NHL Should Shorten Seasons

Three lockouts in eighteen years should be an embarrassment for any business, let alone one as lucrative as the National Hockey League, but that has yet to stop them from happening. Though it is a curious case that the only leverage the NHL has on its players is to ensure that neither party makes any money, it is pretty much a guarantee that that there’ll be doing it again in 2020.

So if nothing was learned from the 2013 lockout, what was gained? Well, a lockout shortened season that has lead to some pretty entertaining hockey.

With only forty-eight games in the schedule teams are in a desperate competition with one another to make the playoffs, and unlike the usual eighty-two game season where teams teeter off, almost every team in each conference is still in playoff contention. For instance, in the Western conference the separation between third and fourteenth place is a mere six points.

Currently there are some interesting teams in the top eight of each conference, like Anaheim, Ottawa (because of significant injuries), San Jose, Toronto, New Jersey and Dallas. Maybe what is more compelling are the teams that are not in the top eight, for example the former cup champs the LA Kings, and the all star New York Rangers.

What makes the shortened schedule even more entertaining is that teams have to split both goalies giving the chance for some stars to emerge, as in the case of Ray Emery in Chicago and Viktor Fasth in Anaheim. The coin goes both ways as some teams without strong secondary goaltending have stumbled. Look at New Jersey who, without Brodeur, has lost four straight games.

Lockouts are terrible but the NHL should take a page from this season and consider condensing their schedule. After all, the most profitable league in North America is the NFL and they have sixteen game seasons. A shortened season causes teams to play on the edge as each point is crucial and certainly makes for better hockey.  As a fan it is way more entertaining when even the lowest of the lows, the Columbus Blue Jackets, can make it into the playoffs if they get hot for a short amount of time.

With more time off players could participate in international tournaments and tremendous Bettman hockey markets like Florida and Phoenix could take a break from bleeding millions of dollars. Not to mention the regular season could start in October and finish in January, with the playoffs ending in March. That sounds amazing and honestly makes more sense because who in their right mind wants to stay in their house in June and watch six dull Cup Final games where all they do is play against the boards. People have the patience to watch that kind of mind numbing hockey in March when the weather is crappy, not in June.

If people always flock in droves to games in a shortened season wouldn't it be more logical to compact the schedule. There’d be more profits, players could relax longer, and when it comes to negotiations the NHL and NHLPA would have more time to talk things out so that there would be no lockouts. It’s a win-win situation that only the great minds of the NHL and NHLPA can miss out on.