Solution to long Pre-season that benefits all?

Jetsfan79

Registered User
Jul 12, 2011
3,617
3,443
Winnipeg, MB
This is the time of year when we all grown (rightfully so) about the preseason and how long it is. I have an idea that I think could work. Currently the NHL plays 8 preseason games. 4 home games and 4 road. This takes roughly 2 weeks for the games to be played. My thought is to make 6 of the 8 games split squad games. So the schedule would be something like this for your favourite team:

Monday. SS Home game (game 1), SS Road game (game 2)
Wednesday: SS Home game (game 3), SS Road (game 4)
Friday: SS Home game (game 5), SS Road (game 6)
Saturday: Full Squad Home game (game 7)
Sunday/Monday: Full Squad Road game (game 8)

Advantages to this are:

- Preseason is cut in half in terms of the time as every team plays "2 games per night" One at home and one on the road with different players for each game. (good for fans antsy to have the season start)

- Owners still get their 4 home games' gate receipts (good for owners)

- Option to use these extra 7ish saved days to end the reg season early or help reduce the compactness of the regular schedule/reduce back to back games. (good for players)

- AHL players can be used to fill out the home and Road practice squads with the Home SS games likely having more NHL calibre players (good for the home fans)

Thoughts?...
 
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Hischier and Hughes

“I love to hockey”
Jan 28, 2018
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Id think a big complaint from teams would be the lack of time spread out among games and practices - less time to test out combinations and such
 

Jesus Take the Wheel

Registered User
Jul 9, 2015
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Edmonton
Mathematically with 31 teams i don't think it can work.

Also I don't think it allows teams to narrow down their roster quick enough.

Honestly I don't mind it how it currently is, a little drawn out yes but it gives teams lots of time to be regular ready and I do like the suspense everytime a round of cuts comes in to see who is still here and who is gone till next season
 
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Michael Farkas

Grace Personified
Jun 28, 2006
13,350
7,832
NYC
www.HockeyProspect.com
Yeah, this solves a non-existent problem.

As someone who has experience with selecting teams and dealing with tryouts and preseason and pre-season practices and all that...it's not necessarily the games that I take the most information from...it's the practices and then some of the game tape that you go over that you get a lot out of...and you need time to process that and get a feel for the players that you have and try different things from a coaching perspective.

If you shorten this time, there's a higher chance that you keep a veteran in the league over a kid too...because if you're a risk-averse coach (which they mostly are) you're going to favor the guy that's been here. Luca Sbisa is in the league today because he was in the league yesterday. If you gave everyone that Men In Black thing and re-drafted the league, Sbisa isn't in and it's not terribly close either. Not to pick on Sbisa, but just making an illustration...
 

Echo Roku

Registered User
Jan 14, 2018
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Horrible idea

Biggest point of pre-season is practice and talent/chemistry evaluation

That requires time and practices
 

tony d

Registered User
Jun 23, 2007
76,589
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Behind A Tree
I think a game vs. each team in your division over a 2 week period would work. The pre season is necessary but it could use some tweaks.
 

Howboutthempanthers

Thread killer.
Sponsor
Sep 11, 2012
16,404
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The pre season is long?

Try to suffer through the NFL pre season and the endless MLB spring training. The NHL pre season is perfect and incredibly short!
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
And NHL preseason isn't about trying make money off of preseason games, (although that's a bonus element). Preseason is about trying to get ready for the regular season and evaluate young players and fringe players and such. That takes a certain amount of time.
 

Tage2Tuch

Because TheJackAttack is in Black
May 10, 2004
9,048
2,658
CAN
How is the preseason long? I guess some people just don’t have patience, if they started the season right now it wouldn’t be as entertaining as it could be, nor would it be fair to teams trying to learn there new lines, coach, as well as get back into game shape.

You want players playing close to 100 percent, a lot of guys get off to bad starts, imagine how many would if they shortened the preseason.
 

Pavels Dog

Registered User
Feb 18, 2013
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Sweden
So you want a longer offseason, shorter preseason and same length regular season with more pulled groins?
 

byrath

Registered User
Jan 28, 2008
1,246
647
St. Louis, MO
Camp isn't too long, seems fine as it is.
Not like baseball where they need a month to prepare to sit/stand around for 162 games.
IIRC, they even start bringing in the pitchers and catchers in mid-February, thats 6 or 7 weeks, its crazy.
As sloppy as the first couple weeks of the NHL season tend to be, you could make a better argument for a longer training camp vs a shorter one. Agree that it's fine as is.
 

Styles

No Light, No Signal
Apr 6, 2017
8,141
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Why do people keep trying to find solutions to problems that don't exist? The regular season starts on the same day no matter what. Who cares what precedes it?
 

holy

2023-2024 Cup CHamps
May 22, 2017
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Luca Sbisa is definitely gonna stumble on this thread and be like wtf man.
 

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