Canadians are having an exceptional holiday season right now. It’s good to see this team playing inspired hockey. The team is finally healthy and it shows. Since Martin St-Louis has been fully trained, for a month, the Canadiens’ record is 9 wins and 4 losses.
Still, I have serious questions, not about the Canadiens, but about how the NHL created the Montreal team’s schedule. In fact, Canadians are currently treated to four different time zones in one week!
Faced with adversity
After winning its two matches in Florida (two matches in two days), Martin St-Louis’ squad found itself in Vegas. But instead of playing the next game in Denver, which would have made perfect sense, the Canadiens headed to Chicago instead.
After the game against the Blackhawks, we will change time zones again to play a game in Denver at 5 p.m. local time on Saturday. The players will probably arrive at the hotel around 3 a.m., if all goes well, and they will have very little time to recharge their batteries, facing the Avalanche, a team that will be rested.
A risk for players
But that’s not all. On Sunday, the team will return home to face the Canucks on Monday at the Bell Centre! No need to tell you that the risk of injury will be very high in the coming days because the recovery time will simply be zero. Not to mention that the Canadiens are entitled to three weekends in a row with sequences of two games in two nights.
It makes you wonder if there isn’t someone in the NHL who is angry with the Canadiens after deciding to impose this nonsense on the organization. And if you think that teams have a say in the composition of the schedule, tell yourself that it’s quite the opposite.
Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton during the Montreal Canadiens’ development camp at Complexe Sportif CN, in Brossard, Wednesday July 3, 2024. Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY – Photo Agence QMI, JOËL LEMAY
It’s just the beginning
What’s even more fascinating about all this is that in nine days, the Canadians will return to the American West to face the Utah club and the Stars, on January 14 and 16. Why so much back and forth in two weeks? How can we really justify such a timetable?
Ottawa greatly advantaged
We’re going to compare apples to apples for the sake of it. The Canadiens and the Senators are practically neighbors and it’s remarkable to see the disparity that exists in the kilometers that will have to be covered this season by the two teams.
Among the Senators, the Ottawa team will cover 52,786 kilometers, which places them 31st in the NHL, ahead of the Penguins. The Canadiens are thirteenth among the teams that travel the most with 69,684 kilometers, or 17,000 more than the Senators. It’s huge.
I understand that the person responsible for the calendar, Steve Hatze-Petros, really does not have an easy task. Pleasing everyone is impossible, we agree. But there is not much disparity between teams that play in the same market in the NHL, except between Montreal and Ottawa. How is this possible?
