AHL Schedule Released

Today the American Hockey League released the schedule for the upcoming 08/09 season. This is pretty much the last major news of the summer. It always takes forever for the AHL to release its schedule due to the fact that they have to wait for the NBA to finalize theirs first. Having played for 7 years in the AHL I must say that this years schedule for the Bears is the best I have ever seen.

The first thing that I look for when I look at a schedule are extended road trips and large groups of games away. The longest that the Bears go on the road this year is 5 games in a row. I can remember at least one road trip for every season that I have played that is at least 7 or 8 games. The largest concentration of road games happens to be in the first 16 games of the season, where the Bears play 11 on the road. Considering this happens in the first 16 games of the year the team will be fresh and have plenty of energy to battle early on. Nothing is harder than going on an extended road trip in February or March where every point becomes so important. That being said it is going to be important to be focused early so that too deep a hole isn’t dug.

The second thing that I look at are the number of 3 in 3's and 4 in 5's. (For those that don't know this means 3 games in 3 nights and 4 games in 5 nights.) Due to the smaller markets of the AHL in order for teams to maximize profits they must load up games on the weekends. What the players end up experiencing is sometimes the equivalent of a hockey marathon. I have heard from players in the NHL that their schedule can be pretty grueling as well, playing every couple of days you never get a whole week to recover. It definitely would be different, hopefully this year I will be able to experience it first hand! But from the hockey that I have played 4 in 5's can destroy a teams energy levels especially if there are multiple sets of them. Last year in Worcester we had back to back to back 4 in 5's in March and it pretty much buried us for the season. The amount of emotional and physical energy they require is hard to describe. You just give everything you have for every shift and worry about tomorrow's game when you get there. Most of the time when teams have a rough road schedule or lots of games at once it catches up to them a week or so down the line. Hershey this year has seven 3 in 3's and six 4 in 5's. I haven't checked but I am willing to bet this is in the bottom 20% of the league.

Looking a little deeper into the schedule reveals a couple interesting spots. I noticed that Philly is on the schedule 6 times in the month of November, 6 times! If I were trying to decide which games to buy tickets for early on in the season I would definitely get ones for games 4, 5 and 6 in November. When teams play each other that many times in a short period blood starts to boil and it becomes more like the best kind of hockey, playoff hockey. November 14th, 15th and 21st look like they could get pretty intense and, er, um physical, for those of you that are into that sort of hockey. The road trip to Texas is always fun, especially when there are not a ton of games jammed around them. The New Year's swing through New England is a good time to have it as well.

From top to bottom the Bear's schedule is very well balanced. The halfway point from a number of days perspective is January 8th, and the Bears play their 40th game on the 10th. The 1/4 pole is November 23rd with the 20th game played the 22nd. Likewise the 3/4 pole is February 25th and the 60th game is on the 27th. 12 of the first 20 games are on the road. 9 0f the next 20, 9 of the 20 after that, and finally 10 of the final 20 games. This is very well balanced.

In the grand scheme of things the way the schedule is laid out makes very little difference. I have never heard of a team winning a championship and someone saying, “Oh, it’s because they had an easy schedule.” It matters more how your team gels, how they handle adversity, and how lucky they get. Once the puck drops on the season it is one play, one shift, one period, one game at a time. Every point counts and no one will know whose season was the best until it is too late. The champion will be crowned and with the benefit of hindsight people can analyze and over analyze their teams respective seasons. No professional hockey schedule is "easy", including the Bear's for 08/09. There will be ups and downs and times where it feels like there are not enough games and times that it will feel like too many. There are 29 teams that each play 80 games over the course of 187 days. All to just earn the right to be at zero wins and zero losses on April 13th and have a chance to have a season they will never forget. But hey, it is August and we all need something to feed our hockey hungry minds!!!