The schedule for the 2013-2014 NHL season was released today which is pretty big news for hockey writers in the middle of July.
The first thing that is noticeable is that they finally came out with the new division names. To refresh your memory a bit, the NHL announced last year that there would be realignment and Detroit, an Eastern time-zone team, would no longer be playing in the Western Conference as they had been promised. The NHL’s realignment and division names are as follows:
Western Conference
The Pacific Division
- Anaheim Ducks
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Los Angeles Kings
- Phoenix Coyotes
- San Jose Sharks
- Vancouver Canucks
The Central Division
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche
- Dallas Stars
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- Winnipeg Jets
Eastern Conference
The Metropolitan Division
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- New York Rangers
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Washington Capitals
The Atlantic Division
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Detroit Red Wings
- Florida Panthers
- Montréal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Toronto Maple Leafs
With the new alignment comes new scheduling parameters, and they are as follows for the West:
- Each team plays 50 games within their Conference of which 29 are in their division and 21 are outside of their division.
- The West teams will play 32 games vs. the East, two games against each team (one home and one away). For the first time in its rich history, NHL schedulers got it right; every team will play every team in each other’s home rink. It only took them 20 years to get there. Next on the docket; teams that make money. I’ll have that write-up once I’ve reached my mid-life crisis.
The parameters are different for the East:
- Each team will play 54 games within their Conference, 30 within their division and 24 outside of it.
- The East teams will play 28 games against their Western opponents, two against each team, one in each arena.
Kudos to the NHL on realignment and scheduling. Nothing says competitive fairness than an inherently unequal opportunity to reach the postseason that includes more intra-division and intra-conference games for one Conference than the other. It is little wonder hockey fans have lost two seasons in two decades.
There are a few things that stand out in the realignment of the divisions:
- The Metropolitan Division? Really? Raleigh, North Carolina, the home of the Hurricanes, in the “Metropolitan” Division? Sure, OK.
- There are an uneven amount of teams in the two conferences. This gives an “all things equal” chance of 57.1% that a team from the West will find the postseason and 50% for a team in the East.
- The Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues look like they’re going to make the playoffs until this CBA runs out at the end of this decade.
- The Mr. Met division looks like it’s going to be a Mortal Kombat tournament to get to the playoffs, with six of the eight teams having been in the post-season at least once in the last two years. Columbus just missed out last year and Carolina is better team than they showed in the lockout-shortened season. The same goes for the Atlantic division technically, but the Florida Panthers are lucky to be called an NHL team.
- Along that vein, holy wow at the Pacific Division. The Kings won the Cup last year, the same season Phoenix was in the Conference Final against them. The Canucks and Sharks are perennial (if not aging) Cup contenders and the Ducks finished second in the Conference in 2013 while Edmonton Oilers have probably the most offensive talent in the entire NHL. It will be the first time in NHL history that teams are circling “road trip to Calgary” on their schedule.
A few notes about the actual schedule released:
- There are going to be six outdoor games this year; one “Winter Classic” on New Year’s Day between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan’s Big House. There are four more outdoor games as part of a “Coors Light Stadium Series”: one in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium between the Kings and Ducks, one in Chicago between Pittsburgh and Chicago because Sidney Crosby has to play outdoors every year, two at Yankee Stadium with the Rangers featured in each game against the other two New York-area teams. Also, NHL players need to learn to be role models and should demonstrate such actions during nationally-televised hockey games sponsored by alcohol. There’s a final “Heritage Classic” between the Canucks and Ottawa Senators in Vancouver to celebrate their storied rivalry.
- It’s less than eight weeks until training camps open.
- David Clarkson, now a member of the Maple Leafs, returns to New Jersey on March 23rd to remind Devils fans of what they could have had for over $35M.
- The Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars visit Winnipeg on March 6th and March 16th, respectively. In unrelated news, members of the Kings and Stars are feverishly trying to get their significant other pregnant so that they might end up on paternity leave in early/mid March.
- The first Stanley Cup rematch between Chicago and Boston takes places on January 19th in Chicago and just like the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, former Bruin Tyler Seguin will only be there in spirit.
- The NHL will once again have a Christmas break from Christmas Eve through Boxing Day because hockey fans don’t like to watch hockey at the end of December.
- Philadelphia and Tampa Bay meet for the third time of the season on April 10th in case you have an insatiable appetite for football scores in non-football sports during the offseason.
- There will be an Olympic break from February 9-25 while players compete in the Winter Olympics for their respective countries. This coincides with Patrick Kane’s spring break however, so Team USA is trying to get the Winter Olympics moved to April.
That’s about it for important points with regards to the release of the 2013-2014 NHL schedule. This is about as exciting as it gets for fresh NHL news for the next month. Training camps can’t come soon enough.
