Yesterday's 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes was the fifth "back-half" of back-to-back games played thus far by the Caps this season. So far, they are 1-3-1 in those games, winless since the first of them, which was the home opener against Chicago. All four losses -- three in regulation and one in extra time -- were suffered on the road.
The Caps have eight more of those "back-half" games to play. Six of them are on the road, meaning that of the 13 back-to-back games to be played this season, ten of the "back-half" games will be road games.
Is there someone we can talk to about this?
4 comments:
to quote "someone"
"Every team plays 82 games, 41 at home, 41 on the road. I don't think there is some league conspiracy at work here."
:P
Bettman discussed this at one of the Chalk Talk meetings with Season Ticket holders.
Teams often complain about playing "home tired", meaning the back-half of a two-game swing is at home. If you have to play back-to-back, teams often ask the scheduler to give them the first game at home.
He also mentioned that the schedule goes through 75-120 revisions due to requests for changes like this from all the teams.
Not a conspiracy (although that quote looks familiar), just a statement by way of explanation, and a subtle plea for it not to happen again.
It speaks to competitive balance. Luckily this is the biggest and possibly only problem the NHL has with competitive balance now that every team plays every other at least once.
There is a more disturbing trend in the pro leagues (NFL, NHL, NBA) of sending teams overseas to play REGULAR SEASON (read: meaningful) contests. Unless you are making every team endure similar travel situations, it is a detriment to competitive balance and needs to be stopped.
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