Schedule conflicts for potential shortened season

If an agreement is made and a season is saved there could be some serious scrambling. For some it will be simple and easy. For others it seems impossible.

Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

Take the Phoenix Coyotes who play in their own arena at Jobing.com and do not have to share as do some other NHL teams. One of the teams in trouble are the defending Stanley Cup Champs the Los Angeles Kings. As far as the Coyotes are concerned there is little in their way of a complete 82 game schedule if that were at all possible.

First of all let us speculate the possible season if it were to happen. My thoughts would be a shortened Conference ONLY schedule. You would have 14 conference games including 4 of them in your division. So if you play a home and away twice against the 10 non division team it would equate to 40 games. 3 home and 3 road vs division would mean another 24 games for a total of 64. That may not work. So make it 2 home and 2 road for all 14 teams in your conference regardless of division. That would give you a 56 game season.

For the Coyotes they have a ton of dates available at Jobing.com arena. Sure they have Taylor Swift and Bon Jovi. Overall it would be easy to accommodate a schedule.

Now enter the Los Angeles Kings. They have several home games canceled up to January 15th in a row. Now of course they have the Lakers, Clippers, WWE, March Madness, Muse, Pink and the Who all through mid March. Up until the Kings hosting on Feb 23rd and 25th they only have one game scheduled on Jan 31st. March 4th and 9th are the next games scheduled.

These are the open dates that are available at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Jan 14, 16th, and 28th. Then for some reason nothing is scheduled from 2/1 to 2/11.

A few dates before March Madness when it is impossible to get ice down.

All these dates does not take into account when they are scheduled to play on the road. I’m sure someone smarter than me can make this happen. Go ice to hardwood a few games. Who knows. If you take a look at you team you may be surprised how crazy a schedule may be at this point.

Topics: La Kings, NHL, Phoenix Coyotes

Troy Baker

Native of Arizona. I have four daughters to keep me humble. Them and my fiance Katrina are the loves of my life. Then it is all sports. In 1976 I fell in love with sports. Phoenix Suns, Cincinnati Reds, and Dallas Cowboys were all my favorites as I watched them all make it to the championship. Also in that year I saw my first Olympics. I became fascinated with anything USA. Hockey was a big deal for me as well. We attended many Phoenix Roadrunner games. To be honest I couldn't wait for the hot dog and soda as well as a few goals from the home squad. Even rooted for the parent team the LA Kings. But the Miracle on Ice came at the right time for me. Team USA made hockey magical. Just like a great trick so much anticipation and intensity leading to a climatic puck crossing the line and the crowd going absolutely crazy.