Possible scheduling changes???

[gmartin]

I was watching a Hockey East game on tv on Friday and they mentioned Hockey East was considering doing some scheduling changes for the 18-19 season.

Instead of having Friday/Saturday games Hockey East was considering Friday night Sunday afternoon games.

They listed several reasons:
1. A study of over 10 years showed more injuries occur on Saturday games than Friday games. Many of these injuries are caused by fatigue. Having a one day rest between games may reduce injuries.
2. Some teams do a home & home the same weekend and teams may not get back until early morning hours an then expected to play 12 hours later with limited rest. The extra day would be beneficial for the home & home series.
3. Saturday games compete with 1 month of college football and 4 months of college basketball. This would make it better for fans whom wish to attend both basketball and hockey.

Hockey East simply feels a rest day would make the product better. So what do you think. Is this something that WCHA may look at. How do you feel about Sunday afternoon games. If it were a home series I would be in favor of it. If it was a road series that's an extra night in hotel and more expenses.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I was watching a Hockey East game on tv on Friday and they mentioned Hockey East was considering doing some scheduling changes for the 18-19 season.

Instead of having Friday/Saturday games Hockey East was considering Friday night Sunday afternoon games.

They listed several reasons:
1. A study of over 10 years showed more injuries occur on Saturday games than Friday games. Many of these injuries are caused by fatigue. Having a one day rest between games may reduce injuries.
2. Some teams do a home & home the same weekend and teams may not get back until early morning hours an then expected to play 12 hours later with limited rest. The extra day would be beneficial for the home & home series.
3. Saturday games compete with 1 month of college football and 4 months of college basketball. This would make it better for fans whom wish to attend both basketball and hockey.

Hockey East simply feels a rest day would make the product better. So what do you think. Is this something that WCHA may look at. How do you feel about Sunday afternoon games. If it were a home series I would be in favor of it. If it was a road series that's an extra night in hotel and more expenses.

Aside from ND, HE travel distances are really short (but that problem ends after this season). I think the longest road trip is UConn <--> Orono which is 5 hr -- that's a "short" trip for us, about the distance from BG to LSSU. While anything is possible, adopting this approach would be a surprise.

[BGhockeyfan94]

I do not think this is viable because the travel is way to far to be leaving on Sunday to arrive back on Monday for the kids to go to classes. Now if we had opponents that were closer and it would only take a few hours to get there, then I could see it happening.

[gmartin]

As TalonsUp pointed out most H.E. schools are within a few hours. At most a 5 hour drive. So a 3pm Sunday game still gets the traveling home by 11pm in time for classes the next day. It probably wouldn't work for the NCHC, Big 10 or WCHA. The extra day rest between games especially after a physical game problem would be a nice benefit but as TalonsUp and Hockey94 said the WCHA has long travels making students back for class Monday difficult.

[BGDrew]

I hope in the future we'd see more flexible scheduling. An example would be a team travels to Alaska for games. They'd play in Fairbanks Friday and Saturday, then head to Anchorage and play Tuesday and Wednesday. This could also work for the Minnesota trip as well.

Friday and Sunday games would only be a possibility for the UP, Minnesota, and Alaska teams.

[BG84]

As a fan who lives in Columbus, I would not be happy about arriving home at 8 after a Sunday game instead of 1.

[BG84]

As for Alaska, it's not common, but haven't a few teams spent enough time there for 4 games? Fairbanks has been making a similar trip here once(?) per season for years.

[pdt1081]

As for Alaska, it's not common, but haven't a few teams spent enough time there for 4 games? Fairbanks has been making a similar trip here once(?) per season for years.

Yes, it has happened, but only during breaks from school.

As for Friday/Sunday games, it's not going to happen in the WCHA. With the travel budgets these teams already face, adding hotel rooms for an extra night isn't going to fly. The distance teams travel would most likely lead to missed classes on Monday after a road trip. If you have two road series in a row, you're only going to class 2 days that week (bus leaves Wednesday night). I could see a time where schools may explore the idea, but it would only be for home-and-home situations (non-conference).