Are the Rangers more important than Edmonton and Calgary?
RyanB | Nov 04, 2009 | Comments 2
There are a great many things that puzzle me about the NHL schedule. So far this season the Flyers had a stretch were they had one game sandwiched by five days off on either side. The Flames have played just five times in the last 21 days. Considering we’re in the midst of an Olympic year I would have thought long layoffs like that wouldn’t have been part of the schedule.
But those might not be the strangest quirks in this years NHL schedule.
Look at the Oilers recent schedule. The trip started with a game in Boston on Saturday and concluded with a game on Long Island Monday night. On its face there is nothing unusual about that trip unless you look at what follows. The team returns to Edmonton to play the Rangers before going back out on the road to play the Avalanche, Senators, Sabers, Thrashers, and Blue Jackets.
So rather than just stay on the road, the team instead has to fly all the way back to Edmonton for one game after which they can fly back to the Eastern Time zone just a few days later. Does that make sense?
At first glance I thought for sure that the trip back was so that the Rangers could do a swing through Western Canada and catch all three teams at once. I was right that is in fact the case. But would you believe that the Flames are also on the road before and after the Rangers come to town. Like the Oilers Calgary has just the one game at home.
Thanks to On The Forecheck I was able to find out that the Flames have the most travel miles in this years schedule and the Oilers are fourth. For the most part the travel is simply a by product of where the cities are and there really isn’t much that can be done about it. But adding in trips home for a single game certainly doesn’t help.
What probably bugs me the most is that the Rangers by comparison to the Oilers and Flames have a very easy travel schedule. Looking really quick I think that they leave the Eastern time zone only two times all season. I know that the schedules can never be equal but am I really supposed to believe that there was no other time when the Rangers could have made a trip through Alberta?
It seems a little off to me. Almost like some teams are more important than others.
Filed Under: Calgary Flames • Edmonton Oilers • New York Rangers
I think part of it is the unbalanced schedule and just inherently how densely packed some of the north-east U.S. teams are. The Rangers will always have a lighter travel schedule since the Isles, Devils, Flyers, Caps, Bruins are in close proximity while the Oilers and Flames closest opponents are far, far away in Vancouver and Minneapolis.
I don’t disagree however that those “one-game homestands” should be eliminated unless the next opponent on the road is close by.
Yeah I certainly don’t think that teams like Edmonton and Calgary should have comparable travel schedules, it would be impossible to make that happen. It’s the one game homestand that makes me shake my head.