Possible NHL Playoff Schedule
I was thinking about what we know so far about the NHL Playoff Schedule and combined it with the idea of 2 hub cities to realize we could end up with a truly amazing amount of hockey for the upcoming playoffs.
What we know:
1. First Round is 8- best of five match-ups, plus 3 round robin games per top-4 team.
2. Games are most likely to be played at 2 hub cities.
3. Given the games are NHL Playoff games they will need at least 4 hours between ice times (5+ would be ideal to account for overtime, clean-up benches, clear-out players, set ice, benches, bring in new players).
4. There will be no fans in the stands. This combined with having only 2 arenas means day games are most likely.
5. Further, no travel requirements and no arena blackouts due to concerts mean the NHL can play thru the schedule faster than normal and have total control over game dates and times.
Given all this I can see the 1st round being 4 games per day, rotating between Group A, Group B and Round Robin games.
Play-in Round
“A” is half the play-in brackets, 2 match-ups per city.
“B” is the second half of play-in brackets, 2 match-ups per city.
“RR” is round robin games amongst the top-4, 3 games per team.
A-1, B-1, RR, A-2, B-2, RR, A-3, B-3, RR, A-4, B-4, A-5, B-5
The maximum length of the 1st round would be 13 days.
From a timing perspective I assume the league wants games starting at 7pm and 10pm EST nightly. To get the other 2 games in they would start at 4pm and 1pm EST. So games in hub 1 would start at 1pm and 7pm and in Hub 2 at 4pm and 10pm.
Everyday you would have an NHL playoff game starting at: 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and 10pm EST. And you can watch every second of every game, including most of the first OT period! Non-stop hockey from 1pm to 12:30am every day for 13 days!
This could be exactly what the doctor ordered for sports starved fans.
12 team H-2-H 1 year league, daily roster changes, 3 goalie start minimum/week
2xC, 2xRW, 2xLW, 4xD, 3xUtil, 2xG, 5 Bench
G, A, P, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG, Hits, W, SV%, GAA, SVs
C: C. Keller, C. Mittelstadt, B. Nelson, R. Strome,
LW: K. Connor, B. Tkachuk, J. Gaudreau, J. Marchessault, E. Rodrigues, A. Lafreniere
RW: K. Fiala, J. Bratt, T. Jeannot V. Arvidsson
D: R. Josi, J. Trouba, E. Gustafsson,
G: L. Thompson, F. Gustavsson, V. Vanecek
NO IR