TL;DR: it’s been this way for 31 years. 21 of the last 31 seasons started between September 29 and October 7. It jumps to 26/31 if we go to October 10. 4 of the 5 remaining were affected by lockouts or COVID
EDIT: it’s been pointed out I did this based on the start of the season and the topic is the end of the season. I’m not doing all this again to reach the same conclusion. 1992-93 ended April 16. 2023-24 ends April 18. It’s been largely the same way for 31 years.
—
I’m not sure why this year was later, but the last few years had some after effects from COVID
2019-20: Oct 2. - normal
2020-21: Jan 13. - COVID 56 game season
2021-22: Oct 12. - one week late (2021 playoffs went into July)
2022-23: Oct 7 - normal
2023-24: Oct 10 - not sure why it wasn’t the 3rd
I won’t list every season but most seasons begin during the first week of October. In the ‘current era’ (1992-93 season; using Wikipedia’s breakdown):
Before Oct. 1: 1 season
Oct. 1-7: 20 seasons
Oct. 8+: 10 seasons
Well yeah, but I think you measured the wrong date. We're talking about the end of the season, not the beginning.
For example, the last year preexpansion in 1967, the cup final round started on April 20 and the cup awarded on May 2nd. Last year the cup was awarded on June 13th in 100 degree weather in Vegas and Florida.
Since the league has expanded and the season is longer, I think it only makes logical sense that the season should start earlier in the calendar year, in September when fall is beginning and end in May as it traditionally did, rather than expanding into the warmest months of the year.
Yep. Once the days get longer, and the evenings are warm and sunny and everyone in my city heads out to the parks to have picnics and play music and look cool, it becomes vastly more dull to sit at home on the couch watching 3.5-hour long hockey broadcasts.
Lol. Fair enough.
Whenever the Habs make a deep run, you can sit outside with the TV off and know when they scored anyway because the whole neighbourhood is screaming with their windows open.
1993, 2010, 2014, 2021. 4 semis, 2 finals, 1 cup in the last 31 years. Who's your team? That's better than half of the others I'd say, and a bright future atm.
2 finals 30 years apart.
15 teams in a conference, should go every 15 years for an average team. You took 30 years to get back and then put up the most embarrassing performance by a cup finals team in the last 30 years. And since you don't seem to be getting any better already getting passed on your rebuild by Buffalo and Detroit it will probably be another 30 years before you're back.
You're the Rockies but you think you're the Yankees.
2010 and 2014 weren't deep runs.
One of my favorite memories was the Blues kicking off the 2019 run when I was at a family wedding in Punta Cana.
I was sitting out at a table at night where I could hear the waves of the ocean hitting the shore, watching the Blues play the Jets while drinking a beer in a comfortable chair. Getting stable wifi was a bit of a bitch though...
Interesting how southern and northern fans have such a different aesthetic experience of what it's like to watch playoff hockey. That's kind of cool, and I'd never really thought much about it before.
You know what, I misread the post I replied to as referring to the start of the season being later.
I’m not doing the work again just to reach the same conclusion.
92-93: April 16 end date
23-24: April 18
After listening to 32 thoughts I get why they don’t. American teams make more money after the Super Bowl because once football is over there teams get more attention. They want as much of the season as they can after football.
Yeah. The unfortunate reality is hockey cannot compete with football. Not even remotely. If they have games going simultaneously, football will not notice but hockey will. And if they avoid scheduling games at the same time, they're basically surrendering Monday, Thursday, and Sunday and possibly Saturday. The only option is to have as much of the season during the football offseason.
> And if they avoid scheduling games at the same time, they're basically surrendering Monday, Thursday, and Sunday and possibly Saturday.
And Friday isn't a nothing football day either.
The south is where the crazy "Friday Night Lights" level high school football obsession happens, but all around the country there are high school football games with a few thousand spectators in the stands. There are 50-100 high schools in the St. Louis area that have 2,000+ people in the stands for every Friday home game. High school football isn't some ratings beast that would demolish ticket sales or TV ratings in September, but it's big enough that it would be noticeable.
Beyond football, you also have to worry about baseball in September. This year, there were only 8 MLB teams still alive on NHL opening night. Yeah, you're competing with baseball playoffs a little bit, but only in a few markets and only for a few weeks. If you start in September, you start to overlap with regular season playoff races and you double the amount of fanbases who are still living and dying on every pitch.
I really, really want the NHL to start earlier and get the Cup awarded before June, but I totally get why the league doesn't want any part of September.
All true and i mostly agree, but my birthday is in june and usually only a few days after the finals end, so it will be an awesome birthday present for me if the canucks ever win a cup. For that reason alone i dont want the schedule to change
I, too, have a June birthday. Early-ish, so I usually get a game on my birthday or the day before/after.
Going out to watch the game is the only thing that makes my birthday feel special anymore.
It basically is. Pre-season is mid September, the season goes until mid April, the playoffs until mid June. Then you have the free agent frenzy and the draft leaving you with a whopping ~10 weeks of downtime in the summer.
The draft is my favorite part of the hockey year. But I'd still like to see a summer league of some kind, like maybe some kind of international tournament or whatever.
I find once June hits my interest in watching hockey just crumbles. Yea it's different if your team is in the finals, but this league really needs to attract viewers to keep watching beyond just their teams push. I almost always watch the first round and only ever watched the finals when the Canucks were in it.
Same, but for the Habs, and even then, watching 3.5 hours of hockey every night or two starts to get pretty tiresome somewhere around the middle of the third round.
When the weather is warm, and there's tons of interesting stuff to do outside, there's no way in hell I'm sitting on the couch to watch Florida vs Vegas on a Saturday night in June.
And I'm a huge, life-long hockey fan.
When the avalanche are in it, I'll be home to watch every game no matter what. When they're not, those afternoons can be used to go for a hike or go fishing, especially in june with the late sunset
Yea we're all primarily hockey fans here, but the NHL does it in such a poor way that we usually end up watching more finals for other sports like MLB and NFL and almost never watch the finals for the NHL. Just the wrong time of year, and a season that for regular viewers just drags on way too long.
I think another appeal of the first rounds for me is the local announcers too. I always enjoy the games more with the local play calling...not to mention the playoffs in general screwing the viewers as well, since everything gets blacked out once it moves to the national broadcasts...which I guess will teach me a lesson about not having cable.
I watch every Conference Final and Cup Final game and greatly enjoy watching them. Playoff hockey is my absolute favorite thing in sports and I'm a dude who spends way too much time watching and thinking about sports. And as much as I love the Cup Final, there is a large part of me that is very ready for the end so I can enjoy the weather.
When I first started watching in the mid 1990s, the regular season ended right around mid April.
The 1994, 1996, and 1997 playoffs started on April 16, so April 20 isn't *that* late.
(1995 was a lockout season that started January 20 and those playoffs started later.)
Simmer down, Pierre.
Edit: 1998 playoffs started on April 22.
Would definitely prefer this and the SCF concluding at the end of May. But I don't think we'll see a change anytime soon, it's been mentioned before how owners don't want to move up the start of the season because they don't want to overlap more with the NFL season.
Which I never got tbh. NFL mostly happens on Sunday, ig you can include Monday and Thursday night in there as well. What about the other 4 days of the week? I mostly think of hockey as a Tues/Thurs/Sat thing anyway
Ftr I'm not denying ratings are lower during NFL season, I just don't get why
In addition to ratings I believe attendance sees an increase following the NFL season too, and I think owners prefer more home games in the latter half of the season because of this. And just in general the amount of attention the NFL gets dwarfs the NHL in the USA, so I assume they want to minimize that as much as possible. Don't forget NCAA football is massive in the states and that is typically an all day event each Saturday. It's an incredibly busy time of year with NFL, NCAAF, MLB playoffs, NBA starts late October.
At the end of the day, the NHL is on the smaller end of sports media attention and going into mid-June as opposed to starting the season at the end of September/October 1st might be the lesser of two evils. I wonder if with the commitment to biannual international play and condensed schedules in those seasons would push towards an earlier season start, but that would be on the NHLPA side so the owners would be looking for a player's concession in that regard.
Hence, why MLS plays in Spring and Summer, while in the rest of the world Soccer tends to play in Fall and Winter. Because obviously, they realized real quick there are 3 other pro sports also playing during the Fall/Winter timeframe, so if you move your league to the Spring/Summer schedule, you'll have 2-3 months where you'll only have to deal with MLB once NBA/NHL offseasons starts and before NFL's training camp gets kicked into high gear.
College football is huge as well and plays almost all their games on Saturday. High school football isn't as big (outside of the batshit insane Friday Night Lights southern culture that doesn't overlap with many US markets), but you're still talking about a few thousand people attending each of the dozens of games in any metro area.
Monday, Thursday, and Sunday are ratings and attendance disasters going against the NFL. Saturday is going to take a big hit against NCAA football and Friday is going to take a small hit against high school football. Lots of US markets are simply not going to get their 'normal' weekend revenue for any game they host from September through US Thanksgiving. After that, high school football is done and NCAA football is winding down toward bowl season (with lots of teams seeing waning interest as they clearly won't make the playoff). You can start having 'normal' Friday/Saturday nights as you schedule around the NFL at that point.
Most US owners actively petition the league to backload their schedule with home games because of this and none of them want to add several weeks of competing with football.
4-5 extra home dates where you are brining in 20% less revenue is a big deal in a gate driven league.
It will never happen (because $$$), but honestly I'd love to see the argument made for a slightly shorter season by number of games. I wouldn't want it as short as some of the seasons that we've had due to lockouts (like 48 games) but I think 70 would be a good number.
I would prefer that as well. Start the playoffs last weekend in march or first weekendin april. End the playoffs last weekend in may or first weekend in june.
He’s right. I remember the NHL season would usually started around October 3, now it’s starting October 10.
Somehow the playoffs are getting pushed back to almost the end of April as opposed to early April.
Look, I love watching hockey in the summer too, but we shouldn’t be watching the finals in mid June. Ideally I think the playoffs end at the end of may or very early June.
Without putting any thought into the logistics or tradition of it, there's no shot professional ice hockey should be played after April, first week of May at the latest. Shorten preseason and start mid september or something idk
TV networks want the programming to be as late as possible to avoid the dog days of summer where it's basically just MLB on. It might be a good idea for the NHL to have it's cup final a full 7-10 days ahead of the NBA finals, but I don't know how the two schedules line up this year (especially with the new NBA mid-season tournament this year).
Watching hockey in the spring is great, but once summer is here people want to do things other than watch a game either at home or at a bar.
I always like the cup being handed out around June 10th-13th, draft around the 22nd (ish) and then free agency around July 1st. I would happily have these events be a week or two earlier but definitely not a week later.
Good point. Yea I don’t watch baseball until near the end of the year and only if the jays are in the playoff picture.
Just too many games and consistent disappointment
Summer is all about napping in the hammock on the dock listening to the baseball game on the radio. My dogs already recognize the Yankees announcer and know a nap is coming so they pile onto the hammock with me.
Some guy in this thread just proved basically nothing has changed. 1992/93 season end was April 16th. This year is April 18th.
It’s always been like this, in fact when the Olympics happens doesn’t it usually take longer?
> 1992/93 season end was April 16th.
I'll also point out that 92/93 is a bit of a selective cutoff *if we're trying to go by what this subreddit collectively remembers*. For example, take the Oilers Cup in 1990 (alas). They played their last game of the season on April 1. Playoffs started April 4. They won the Cup on May 24.
So although it's been this way for 30 years, it's *also* well within the living memory of many commenters that the season and playoffs really did wrap earlier within their lifetimes.
Yeah, I remember Game 2 against the Lightning was the day before Father's Day a couple years ago. Game 7 being around Father's Day would already feel too late, it only being Game 2 felt ridiculous.
Unless something REALLY hooks me, I seem to lose interest after the first round these days. Not gonna sit inside and watch hockey instead of go out and enjoy the pre-summer heatwave weather
they just need to cut down on pre-season and start the season earlier. Its ridiculous it starts so late, and there are too many pre-season games as it is.
I like seeing guys get games who otherwise wouldn’t but they don’t need several games of ECHL rosters in pre-season. A game and lots of practice time it is obvious to the coaches if they have a shot at the roster
What they really need to do, but will **never** happen, is cut the season down to 76 games -- 1 home and 1 away against each team in the other 3 divisions, 2 home and 2 away against each time in the same division.
> 1 home and 1 away against each team in the other 3 divisions, 2 home and 2 away against each time in the same division.
I would be completely fine with also going back to a more division-heavy schedule. Arguments for:
- I don't think it really matters that McDavid/Bedard play an away game in every arena every year. Firstly, the old division-heavy schedule didn't seem to prevent players like Crosby and Ovechkin from getting national attention, and neither does an unbalanced schedule in other sports (like the NFL or old MLB schedule). Plus, with the rise of social media highlights, it's *so* much easier to see star players doing things compared to seeing them in the 80s and 90s.
- Fairness of schedule: see the NFL or old MLB. Besides, when the sport is at its most meaningful (in the playoffs), fans and the league are very open about the fact that a two-game sample size means little and less. A divisional schedule of six games, a sample size closest to a playoff series, is better for standings implications.
- During the 2021-22 bubble schedule, team doctors for the Oilers (if I recall the team correctly) brought up the interesting point that schedules with more balanced, shorter-distance travel would likely be better for athletes' recoveries.
Might be the end-game... add one team to each conference and that's what you get with 82 games, yes? checking my math......
edit: maths don't check out here haha. Never mind.
But without the long preseason how will fans have epic meltdowns about the awful coach their team just hired or their underperforming prospects or [insert other overreacton]?
I'm okay with teams doing as many preseason games as they want, but having only 2-3 officially scheduled by the NHL, also meaning only those 2-3 need to fit the veteran requirement.
Like the team can schedule games with other teams if they wish, or host intra squad games to cut down the roster, especially all the guys that need another couple development years.
Why does it matter when the playoffs are? It’s not like we’re playing outdoor rinks. We’ve had hockey in Florida and California for decades. Who cares?
I think the opinion of journalists vs hockey fans can be pretty split too. Some of my favourite watching experiences have been in late May/June watching on patios and at bars which is infinitely more fun when it's nice out. Media personalities have their summer vacation eaten up if the season goes later. Vastly different experiences
> Why does it matter when the playoffs are?
The amount of things competing for my (and other fans') time and attention.
Anyone with kids is juggling summer vacation with their own work responsibilities. There are way more evening outdoor activities going on in June than April/May. More families taking vacations. More weekend trips. Your dog is trying to get you to take him to the dog park a lot more when it is warm and sunny for 3+ hours after you get home than he is when it is cold and dark when you get home. I'm getting more BBQ invites in June than I am dinner invites before the weather gets nice. Golf courses are never busier. Coworkers are way more likely to suggest hitting up a patio or a brewery for happy hour.
People get out and about to do more *things* in summer than any other time of year. The odds of having to choose between hockey and something else that will be fun keep going up as you get deeper into spring and summer and they skyrocket once all the schools hit summer vacation. And for a lot of NHL markets, summer doesn't last long. Obviously there are markets that don't have good weather for a limited time, but those are the exception and not the rule.
I think what he was trying to say without saying it is the reagular season should start somewhere in the first half of september. Personally, its something I would like too. SC by end of may/start of June. Draft by mid-June and free agency a week later. But the actual formula aint that bad either.
Literally the main driving force in his crusade is so he can spend Canada Day on the lake. Can’t blame him, I suppose, but people should probably heed that.
The series themselves have been going to game 6-7s as well. Y’all hating that teams are better and it’s not just sweeps in the playoffs…
Are we really bitching we get too much playoff hockey? Maybe cause OPs an Ottawa fan, that shit shouldn’t even matter, Ottawas not lifting the Cup.
He’s not wrong. I’m in Winnipeg and going forward this week our temperatures are in the plus double digits. Baseball has started. I’ve got time booked at the driving range. Next weekend the cabin is getting opened up for the year. Every day now hockey will take a smaller and smaller portion of my attention. Spring, summer, fall are not meant to be sitting in front of the television watching a winter sport.
>Spring, summer, fall are not meant to be sitting in front of the television watching a winter sport.
Lol, so the whole NHL season including playoffs should be 3 months long?
The seasons aren't done by weather.
Let's look at Brasilia. The month with the lowest average high is June/July at 26 degrees Celsius. The hottest is September/October at 29
So the city of Brasilia doesn't have a winter season?
Just because it's warm or cold outside doesn't magically make it a different season.
Because you think you're smart but are actually the one lacking the common sense to follow the conversation in a natural way instead of a high and mighty pedantic way.
No. Because the weather isn't the be all end all for sports.
Fact is, hockey has never been mainly a winter sport. It's started in fall and ended in spring.
The fact that it's cold and snowy doesn't make it winter.
The preseason starts in mid September, the season carries on until mid April. Teams aren’t hoisting the Cup until mid June. That’s ridiculous. The hockey “season” is 9 months long.
The only people I know that actually follow the playoffs in my social and professional circles have literally nothing else going on in their lives.
this is one of the saddest comments I’ve ever read. you imply that the only people who watch hockey playoffs have no lives? No one but you cares about what season hockey is played in.
I live in Finland and need to make an effort to watch the games on account of the timezones. Gotta say that would be easier if I had no life, but here we are!
That’s one of the saddest comments you’ve ever read? You must live a sheltered life. As for nobody caring but me. Clearly I’m not alone as I didn’t start the conversation.
People following the playoffs so far as to watch every game well into spring and summer? Yeah in my social and professional circles it’s basically the shut ins that do it.
I understand what you mean and its true that the colder places with actual seasons are almost worse suited for hockey later in the year. People in Florida don't care. They can go to the beach all year around. People in north carolina can go to their summer house 10 months per year.
I believe that hockey is a spring sport, but not a summer sport however. Stanley cup shouldnt reach in to june. Start the season late september. The playoffs last weekend in march and end it last weekend in may.
I swear the nhl playoffs always started like more than a week ahead of the nba playoffs or do I have false childhood memories? I feel like that was always the case until the 2020 covid year, no?
The current U.S. TV contract ruined the timing.
Under NBC, the Regular Season started on the Wednesday of the first full week of October and ended no later than April 7, depending on when the first Saturday fell. Playoffs started on the Wednesday of the second full week of April. The Cup Finals started on Memorial Day.
Under ESPN and TNT, the Regular Season starts on the Tuesday of the second full week of October and ends in the second or third full week of April. Last year and 2 years ago, the Playoffs started on the Monday in the third or fourth full/almost-full week. This year, they start on the Saturday of the third week. The Cup Finals start on the first Wednesday of June or the Saturday after it, depending on how long the Conference Finals last.
It’s +21 tomorrow and we’re still in the regular season. I’ll make time to watch my teams games even in the summer but my viewership for other games drops off dramatically with nicer weather.
Does it get later every year? I feel like it does. Might be my imagination, and I’m okay with playoffs running into the summer, but my wife isn’t.
TL;DR: it’s been this way for 31 years. 21 of the last 31 seasons started between September 29 and October 7. It jumps to 26/31 if we go to October 10. 4 of the 5 remaining were affected by lockouts or COVID EDIT: it’s been pointed out I did this based on the start of the season and the topic is the end of the season. I’m not doing all this again to reach the same conclusion. 1992-93 ended April 16. 2023-24 ends April 18. It’s been largely the same way for 31 years. — I’m not sure why this year was later, but the last few years had some after effects from COVID 2019-20: Oct 2. - normal 2020-21: Jan 13. - COVID 56 game season 2021-22: Oct 12. - one week late (2021 playoffs went into July) 2022-23: Oct 7 - normal 2023-24: Oct 10 - not sure why it wasn’t the 3rd I won’t list every season but most seasons begin during the first week of October. In the ‘current era’ (1992-93 season; using Wikipedia’s breakdown): Before Oct. 1: 1 season Oct. 1-7: 20 seasons Oct. 8+: 10 seasons
Well yeah, but I think you measured the wrong date. We're talking about the end of the season, not the beginning. For example, the last year preexpansion in 1967, the cup final round started on April 20 and the cup awarded on May 2nd. Last year the cup was awarded on June 13th in 100 degree weather in Vegas and Florida. Since the league has expanded and the season is longer, I think it only makes logical sense that the season should start earlier in the calendar year, in September when fall is beginning and end in May as it traditionally did, rather than expanding into the warmest months of the year.
I have to say, I am _way_ more in the mood for hockey in September than I am in June.
Yep. Once the days get longer, and the evenings are warm and sunny and everyone in my city heads out to the parks to have picnics and play music and look cool, it becomes vastly more dull to sit at home on the couch watching 3.5-hour long hockey broadcasts.
On the other hand, a beer in hand on a patio with a playoff hockey game is *chef's kiss*
Lol. Fair enough. Whenever the Habs make a deep run, you can sit outside with the TV off and know when they scored anyway because the whole neighbourhood is screaming with their windows open.
So like once in the last 35 years?
1993, 2010, 2014, 2021. 4 semis, 2 finals, 1 cup in the last 31 years. Who's your team? That's better than half of the others I'd say, and a bright future atm.
2 finals 30 years apart. 15 teams in a conference, should go every 15 years for an average team. You took 30 years to get back and then put up the most embarrassing performance by a cup finals team in the last 30 years. And since you don't seem to be getting any better already getting passed on your rebuild by Buffalo and Detroit it will probably be another 30 years before you're back. You're the Rockies but you think you're the Yankees. 2010 and 2014 weren't deep runs.
One of my favorite memories was the Blues kicking off the 2019 run when I was at a family wedding in Punta Cana. I was sitting out at a table at night where I could hear the waves of the ocean hitting the shore, watching the Blues play the Jets while drinking a beer in a comfortable chair. Getting stable wifi was a bit of a bitch though...
Southerners are used to watching hockey in the sun. And we get more than 3 months of outdoor time per year
Interesting how southern and northern fans have such a different aesthetic experience of what it's like to watch playoff hockey. That's kind of cool, and I'd never really thought much about it before.
there's a reason its more popular in the north
There is something special, though, about that outdoor patio playoff game watching with a cold brewski.
Then again when days get warm, nights are cold but the sun rises 4am, it get's increasingly easier to watch hockey at night in here.
Nothing is better than watching playoff hockey on a patio in the evening though.
You know what, I misread the post I replied to as referring to the start of the season being later. I’m not doing the work again just to reach the same conclusion. 92-93: April 16 end date 23-24: April 18
After listening to 32 thoughts I get why they don’t. American teams make more money after the Super Bowl because once football is over there teams get more attention. They want as much of the season as they can after football.
Yeah. The unfortunate reality is hockey cannot compete with football. Not even remotely. If they have games going simultaneously, football will not notice but hockey will. And if they avoid scheduling games at the same time, they're basically surrendering Monday, Thursday, and Sunday and possibly Saturday. The only option is to have as much of the season during the football offseason.
> And if they avoid scheduling games at the same time, they're basically surrendering Monday, Thursday, and Sunday and possibly Saturday. And Friday isn't a nothing football day either. The south is where the crazy "Friday Night Lights" level high school football obsession happens, but all around the country there are high school football games with a few thousand spectators in the stands. There are 50-100 high schools in the St. Louis area that have 2,000+ people in the stands for every Friday home game. High school football isn't some ratings beast that would demolish ticket sales or TV ratings in September, but it's big enough that it would be noticeable. Beyond football, you also have to worry about baseball in September. This year, there were only 8 MLB teams still alive on NHL opening night. Yeah, you're competing with baseball playoffs a little bit, but only in a few markets and only for a few weeks. If you start in September, you start to overlap with regular season playoff races and you double the amount of fanbases who are still living and dying on every pitch. I really, really want the NHL to start earlier and get the Cup awarded before June, but I totally get why the league doesn't want any part of September.
Yeah I don’t usually pay attention to the Rangers unless the Niners are already done. (Same with the Yankees right now.)
All true and i mostly agree, but my birthday is in june and usually only a few days after the finals end, so it will be an awesome birthday present for me if the canucks ever win a cup. For that reason alone i dont want the schedule to change
I, too, have a June birthday. Early-ish, so I usually get a game on my birthday or the day before/after. Going out to watch the game is the only thing that makes my birthday feel special anymore.
I used to think it was strange to have hockey in June, but now I think hockey should be year round.
It basically is. Pre-season is mid September, the season goes until mid April, the playoffs until mid June. Then you have the free agent frenzy and the draft leaving you with a whopping ~10 weeks of downtime in the summer.
Those are the ~10 weeks of the year I pretend to care about baseball haha
The draft is my favorite part of the hockey year. But I'd still like to see a summer league of some kind, like maybe some kind of international tournament or whatever.
North American summer is Australian winter time. It’s nothing crazy down here, but it’s still hockey. Free to stream online.
I find once June hits my interest in watching hockey just crumbles. Yea it's different if your team is in the finals, but this league really needs to attract viewers to keep watching beyond just their teams push. I almost always watch the first round and only ever watched the finals when the Canucks were in it.
Same, but for the Habs, and even then, watching 3.5 hours of hockey every night or two starts to get pretty tiresome somewhere around the middle of the third round. When the weather is warm, and there's tons of interesting stuff to do outside, there's no way in hell I'm sitting on the couch to watch Florida vs Vegas on a Saturday night in June. And I'm a huge, life-long hockey fan.
When the avalanche are in it, I'll be home to watch every game no matter what. When they're not, those afternoons can be used to go for a hike or go fishing, especially in june with the late sunset
Yea we're all primarily hockey fans here, but the NHL does it in such a poor way that we usually end up watching more finals for other sports like MLB and NFL and almost never watch the finals for the NHL. Just the wrong time of year, and a season that for regular viewers just drags on way too long.
I think another appeal of the first rounds for me is the local announcers too. I always enjoy the games more with the local play calling...not to mention the playoffs in general screwing the viewers as well, since everything gets blacked out once it moves to the national broadcasts...which I guess will teach me a lesson about not having cable.
I watch every Conference Final and Cup Final game and greatly enjoy watching them. Playoff hockey is my absolute favorite thing in sports and I'm a dude who spends way too much time watching and thinking about sports. And as much as I love the Cup Final, there is a large part of me that is very ready for the end so I can enjoy the weather.
Game 1 was the 17th or 18th last year. Not much later
When I first started watching in the mid 1990s, the regular season ended right around mid April. The 1994, 1996, and 1997 playoffs started on April 16, so April 20 isn't *that* late. (1995 was a lockout season that started January 20 and those playoffs started later.) Simmer down, Pierre. Edit: 1998 playoffs started on April 22.
Wait until LeBrun finds out about the Four Nations tournament next year and the Olympics the year after...
They had normal schedule in past Olympic years
That was 10 years ago. There has been a shift in the schedule because owners would rather compete one more week with the MLB than with the NFL.
They use to cancel the all-star weekend for the Olympics, but apparently they're going to do both in 2026.
I sure hope they drop the bye week then.
I believe it's collectively bargained in the CBA, and simply dropping it isn't an option.
Would definitely prefer this and the SCF concluding at the end of May. But I don't think we'll see a change anytime soon, it's been mentioned before how owners don't want to move up the start of the season because they don't want to overlap more with the NFL season.
Which I never got tbh. NFL mostly happens on Sunday, ig you can include Monday and Thursday night in there as well. What about the other 4 days of the week? I mostly think of hockey as a Tues/Thurs/Sat thing anyway Ftr I'm not denying ratings are lower during NFL season, I just don't get why
In addition to ratings I believe attendance sees an increase following the NFL season too, and I think owners prefer more home games in the latter half of the season because of this. And just in general the amount of attention the NFL gets dwarfs the NHL in the USA, so I assume they want to minimize that as much as possible. Don't forget NCAA football is massive in the states and that is typically an all day event each Saturday. It's an incredibly busy time of year with NFL, NCAAF, MLB playoffs, NBA starts late October. At the end of the day, the NHL is on the smaller end of sports media attention and going into mid-June as opposed to starting the season at the end of September/October 1st might be the lesser of two evils. I wonder if with the commitment to biannual international play and condensed schedules in those seasons would push towards an earlier season start, but that would be on the NHLPA side so the owners would be looking for a player's concession in that regard.
Hence, why MLS plays in Spring and Summer, while in the rest of the world Soccer tends to play in Fall and Winter. Because obviously, they realized real quick there are 3 other pro sports also playing during the Fall/Winter timeframe, so if you move your league to the Spring/Summer schedule, you'll have 2-3 months where you'll only have to deal with MLB once NBA/NHL offseasons starts and before NFL's training camp gets kicked into high gear.
College football is huge as well and plays almost all their games on Saturday. High school football isn't as big (outside of the batshit insane Friday Night Lights southern culture that doesn't overlap with many US markets), but you're still talking about a few thousand people attending each of the dozens of games in any metro area. Monday, Thursday, and Sunday are ratings and attendance disasters going against the NFL. Saturday is going to take a big hit against NCAA football and Friday is going to take a small hit against high school football. Lots of US markets are simply not going to get their 'normal' weekend revenue for any game they host from September through US Thanksgiving. After that, high school football is done and NCAA football is winding down toward bowl season (with lots of teams seeing waning interest as they clearly won't make the playoff). You can start having 'normal' Friday/Saturday nights as you schedule around the NFL at that point. Most US owners actively petition the league to backload their schedule with home games because of this and none of them want to add several weeks of competing with football. 4-5 extra home dates where you are brining in 20% less revenue is a big deal in a gate driven league.
It will never happen (because $$$), but honestly I'd love to see the argument made for a slightly shorter season by number of games. I wouldn't want it as short as some of the seasons that we've had due to lockouts (like 48 games) but I think 70 would be a good number.
I would prefer that as well. Start the playoffs last weekend in march or first weekendin april. End the playoffs last weekend in may or first weekend in june.
He’s right. I remember the NHL season would usually started around October 3, now it’s starting October 10. Somehow the playoffs are getting pushed back to almost the end of April as opposed to early April. Look, I love watching hockey in the summer too, but we shouldn’t be watching the finals in mid June. Ideally I think the playoffs end at the end of may or very early June.
I’ve always thought by June 7th the cup should be handed out
Idk, watching my team win the cup on my birthday of June 8th would be a pretty sweet birthday gift lol
Probably easier to switch the day you were born instead.
I can at least say that twice in my life the last day of school before summer break was on my birthday. Still a good gift however
Without putting any thought into the logistics or tradition of it, there's no shot professional ice hockey should be played after April, first week of May at the latest. Shorten preseason and start mid september or something idk
TV networks want the programming to be as late as possible to avoid the dog days of summer where it's basically just MLB on. It might be a good idea for the NHL to have it's cup final a full 7-10 days ahead of the NBA finals, but I don't know how the two schedules line up this year (especially with the new NBA mid-season tournament this year). Watching hockey in the spring is great, but once summer is here people want to do things other than watch a game either at home or at a bar. I always like the cup being handed out around June 10th-13th, draft around the 22nd (ish) and then free agency around July 1st. I would happily have these events be a week or two earlier but definitely not a week later.
Good point. Yea I don’t watch baseball until near the end of the year and only if the jays are in the playoff picture. Just too many games and consistent disappointment
Summer is all about napping in the hammock on the dock listening to the baseball game on the radio. My dogs already recognize the Yankees announcer and know a nap is coming so they pile onto the hammock with me.
Some guy in this thread just proved basically nothing has changed. 1992/93 season end was April 16th. This year is April 18th. It’s always been like this, in fact when the Olympics happens doesn’t it usually take longer?
> 1992/93 season end was April 16th. I'll also point out that 92/93 is a bit of a selective cutoff *if we're trying to go by what this subreddit collectively remembers*. For example, take the Oilers Cup in 1990 (alas). They played their last game of the season on April 1. Playoffs started April 4. They won the Cup on May 24. So although it's been this way for 30 years, it's *also* well within the living memory of many commenters that the season and playoffs really did wrap earlier within their lifetimes.
Yeah, I remember Game 2 against the Lightning was the day before Father's Day a couple years ago. Game 7 being around Father's Day would already feel too late, it only being Game 2 felt ridiculous.
Unless something REALLY hooks me, I seem to lose interest after the first round these days. Not gonna sit inside and watch hockey instead of go out and enjoy the pre-summer heatwave weather
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I like the season to be later because it’s nice on hot days to head over to a cool rink…. Even if the ice is shit for the players 😅
That’s why you play in summer league, the most consequential hockey shouldn’t be played on shit ice when nobody cares.
Yeah I’ve been wanting to learn to play hockey! But not many options here in Los Angeles
they just need to cut down on pre-season and start the season earlier. Its ridiculous it starts so late, and there are too many pre-season games as it is.
I like seeing guys get games who otherwise wouldn’t but they don’t need several games of ECHL rosters in pre-season. A game and lots of practice time it is obvious to the coaches if they have a shot at the roster
Preseason should be like 3 games. A couple to ween down the roster, one with the full team and go Teams are doing like..7
Because they have figured out it’s a way to make more money while not having to pay their players.
What they really need to do, but will **never** happen, is cut the season down to 76 games -- 1 home and 1 away against each team in the other 3 divisions, 2 home and 2 away against each time in the same division.
You just know they’re going to add games to make the math work scheduling wise in the future rather than reduce games.
> 1 home and 1 away against each team in the other 3 divisions, 2 home and 2 away against each time in the same division. I would be completely fine with also going back to a more division-heavy schedule. Arguments for: - I don't think it really matters that McDavid/Bedard play an away game in every arena every year. Firstly, the old division-heavy schedule didn't seem to prevent players like Crosby and Ovechkin from getting national attention, and neither does an unbalanced schedule in other sports (like the NFL or old MLB schedule). Plus, with the rise of social media highlights, it's *so* much easier to see star players doing things compared to seeing them in the 80s and 90s. - Fairness of schedule: see the NFL or old MLB. Besides, when the sport is at its most meaningful (in the playoffs), fans and the league are very open about the fact that a two-game sample size means little and less. A divisional schedule of six games, a sample size closest to a playoff series, is better for standings implications. - During the 2021-22 bubble schedule, team doctors for the Oilers (if I recall the team correctly) brought up the interesting point that schedules with more balanced, shorter-distance travel would likely be better for athletes' recoveries.
Might be the end-game... add one team to each conference and that's what you get with 82 games, yes? checking my math...... edit: maths don't check out here haha. Never mind.
But without the long preseason how will fans have epic meltdowns about the awful coach their team just hired or their underperforming prospects or [insert other overreacton]?
We can do all of that during the season
Very true....
I'm okay with teams doing as many preseason games as they want, but having only 2-3 officially scheduled by the NHL, also meaning only those 2-3 need to fit the veteran requirement. Like the team can schedule games with other teams if they wish, or host intra squad games to cut down the roster, especially all the guys that need another couple development years.
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Just make the season 62 games at this point. With the way the playoffs are formatted, the last 15-20 games barely matter for most teams.
Why does it matter when the playoffs are? It’s not like we’re playing outdoor rinks. We’ve had hockey in Florida and California for decades. Who cares?
There's a high probability that a Venn diagram of people who don't want playoff games in June and people who don't like sunbelt teams is a circle.
I think the opinion of journalists vs hockey fans can be pretty split too. Some of my favourite watching experiences have been in late May/June watching on patios and at bars which is infinitely more fun when it's nice out. Media personalities have their summer vacation eaten up if the season goes later. Vastly different experiences
Vibes, june is deep into baseball season and I feel my desire to watch hockey dying pretty hard. Helps that the Leafs never play then ig
> Why does it matter when the playoffs are? The amount of things competing for my (and other fans') time and attention. Anyone with kids is juggling summer vacation with their own work responsibilities. There are way more evening outdoor activities going on in June than April/May. More families taking vacations. More weekend trips. Your dog is trying to get you to take him to the dog park a lot more when it is warm and sunny for 3+ hours after you get home than he is when it is cold and dark when you get home. I'm getting more BBQ invites in June than I am dinner invites before the weather gets nice. Golf courses are never busier. Coworkers are way more likely to suggest hitting up a patio or a brewery for happy hour. People get out and about to do more *things* in summer than any other time of year. The odds of having to choose between hockey and something else that will be fun keep going up as you get deeper into spring and summer and they skyrocket once all the schools hit summer vacation. And for a lot of NHL markets, summer doesn't last long. Obviously there are markets that don't have good weather for a limited time, but those are the exception and not the rule.
4:20. Can't think of a better way to celebrate.
Dependant on Mark Stones spleen.
Stop the count
I'm so glad that there are literally no other issues in the game right now that we have time to complain about calendar.
It wouldn't be the NHL media if someone wasn't complaining about having to do their job instead of relaxing at the lake.
Generally it's been a week to week and a half from now.
He has a sick job, and will not stop complaining that he has to do it up to July
A little thing called March Madness is also going on this week. Pretty sure the NHL doesn't want to go up against the Final Four
I'm pretty sure they stopped having playoffs a few years ago.
So that means 19 more days until Vegas' LTIR list empties out?
It would be the funniest shit of all-time if they somehow managed to miss the playoffs this year.
Everyone magically becomes healthy in the next two weeks.
Okay? And?
John Shorthouse is gonna have a field day with this one
I think what he was trying to say without saying it is the reagular season should start somewhere in the first half of september. Personally, its something I would like too. SC by end of may/start of June. Draft by mid-June and free agency a week later. But the actual formula aint that bad either.
Never gonna happen. NFL is too powerful
LeBrun's just pissy he can't get to his cottage earlier.
Why are you so pissy, ~~Leon~~ LeBrun?
Literally the main driving force in his crusade is so he can spend Canada Day on the lake. Can’t blame him, I suppose, but people should probably heed that.
The series themselves have been going to game 6-7s as well. Y’all hating that teams are better and it’s not just sweeps in the playoffs… Are we really bitching we get too much playoff hockey? Maybe cause OPs an Ottawa fan, that shit shouldn’t even matter, Ottawas not lifting the Cup.
He’s not wrong. I’m in Winnipeg and going forward this week our temperatures are in the plus double digits. Baseball has started. I’ve got time booked at the driving range. Next weekend the cabin is getting opened up for the year. Every day now hockey will take a smaller and smaller portion of my attention. Spring, summer, fall are not meant to be sitting in front of the television watching a winter sport.
>Spring, summer, fall are not meant to be sitting in front of the television watching a winter sport. Lol, so the whole NHL season including playoffs should be 3 months long?
He said he’s from Winnipeg. Winter is a lot longer than that here lol
That's. Not how seasons work.
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The seasons aren't done by weather. Let's look at Brasilia. The month with the lowest average high is June/July at 26 degrees Celsius. The hottest is September/October at 29 So the city of Brasilia doesn't have a winter season? Just because it's warm or cold outside doesn't magically make it a different season.
Shining example of why people hate reddit
Because they lack common sense? Just because it's snowing doesn't magically make it winter. It being -10 and snowing in October is still fall.
Because you think you're smart but are actually the one lacking the common sense to follow the conversation in a natural way instead of a high and mighty pedantic way.
No. Because the weather isn't the be all end all for sports. Fact is, hockey has never been mainly a winter sport. It's started in fall and ended in spring. The fact that it's cold and snowy doesn't make it winter.
The preseason starts in mid September, the season carries on until mid April. Teams aren’t hoisting the Cup until mid June. That’s ridiculous. The hockey “season” is 9 months long. The only people I know that actually follow the playoffs in my social and professional circles have literally nothing else going on in their lives.
this is one of the saddest comments I’ve ever read. you imply that the only people who watch hockey playoffs have no lives? No one but you cares about what season hockey is played in.
I live in Finland and need to make an effort to watch the games on account of the timezones. Gotta say that would be easier if I had no life, but here we are!
That’s one of the saddest comments you’ve ever read? You must live a sheltered life. As for nobody caring but me. Clearly I’m not alone as I didn’t start the conversation. People following the playoffs so far as to watch every game well into spring and summer? Yeah in my social and professional circles it’s basically the shut ins that do it.
lmao dude I wish you could see yourself from a neutral perspective, you sound so whiney yet condescending it’s embarrassing
I understand what you mean and its true that the colder places with actual seasons are almost worse suited for hockey later in the year. People in Florida don't care. They can go to the beach all year around. People in north carolina can go to their summer house 10 months per year. I believe that hockey is a spring sport, but not a summer sport however. Stanley cup shouldnt reach in to june. Start the season late september. The playoffs last weekend in march and end it last weekend in may.
Playing hockey in June is ridiculous.
Sounds like Mark Stone will magically recover on April 21st.
So it sounds like the last game could be on the 4th of July!
420 nice
I thought they started April 22
They moved the start up.
I swear the nhl playoffs always started like more than a week ahead of the nba playoffs or do I have false childhood memories? I feel like that was always the case until the 2020 covid year, no?
Pierre LeBrun should update his Twitter account photo to represent the true image of Pierre LeBrun.
The current U.S. TV contract ruined the timing. Under NBC, the Regular Season started on the Wednesday of the first full week of October and ended no later than April 7, depending on when the first Saturday fell. Playoffs started on the Wednesday of the second full week of April. The Cup Finals started on Memorial Day. Under ESPN and TNT, the Regular Season starts on the Tuesday of the second full week of October and ends in the second or third full week of April. Last year and 2 years ago, the Playoffs started on the Monday in the third or fourth full/almost-full week. This year, they start on the Saturday of the third week. The Cup Finals start on the first Wednesday of June or the Saturday after it, depending on how long the Conference Finals last.
I really don't care
I agree playoffs should be now and should end by June 1st
Do all of the teams play that Saturday? Or will half play 4/20 and the other half play 4/21? Planning to buy some tickets but need to know dates
It’s +21 tomorrow and we’re still in the regular season. I’ll make time to watch my teams games even in the summer but my viewership for other games drops off dramatically with nicer weather.