Why 82 games?

libertarian

Registered User
Jul 27, 2017
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Middle Earth
Why 82 games?

Money.

Both the NHL and NBA could have 70 or even 60 game season and end their season a month or more sooner and still have great PO games. They don't because it is all about money. They want to profit as much as they can. As a libertarian I have no issue with this but this is the only reason they play as many games as they do. Both league can get away with this and make money so they do it. If they thought the could get away with a 100 game season they would do it. 82 games seem to be as far as they can go at this time and stay profitable.
 

authentic

Registered User
Jan 28, 2015
25,409
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Don't know, but Bettman worked in the NBA for years.

82 games... same as NBA.

Disappearance of neutral zone to be a two-zone sport... same as NBA.

Pretty soon the nets will be 10 feet off the ice!

Then the league will see an influx of Zdeno Charas.
 

canuckslover10

Registered User
Apr 10, 2014
1,775
1,529
They'll be strapped to the goalie posts like Milhouse in the Simpsons.

PointedJampackedCatfish-small.gif
No effort by the goalie there clearly could have moved his stick to stop the puck disgraceful
 

hector morrison

Registered User
Apr 1, 2018
4,792
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For both the NHL and the NBA, the regular season schedule is set at 82 games. Is that just a coincidence, or is there a reason why that happens to be the case for both leagues?
The 'coincidence ' is both leagues love money!
 

authentic

Registered User
Jan 28, 2015
25,409
10,436
I think 60 games would be ideal, it would make for even better playoffs and less boring regular season games.
 

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
17,753
16,119
As a hockey fan I love 82 games, but cutting it back to something like 74 games would be nice, reducing back to backs and allowing players a better chance at staying fresh

If you could eliminate back to backs and mandate no more than 2 games per week, I think you would get higher quality games.

I feel like there's just too many games where one team just doesn't have their legs. You can put it on the players, but I think the schedule also has something to do with it. They are only human after all.

Of course, the league will never discuss this. If anything, they'll try extending the schedule.
 

Suntouchable13

Registered User
Dec 20, 2003
43,031
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Toronto, ON
82 games is just about as much as they can squeeze out of the season. The season does not end in July, and regular season begins in October. If they could get away with having a season without any off season, they would. If they could get away with having a regular season with 100 games where the playoffs don't end till late July and only one month of off season, the would do that as well.
 

thewall

Registered User
Jul 9, 2010
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When the NHL had 21 teams in the 80's
Each team would play 8 times vs division rivals and 3 times vs the other teams. The Patrick was different since there were 6 teams. Im not sure about them.
 

PensPlz

Registered User
Dec 23, 2009
11,252
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Pittsburgh
Too many games makes too many meaningless games.

60ish games would be nice.

Players would be healthier, more rested, and play harder on any given night as a result.

Playoffs won't extend into mid to late June.

But owners would never accept the revenue loss even if it meant making a better product.
 
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coolboarder

Registered User
Mar 4, 2010
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Maryland
My theory is that if the NHL cuts some numbers of games from 82 to 72-76 games, it would result in a fewer games but more fans would attend games to fill some seats to make TV look good. With the numbers, if you have about 100,000 fan base in a market, and only 20% of them can afford to attend 5 games a year, another 30% can afford to attend 3 games a year while 50% of fan bases can afford to attend a game a year. And rest of the fanbase could only afford to attend a game once every 2 or 3 years. So if those games are spread out, the number of seats would look bad so if you reduce the games, and you have this number of fan bases budget for the year, with reduced games, you'd see more seats naturally would fill up slightly and the TV would look a lot better with more fans in the arena.

The same goes for baseball, if they went from 162 games to 154 games, you'd have some extra fans attending a game and the capacity percent would increase to make stats look good and it also would help with payroll expense with the owners reducing their salary. The attendance of those hockey games in southern markets would increase slightly. You have a season ticket base, and a walk-up crowd and attendance would increase. It would also help the season to end earlier to late May rather than June. I would love to see percent of the games in a whole year is a sellout all over the NHL stats, not counting teams buying up a remaining tickets to make it a sellout.
 

frog

Registered User
Apr 8, 2014
2,427
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Canada
The math just doesnt work for anything more or less than 82. Half of 82 is 41. Which is Gary Bettman's age. If you multiply Gary Bettman by 2 that equals 82 games in a season. That's why each year the number of games played increase by 1
 

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