Catching Up With The NHL
Nov 30, 2007 NHL
I missed posting after the Sabres loss to the Blues the other day, and there have been several big developments since then that need to be mentioned. The Sabres just were ready to play the Blues for a full game, and it showed. Miller tried to keep them in, but it was not to be. Sekera got the first goal of his NHL career to tie it up at 3-3, but a scramble in front of Miller with less than a minute to go got the Blues the game-winner. Next up tomorrow night is the hated (as per Paul Gaustad) Hurricanes.
The bigger news is that the NHL Board of Governors approved schedule changes to ensure teams play every other NHL club at least once per year. Under the new agreement, the division games drop to 6 per team (from 8), in conference games stay at 4 per opponent, but out of conference games go to 18. There will be 15 games either home OR away at each team, and then 3 more at-large games against the opposite conference to make up 3 home and home series.
That last bit is good news for the Canadian teams, as the league will be sure to pit them against each other in the home and home series. For the rest of the league, any existing rivalries will be honored (perhaps the “Original Six” will all play twice) and team requests will be taken as well. An interesting note is that the players are willing to play more regular season games (84) at the expense of a few preseason games if it meant they could figure out a way to play an entire out of conference division at least twice. That would be, in a word, awesome, GET ON IT.
At the same time, the sale of the Nashville Predators to venture capitalist David Freeman (Gordon Freeman no relation) was also approved by the Board of Governors. Pending still, however, is approval of a change to the arena lease deal in Nashville by the Metro Sports Authority and Metro Council.
Finally, Commish Gary Bettman noted that revenues are going up, which means that the salary cap should increase for next year as well. No way to know just how much it will increase at this point.
Tags: B-Lo Sports, blues, board of governors, david freeman, gaustad, Hockey, nashville, NHL, predators, Ryan Miller, sabres, salary cap, sekera, st. louis
