Report: NHL Schedule Format to Change

After a 4-hour board of governor's meeting, it appears the schedule is set to change next year. Though it hasn't been voted on, it sounds like it's almost unanimous at this point and Mr. Bettman himself said it's apparent the schedule needs to change. Who knew.

To paraphrase Dan O'Toole from SportsCentre: "The fans wanted the NHL to change the schedule. So the NHL changed the uniforms." Sounds about right.

The main issue now is exactly what the change should entail. The main two options appear to be:

1 - dropping to seven divisional matchups then playing each team in the other conference once

2 - dropping to six divisional matchups then playing a home-and-home against every team in the other conference.

If I had to pick one, I'd choose #2. It would mean more travel for the players but I think it would be more exciting for the fans. So with that said, #1 will be chosen.

UPDATE: Bob McKenzie weighed in with his thoughts. He's betting on a return to the pre-lockout format:

- Six games against each of the four divisional rivals for a total of 24 games.

- Four games against each of the 10 conference rivals for a total of 40 games.

- One game against each of the 15 out-of-conference teams for a total of 15 games.

- Three wildcard games (which for the Canadian teams meant more games between the eastern trio of Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto and western trio of Calgary-Edmonton-Vancouver)

Works for me. Obviously has worked in the past. Why it changed nobody will ever truly know.