Reports from the NHL’s general managers meetings in Boca Raton, FL, suggest the league intends to change the bye week scheduling system in place for this season.
According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, commissioner Gary Bettman has confirmed that NHL teams will still get a week off next season, but that it’ll be along with half of their competitors:
This season, the NHL introduced a league-mandated bye week for all member clubs, in which teams each get a five-day week free of games. The rotation of teams on bye weeks has skewed the standings, though, with certain teams amassing as many as five or six games in hand on their divisional rivals.
With the season in its homestretch, the standings have begun to even out a little, but the effects of the bye weeks persist. In the Atlantic Division, for example, the second-place Ottawa Senators have played three fewer games than the division-leading Montreal Canadiens.
In the new configuration, teams will still get a week to rest mid-season, but with 14 or 15 fellow teams also off, there’ll be much less discrepancy in the standings. The NHL is also likely to ensure that teams coming off their bye week will play against other teams that had the week off.
Bettman reportedly admitted at the GM meetings that the scheduling was a problem this season, per Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston:
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The schedule is one of many topics on the table at the meetings in Boca Raton, along with the offside rule, and the 2018 Olympics.