NHL Approves New Schedule Format

TSN.ca

11/30/2007 1:24:11 AM

For its new-look schedule, the National Hockey League will be going back to an old look.

The NHL has approved a scheduling format that will have each team play 24 divisional games, 40 in-conference matchups, 15 games against non-conference teams and three wild card games against out of conference teams.

"Every team will play every other team at least once," Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters after the day's Board of Governors meetings.

"And we did it notwithstanding that this is likely to be the third year in a row with record attendance and the fact that divisional games are better attended than any others we did want to be responsive to the fans.”

The new schedule, which received the necessary two-thirds majority vote at 26-4 in favour of changing the format, will swing into play next season.

"It was discussed and everybody had an opportunity to weigh in over the last several months," Vancouver Canucks general manager Dave Nonis told TSN. "As you know, it's been a topic for a long time and at the end of the day we feel it is a positive change for all the teams and all the fans."

The format - which was used prior to the NHL lockout - allows for every team to play every team at least once in a season, but it would still be every other year before a player like Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin would play in every building.

This year's format - the third season in which it has been used - has each club playing 32 divisional games and 40 games within the conference. The remaining 10 games are inter-conference with five at home against the clubs in a designated division and five on the road against a different designated division.

Under the current system, big Eastern Conference draws like the Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens only visit teams from one specific Western Conference division - like Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver - once every three years.

"I really think the fans of Canada have asked us in many ways - directly and indirectly - that they'd like to see the Canadiens once a year," said Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr.

New NHL Players' Association executive director Paul Kelly met with the league's owners on Thursday, and added that the players preferred going to an 84-game schedule with 24 divisional games, 30 against the rest of the conference and 30 against the other conference.

"The reason the players feel this is one; they're tired of seeing the same guys week after week," Kelly explained to reporters on Thursday. "(And) two; they believe the fans in their buildings want to see the star players in other teams and they themselves would like to see other cities.”