Advertisement

NHL GMs hope schedule change ends bye-week problems

Josh Cooper
BUFFALO, NY - FEBRUARY 28: General manager Tim Murray of the Buffalo Sabres speaks to the media follwing the trade of Ryan Miller and Steve Ott on February 28, 2014 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)
General manager Tim Murray of the Buffalo Sabres speaks to the media follwing the trade of Ryan Miller and Steve Ott on February 28, 2014 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. (Getty Images)

BOCA RATON, Fla. – NHL general managers expect a scheduling tweak to teams’ bye weeks moving forward in order to improve some competitive balance issues.

After discussing the topic on the final day of their annual meetings, GMs said the hope was to have two separate groups of teams that were off at the same time play one another when they finish their five-day breaks. This season, teams were 8-14-4 coming off the bye-week when they played groups that weren’t off the previous week.

If this doesn’t improve issues voiced about the bye-week, the league could try to scrap it altogether.

[Follow Puck Daddy on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]

“We don’t think it worked well. We’re going to try and do it in two separate segments so half the league during one five-day break and half the other during the other five-day break and we’ll see if that works any better,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We don’t want to be shutdown as a league for five days. This way teams that were in the break can play each other the first couple of games. If this doesn’t work any better and we still get the negative feedback that we got then I think we’re going to have to consider getting rid of it.”

The bye-week was started in 2016-17 as part of a negotiating chip by the NHLPA in order for the NHL’s 3-on-3 all-star game format to be allowed. The players seem to love it because it gives them a mini vacation in the middle of the season. The general managers and coaches seem to dislike it because it has condensed the schedule and lessened practice time. This is the first year of a two-season agreement between the league and the PA for the bye-week.

While the change should ensure competitive fairness for teams coming off their byes, it shouldn’t lessen the issue of a more condensed schedule that the bye-week has created. Because of the bye-week, the league has been forced to fit more games into fewer potential days during the season.

“You adjust but the questions you’re raising are also the quality of the game, the safety of your players. We had a situation that came up with our five-day break that you can’t practice until 4 p.m. So we had one skate, but the guys hadn’t been on the ice, which is a long period of time when you’re talking about four or five days during the course of a season for a player,” New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero said. “They don’t like being off two days in terms of just giving them two days off. They want to get out there. But then we played at 12:30 p.m. the next day. We didn’t have a morning skate. It’s probably not the best way to jump right in for players and certainly the quality of the game from a fan’s standpoint and the teams.”

Bettman was asked about the condensed nature of this year’s schedule because of the bye-week and also expressed concern. The World Cup of Hockey, which ran from mid-to-late September, didn’t help but the bye-week certainly compounded this issue. Bettman said that if the league shuts down to allow its players to go to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, the bye-week will not be instituted.

“Well the consequence of the bye-week has been a consolidated schedule. The World Cup had an impact and we’re concerned about that. It goes to player safety. It goes to player performance. It goes to player injury and fatigue,” he said “We’re very concerned about it and that’s why we’ll try it in another format and if that doesn’t work I think our view will be it’s had it’s day and that was enough.”

Some general managers used the meetings to voice their displeasure towards the bye-week, but came away understanding they needed to deal with it as reality for another year.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest now]

“There was lots of talk about scrapping it altogether. I’ve talked about scrapping it altogether. There’s a commitment for one more year, which I guess could end under certain circumstances,” Buffalo Sabres general manager Tim Murray said. “Right now the way it is is we’re committed to it for one more year and we’re going to try to make it better and that’s it.”

– – – – – – –

Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

MORE FROM YAHOO SPORTS