NHL Playoff Schedule Information Thread

[The Crypto Guy]

I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Vegas misses out on a home playoff game.

Game 1: road
Game 2: Vegas
Game 3: road
Game 4: road
Game 5: vegas
Game 6: road
Game 7: vegas

Gary has the authority to do this. You want to loan out your arena for 5 days right as the playoff begins? For some phony wrasslin? Fine but you’re losing a home game. I’d love to see it happen.

I can assure you 100% that Vegas will not be missing out on a home game.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

With Vegas not having access to T Mobile till Tuesday cause of WWE, is it possible they will have to play back to back on Tuesday and Wednesday to catch them up with the rest of the series going on?

This is likely what will happen. Or they will just be a game back from everyone else and the NHL hopes it goes to 5-6 games to catch up.

 

[The Duck Knight]

 

[voyageur]

I think it is confirmed that Toronto-Ottawa won't be a Saturday start. Either Sunday or Monday.

There's no way Rogers goes the whole weekend without broadcasting their bread and butter. Maybe they back the double headers with the Leafs and Oilers on Sunday, but the network wants the ratings, they'll do their best for those.

It's possible the 8 starts get staggered over 3 or 4 days, but the Leafs and Oilers will be on this weekend. Jets too.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

There's no way Rogers goes the whole weekend without broadcasting their bread and butter. Maybe they back the double headers with the Leafs and Oilers on Sunday, but the network wants the ratings, they'll do their best for those.

It's possible the 8 starts get staggered over 3 or 4 days, but the Leafs and Oilers will be on this weekend. Jets too.

I would assume it will be a Sunday start for the Leafs.

 

[Ivan eht Demidov]

I honestly despise the current model of forcing Central teams to play at basically 9pm local in service to having proper "doubleheaders".

To me, there are basically 3 target audiences here:

1- fans of a specific team, who will only watch their team (in which case, playing 2 hours after 7pm local is a disaster)

2- fans of playoff hockey in general, who will want to watch as much of every game as possible (meaning the games should be staggered, not all at the same time, two times each evening)

3- casual fans who might want to watch a game if they see it on (so the specific time doesn't really matter, it's more about avoiding clashes with other programming, especially other sports).

The doubleheader approach doesn't serve any of these audiences. Why not just do it like this (assuming 4 all-Eastern series, 2 all-Central ones and 2 Pacific/Mountain):

2 Eastern series that start at 7pm Eastern (1 each night)
2 Eastern series that start at 7:30pm Eastern (1 each night)
2 Central series that start at 8:30 Eastern/7:30 Central
2 Pacific/Mountain series that start at 10pm Eastern if in the home team is Pacific, 9:30pm Eastern if the home team is Mountain

Seems more ideal

 

[JKG33]

I think DAL/COL is a lock for Saturday. But since VGK can't go Saturday, I wonder if they would put the Winnipeg series (assuming Calgary is out) on the same day? Seems like the NHL typically has 1 game per division on a given night in the 1st rd.

 

[oconnor9sean]

I think it is confirmed that Toronto-Ottawa won't be a Saturday start. Either Sunday or Monday.

I'd guess Toronto-Ottawa goes Sunday at 7pm eastern. The game on US TV is ESPN2 because of Sunday Night Baseball, so I'd imagine ESPN will be happy to have an all-Canadian match there and Sportsnet will love having the Leafs in prime time.

 

[oconnor9sean]

Winnipeg won't start Monday they will get a weekend game. The schedule certainly fits to have all the Central teams start Saturday, if applying 3 days rest standardly. The networks probably try to squeeze another one out. Could be Toronto-Ottawa since they have the least amount of travel of all the teams.

Likely to get 4 games Sunday, Kings as the late game.

There are only two slots on TV for Saturday - a TNT doubleheader at 5PM and 8PM central.

 

[JKG33]

I honestly despise the current model of forcing Central teams to play at basically 9pm local in service to having proper "doubleheaders".

To me, there are basically 3 target audiences here:

1- fans of a specific team, who will only watch their team (in which case, playing 2 hours after 7pm local is a disaster)

2- fans of playoff hockey in general, who will want to watch as much of every game as possible (meaning the games should be staggered, not all at the same time, two times each evening)

3- casual fans who might want to watch a game if they see it on (so the specific time doesn't really matter, it's more about avoiding clashes with other programming, especially other sports).

The doubleheader approach doesn't serve any of these audiences. Why not just do it like this (assuming 4 all-Eastern series, 2 all-Central ones and 2 Pacific/Mountain):

2 Eastern series that start at 7pm Eastern (1 each night)
2 Eastern series that start at 7:30pm Eastern (1 each night)
2 Central series that start at 8:30 Eastern/7:30 Central
2 Pacific/Mountain series that start at 10pm Eastern if in the home team is Pacific, 9:30pm Eastern if the home team is Mountain

Seems more ideal

Isn't that what they typically do in the 1st round anyway? Because unless it was the Chicago dynasty years, no central (time zone) team has had enough of a following to warrant getting the double header over a MTN/PAC matchup.

The only team I could see being squeezed into a late double header is Dallas in their matchup vs Colorado. Because really, nobody outside of the local fanbases cares enough about a WPG vs STL/MIN 1st round matchup. Unless Calgary gets the spot, where sportsnet can have Canadian double headers every night (TOR/OTT, WSH/MTL early. LA/EDM, WPG/CGY late)

 

[oconnor9sean]

Isn't that what they typically do in the 1st round anyway? Because unless it was the Chicago dynasty years, no central (time zone) team has had enough of a following to warrant getting the double header over a MTN/PAC matchup.

The only team I could see being squeezed into a late double header is Dallas in their matchup vs Colorado. Because really, nobody outside of the local fanbases cares enough about a WPG vs STL/MIN 1st round matchup. Unless Calgary gets the spot, where sportsnet can have Canadian double headers every night (TOR/OTT, WSH/MTL early. LA/EDM, WPG/CGY late)

No, Dallas in the last two first rounds has had almost exclusively 8:30 (which becomes 8:52) local time puck drops on weeknights. The Central division gets absolutely f***ed by the league and TV networks during the playoffs.

 

[JKG33]

I'd guess Toronto-Ottawa goes Sunday at 7pm eastern. The game on US TV is ESPN2 because of Sunday Night Baseball, so I'd imagine ESPN will be happy to have an all-Canadian match there and Sportsnet will love having the Leafs in prime time.

If LA is locked in for Sunday I'd imagine sportsnet pushes for MTL/WSH to be Sunday as well. Then they can have TOR/OTT paired with Winnipeg and/or Calgary

 

[JKG33]

No, Dallas in the last two first rounds has had almost exclusively 8:30 (which becomes 8:52) local time puck drops on weeknights. The Central division gets absolutely f***ed by the league and TV networks during the playoffs.

Right, I forgot about Dallas facing Vegas last year

 

[MrLunatik]

Why is ice taken out, seems odd. I can’t see that, they then need to repaint logos and lines all over.
They usually put down a layer of plywood.

not for wrestling. I don't know the why but my guess is might have something to do with a ring weighing over 3000 pounds... I've watched a lot of wrestling and I've never seen anything but concrete

also this video may be old, but it shows the transformation. they had to re-flood the rink, and that was for a 1 night event


EDIT: forgot to paste the link

 

[rojac]

I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Vegas misses out on a home playoff game.

Game 1: road
Game 2: Vegas
Game 3: road
Game 4: road
Game 5: vegas
Game 6: road
Game 7: vegas

Gary has the authority to do this. You want to loan out your arena for 5 days right as the playoff begins? For some phony wrasslin? Fine but you’re losing a home game. I’d love to see it happen.

I think there might have been a case like this in the past so they swapped games 1 and 2 with games 3 and 4 and in which case Vegas would play Road, Road, Vegas, Vegas, Vegas, Road,

But from the sounds of things, it seems like the series is going to be starting on Sunday.

 

[Masked]

Why is ice taken out, seems odd. I can’t see that, they then need to repaint logos and lines all over.
They usually put down a layer of plywood.

 

[MrLunatik]

haha I just posted the same video in an edit

 

[JKG33]

Ok so now that we know most of the matchups, here's my guess:

Saturday:
DAL/COL
WPG/STL

Sunday:
WSH/???
TB/FLA
VGK/MIN
LA/EDM

Monday:
TOR/OTT
NJ/CAR

I think at some point they try to flip the western dates a bit, to get one game of each division per night

 

[cyris]

Ok so now that we know most of the matchups, here's my guess:

Saturday:
DAL/COL
WPG/STL

Sunday:
WSH/???
TB/FLA
VGK/MIN
LA/EDM

Monday:
TOR/OTT
NJ/CAR

I think at some point they try to flip the western dates a bit, to get one game of each division per night

I can’t see them waiting for Monday for Leafs v Sens.
No way Rogers doesn’t have the Leafs play on Saturday for back to back weekends.

That series likely starts Sunday which put them on pace to play game 4 next Saturday

 

[VivaLasVegas]

Absolutely 0 chance WWE gets bumped. Vegas paid a fortune to get WrestleMania weekend and all the events involved, this is the biggest event in the industry and they make it a whole extravaganza, not to mention smaller promotions capitalize on the weekend too and fill up the other venues. In terms of how busy the city gets, it's probably a bigger weekend than the Superbowl. Honestly it's like a 2-day Superbowl being the centerpiece of a wrestling convention that dominates the city for 4 days

If they made Vegas start on the road, they could do 2-3-1-1. Vegas would still be guaranteed their 2 home dates and would still get games 5 and 7.

WWE > NHL

Vegas deals with these logistical situations all the time because we have so many huge events. While certain posters here have their panties all in a wad, the T-Mobile staff is probably giving it all a huge "been here, done that" yawn.

 

[um]

I can’t see them waiting for Monday for Leafs v Sens.
No way Rogers doesn’t have the Leafs play on Saturday for back to back weekends.

That series likely starts Sunday which put them on pace to play game 4 next Saturday

Makes sense. But I wonder if they'll want to alternate Montreal and Toronto.

If Montreal makes it of course.

 

[waitin425]

I'd guess Toronto-Ottawa goes Sunday at 7pm eastern. The game on US TV is ESPN2 because of Sunday Night Baseball, so I'd imagine ESPN will be happy to have an all-Canadian match there and Sportsnet will love having the Leafs in prime time.

Probably right.

Game 1 - Sunday
Game 2 - Tuesday
Game 3 - Thursday
Game 4 - Saturday - Sens sweep on home ice.

 

[redwings8831]

 

[Ivan eht Demidov]

Right, I forgot about Dallas facing Vegas last year

Pretty sure the games in Dallas have been 8:50pm puckdrops as well, at least for weekday games, and not just against Vegas, but in past years vs COL, CGY, EDM, MIN and SEA. It's ridiculous...

7:30 local time when facing a Pacific/Mountain time opponent, I would understand (helps people get home in time to watch their team on the road), maybe even 8:00 start time could be acceptable (Pacific teams' fans would appreciate this, I'm sure), but never a moment later!

 

[JKG33]

I dont think sportsnet will want Toronto and Montreal on the same day