Created a new league schedule for my 36-team NHLX from scratch - totally tedious but totally worth it. 36 teams, 4 x 9 divisions. Each team plays:
- 6 versus division rivals (3 home, 3 away): 48 games
- 2 versus non-division conferences foes (home & away): 18 games
- 1 games versus each team in the other conference (split for a home/away overall balance): 18 games
It's a total of 84 games so an increase of two - allowing for a balanced schedule. Good spread of games throughout each month with no 3-game-in-a-row situations, a break for Christmas, New Year's day off and a February league pause - this league pause allows me to use the same schedule for Olympic and non-Olympic years and I've moved the trade deadline up to right before the pause. So it's a nice break to allow rosters to settle and get acclimated and healthy before the final third of the season and playoff run.
The playoffs have also been adjusted - with 36 teams I've taken a cue from the NBA and created an initial "play-in" round. In each conference (18 teams), 12 teams make the playoffs. The top 4 seeds (two division winners and then sorted by points - I got rid of the old top 3 in each division rule) get byes in the first round. The remaining 8 teams play a "best-of-three" play-in tournament, seeded by points. The four winners then move on to join the 4 top seeds for the first round. The first round has been trimmed to a "best-of-5". The conference semis and finals and the Stanley Cup remain "best-of-7". The shorter early stages allow the extra round to be accommodated in the schedule and keep the playoffs around the same amount of time on the calendar in and games played.
Testing great so far...no bugs and in my very first test sim, Chicago made the West playoffs as the #12 seed, won their play-in series against Edmonton and then had a Cinderella run all the way to the Cup finals, knocking of Vegas, St. Louis and Colorado before losing to the Lightning!
- 6 versus division rivals (3 home, 3 away): 48 games
- 2 versus non-division conferences foes (home & away): 18 games
- 1 games versus each team in the other conference (split for a home/away overall balance): 18 games
It's a total of 84 games so an increase of two - allowing for a balanced schedule. Good spread of games throughout each month with no 3-game-in-a-row situations, a break for Christmas, New Year's day off and a February league pause - this league pause allows me to use the same schedule for Olympic and non-Olympic years and I've moved the trade deadline up to right before the pause. So it's a nice break to allow rosters to settle and get acclimated and healthy before the final third of the season and playoff run.
The playoffs have also been adjusted - with 36 teams I've taken a cue from the NBA and created an initial "play-in" round. In each conference (18 teams), 12 teams make the playoffs. The top 4 seeds (two division winners and then sorted by points - I got rid of the old top 3 in each division rule) get byes in the first round. The remaining 8 teams play a "best-of-three" play-in tournament, seeded by points. The four winners then move on to join the 4 top seeds for the first round. The first round has been trimmed to a "best-of-5". The conference semis and finals and the Stanley Cup remain "best-of-7". The shorter early stages allow the extra round to be accommodated in the schedule and keep the playoffs around the same amount of time on the calendar in and games played.
Testing great so far...no bugs and in my very first test sim, Chicago made the West playoffs as the #12 seed, won their play-in series against Edmonton and then had a Cinderella run all the way to the Cup finals, knocking of Vegas, St. Louis and Colorado before losing to the Lightning!
