manage stars.

[jayswin]

And not to take away from the current Cup winner, but between them and Tampa, the league can now see the importance of fully embracing and using LTIR to their advantage. I can see it becoming more of a necessity than a loophole to icing a true contender in the playoffs.

The league will either start to cap playoff salary cap or teams will start/continue to integrate it into their strategy with players that "won't be quite ready to play by our standards until playoffs and now we went and acquired a star at the deadline that puts us over the top".

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

I effing hate that Vegas won a cup already soooo much but....aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh is it nice not to have to watch the tkachuk lovers bask in him winning a cup less than a year after basically forcing his way off our team.

Loved the guy when he was here but now he can go eff himself.

I'm not a Tkachuk fan but it was Treliving that walked him to a easy off...

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Rick M.

They should never have gone beyond 70 games per season. I am amused to see they’re taking about 84.

Less revenue, presumably the cap comes down, and players would need to take a pro-rata cut in pay.

Over/under on that happening LOL.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

They will never go to fewer regular season games unless all teams agree to a unilateral ticket price increase across the board.

Which is illegal, as being price fixing.