- Nov 17, 2011
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What schedule model are we going off of? There's at least 4 vs Division (28), exactly 2 vs other conference (32).
At least 2 vs other Division (16), leaving 6 for either "extra division" or "extra non-division."
Being in the Central Division would mean 14 road games vs the Central time zone teams.
It's easy to say that having VGK "play 36 of 82 (44%) with pucks dropping at 5 p.m. or earlier" is a bad idea. But...
- the first 16 are against ETZ games no matter which division they're in (And I'm frequently on record as being strongly opposed to the West playing 16 road games in the ETZ, period).
- The team in Pacific is going to have 16 ETZ games, 6 CTZ games.
We're really talking about eight games (9.7% of the schedule) being different for the team that's a fish out water.
And not every difference is automatically "abnormally bad." Saturday and Sunday games in the afternoon are not. Vegas scheduled a few home games on Saturday afternoons, as did a few of their road Pacific division opponents.
The question is: If these things are BAD FINANCIALLY for Vegas, they're also bad financially for Arizona. And Arizona has a lot less room for error if something is financially bad.
As I wrote, above, KevFu....
I think the numbers are slightly different. My analysis would go:
The schedule is likely to be 5/4 - 2. Means home/away with all teams, and the rest in division. The reason I say that is that the 4/3/2 arrangement won't work because it comes out with too many games. So, if I am right about that....
Start with 41 road games. The first 31 of those are obviously the same.... 1 versus all teams. That leaves 10 games potentially different.
If Vegas moved to the Central, those games would be....1 with Colorado in the MTZ. 6 against CTZ teams, and then 3 more, so about 1/2 the time one of those would also be MTZ. Thus, 8 1/2 CTZ, and 1 1/2 MTZ.
If Vegas stays in the Pacific, and Zona moves, those 10 games....2 with Cgy/Edm in the MTZ, and 5 against PTZ teams, and then 3 more. On average, 1 of those will be against Cgy/Edm, so the total comes out: 3 MTZ, 7 PTZ.
If Vegas stays and Cgy/Edm move, those 7 games....1 against Col in the MTZ. 5 in the PTZ, and 1 with ARZ, which we wouldn't know which time zone. Plus 3 more. I'll say that, on average, 1 game with ARZ in the MTZ, 1 with COL in the MTZ, and the rest PTZ. Thus, 8 PTZ, 2 MTZ.
Now, for Arizona......
All of the above applies to Arizona as well, except that one must realize that 1/3 of the games will happen with ARZ on PTZ time, and 2/3 on MTZ time. That means that moving ARZ yields only about 3 CTZ games with 5 PM starts. 3 games in a year. That shouldn't be a big deal.
But, as KevFu says, ARZ is a distressed franchise, and that might be hard on them. I mean moving to the Central because it's a different identity.
As far as the schedule goes, I am starting to think it's not a big deal, so it's likely happen.