NHL scheduling discussion | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League
Toggle sidebar

NHL scheduling discussion

nhlanon1

Registered User
Oct 15, 2023
19
27
I didn't watch hockey for a long time and came back to it this season.

Here's what the schedule is like from 10/16/10-24

Monday 10/16- 5 games, all on at the same time

Tuesday 10/17 - 6 games between 7-8pm, 3 games at 10pm.

Wednesday 10/18 - 2 games within 30 minutes of each other

Thursday 10/19 - 12 games. 8 games between 7-730, 4 games between 10-10:30pm.

Friday 10/20 - 2 games within 30 minutes of each other

Saturday 10/21 - 15 games, though they are spread out nicely.

Sunday 10/22 - 2 games, one after the other

Monday 10/23 - 1 game

Tuesday 10/24 - 16 games

I think we can all agree that this is a bizarre schedule. Some days there is only game, some days there's 16. I really have to question the schedule makers. I know there's a lot in play with NBA and NHL teams sharing arena's, but I think it could be done better.
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: PatriceBergeronFan and Faterson
Why don't you try and coordinate 1312 games in 32 different arenas each with differing schedules of availability while considering each teams travel schedule along also and tell me how simple it is. I kind of envy the people who think these things are simple, it's like living blissfully ignorant.
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: redwings8831, Summer Rose, GAGLine and 3 others
Sky04 said:
Why don't you try and coordinate 1312 games in 32 different arenas each with differing schedules of availability while considering each teams travel schedule along also and tell me how simple it is. I kind of envy the people who think these things are simple, it's like living blissfully ignorant.
Click to expand...

Some things I would do:

- I'd try to get more games on Sunday. People are off and Canada doesn't have to worry about competition from the NFL as much as the US does.

- I would try to limit days where nearly every team plays. Just watching the highlights of those games would be a job on its own, yet alone watching the games.

- I would also not do days with only 1-2 games. You risk days like Wednesday where both games are stomps (though the Pens made a comeback) and if a game is boring or if fans don't care about the teams, people may just tune out completely. Meanwhile, if a game is close, people might tune in to see who wins.

- I would try to do an NFL redzone equivalent for the NHL. NHL On The Fly kind of does it, but I'd switch between the games, showing the big moments as they happen. It would encourage people to watch different teams and check out various games. I think it would work really well with all of the NHL games being on ESPN+.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: Colorado Avalanche and Faterson
nhlanon1 said:
- I would try to do an NFL redzone equivalent for the NHL. NHL On The Fly kind of does it, but I'd switch between the games, showing the big moments as they happen. It would encourage people to watch different teams and check out various games. I think it would work really well with all of the NHL games being on ESPN+.
Click to expand...
In the 90s the Score TV Channel (now Sportsnet 360) use to have such a show called Ice Surfing with Steve Kouleas and Steve Ludzik. What I would give for that show to return.
 
  • Like
Reactions: capazzo and Boris Le Tigre
Sky04 said:
Why don't you try and coordinate 1312 games in 32 different arenas each with differing schedules of availability while considering each teams travel schedule along also and tell me how simple it is. I kind of envy the people who think these things are simple, it's like living blissfully ignorant.
Click to expand...
Sure.

But if I walked into a restaurant one day and they said "sorry, today we have nothing but a turd sandwhich, come back tomorrow when we have 15 delicious meals to choose from" I'd complain, even understanding how difficult it is to run a kitchen and coordinate all those different meals.

We're the customer. It's not our job to figure out how to solve the problem or to be understanding of the schedulemaker's plight.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PatriceBergeronFan and Score08
Pavels Dog said:
Sure.

But if I walked into a restaurant one day and they said "sorry, today we have nothing but a turd sandwhich, come back tomorrow when we have 15 delicious meals to choose from" I'd complain, even understanding how difficult it is to run a kitchen and coordinate all those different meals.

We're the customer. It's not our job to figure out how to solve the problem or to be understanding of the schedulemaker's plight.
Click to expand...

The schedule is what it is, do you go into a restruant and tell them to change the menu cause you don't like it? You're right, you're the customer, you don't have a say on how it's run - if you don't like it you're welcome to leave and pick a different restaurant. I'm sure you can find a game in the AHL or CHL you can watch instead at your preferred time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Summer Rose
Sky04 said:
Why don't you try and coordinate 1312 games in 32 different arenas each with differing schedules of availability while considering each teams travel schedule along also and tell me how simple it is. I kind of envy the people who think these things are simple, it's like living blissfully ignorant.
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure anyone could figure out how to start some games at 730 and 8 instead of every game at 7. Thanks for the attempt though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KeydGV21
Sky04 said:
The schedule is what it is, do you go into a restruant and tell them to change the menu cause you don't like it? You're right, you're the customer, you don't have a say on how it's run - if you don't like it you're welcome to leave and pick a different restaurant. I'm sure you can find a game in the AHL or CHL you can watch instead at your preferred time.
Click to expand...
Settle down Francis.
 
jani said:
I bet AI could help one to make an optimal schedule, if given the right parameters.
Click to expand...

There are TV commercials proclaiming how well the NFL is using machine learning to optimize their schedule, so the NHL should probably be ready in 20 or 30 years.

Less tongue in cheek, I've gotten to see the process and it is a very constrained problem. The NHL and the NBA each have preferred nights (for instance, the paucity of NHL games on Friday nights is related to the NBA's abundance of games on Friday nights), and NHL/NBA arenas have a surprising number of blackout dates. Add on special events that require schedules to be in a certain place at a certain time, and it's a pain in the ass (I also agree with the above in that we as the consumer shouldn't necessarily have to care about how hard it is).

I wrote a rudimentary machine learning schedule algorithm in grad school over two decades ago - it was fun to do (I relied on random number perturbation and a gradient descent method more than today's algorithm makers likely do).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Summer Rose, nonamejay and PatriceBergeronFan
The Bruins began this season and last with extremely sparse schedules, only to finish the season with stretches of 15-20 games in 30 days. It is a problem.
 
Ace said:
I’m pretty sure anyone could figure out how to start some games at 730 and 8 instead of every game at 7. Thanks for the attempt though.
Click to expand...

Cool, you should go do it then, with that big brain of yours and all. Anyone could do it right genius? And what do you do for a living again? :laugh:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Summer Rose
Sky04 said:
The schedule is what it is, do you go into a restruant and tell them to change the menu cause you don't like it? You're right, you're the customer, you don't have a say on how it's run - if you don't like it you're welcome to leave and pick a different restaurant. I'm sure you can find a game in the AHL or CHL you can watch instead at your preferred time.
Click to expand...
found the schedulemaker. please do a better job.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Score08
PatriceBergeronFan said:
The Bruins began this season and last with extremely sparse schedules, only to finish the season with stretches of 15-20 games in 30 days. It is a problem.
Click to expand...
A lot of US teams don't want to have many games in October in the event MLB team is going. Plus Football. But, like you said, they make up for it later in the season with heavier stretches of games.

Never know with concerts. Canucks should be having more home games to start the year since they own their building and have no issues hosting games in October, but they have a bunch of concerts this week which is why they are on the road after game 1.
 
Breakers said:
NHL media has been really pushing the
“16 games in one day” angle
It’s on their website, in the banners on their website, sportsnet, TSN anchors saying how cool it is that every team is playing in the same day

I don’t get it personally
Click to expand...
Yeah, 16 games a day is waste. You will never watch them all.
 
Sky04 said:
Why don't you try and coordinate 1312 games in 32 different arenas each with differing schedules of availability while considering each teams travel schedule along also and tell me how simple it is. I kind of envy the people who think these things are simple, it's like living blissfully ignorant.
Click to expand...

Holy shit, it’s like we found the worker from the ‘70s who’s in charge of scheduling- hi! There are computer programs for that now. Also, every other league manages it. It’s literally a job, something someone should be getting paid to figure out. I know, things get complicated- luckily there are tools for that now!

Talk about blissfully ignorant.. you’re not aware AI could figure out a better schedule in a second?
 
IMG_0722.jpeg


Look at this schedule. For anyone who wants to watch the games, this is the worst possible scenario - you either get 1-2 games in a day that you might not even like to watch or you get 15-16 games and you physically can’t watch all of them at once.

Why can’t they even out number of games per day ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: notsocommonsense
I see the rationale behind the schedule.

As a general rule, NFL football owns Sundays so that explains why few games are scheduled, as far as Mondays, the NHL is a gate driven league and not many cities will sell out a Monday evening game in the fall. Most of the league plays on Saturdays, so to balance the schedule, Tuesdays and Thursdays will also feature a lot of games.

Plus to boost national ratings numbers, they schedule fewer games on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I love to crap on the league as much as anyone but I also acknowledge they know more about how to maximize ticket sales and viewership than most fans do, so I think there
is a rhyme and reason to the schedule.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Summer Rose, RapidKnight, Filthy Dangles and 3 others
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Latest posts

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom