Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
The 2013 National Hockey League schedule begins on Saturday as the league’s 48-game schedule gets started. It will definitely be a different year with all the games being just in each team’s own conference which will bring about a Stanley Cup Final of two teams that didn’t see each other all season. I am sure there are people on both sides of this argument for sure but for this season at least, this is the best thing to do.
With 48 games in 99 days, the travel is probably just too much to be going from conference to conference for games and having teams fly cross-country to play. I don’t like it one bit honestly because I would prefer to see every team play in each city at least once per season. This is just the deal we got when the lockout ended however and something that fans will have to deal with for this year. I will be curious to see what the Stanley Cup Finals look like though.
It will be a lot like the World Series used to be and could bring some more excitement to the game. The only problem with thinking that way though is that almost all the games are on TV these days if you have the NHL Center Ice package. There are going to be fans that see every team play but in the two cities that will have the finals, I’m sure the excitement level will be raised just a little bit more. I say let’s get this started and fix the schedule problems for next year.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports or like his Facebook page.
