The NHL regular season keeps creeping longer and longer throughout April
We reach the end of our series to preview the Pens’ 2024-25 schedule today. Head here to see March and catch back up on the older editions.
The NHL really needs to adjust its schedule. In 2024, the Stanley Cup was handed out on June 24th. The league was been creeping out of October slowly by starting later and later steadily, no doubt in order to shift as much of the schedule away from the fall monster known as football as they can. That’s out the window this year due to the 4 Nations Tournament leading to an October 4th start. But the regular season is still concluding on April 17, which means the yet unannounced NHL playoff schedule will see the first round still be ongoing in some series when the calendar flips to May.
The good news is, this might change soon. The bad news is that it won’t be immediate since the league will have to build in a buffer in the 2025-26 season for the Olympics. But there’s talk that for 2026-27, things might be bumped up earlier in the calendar to allow for an earlier end date. They can also correct a wrong on scheduling (where each team plays two alternating division rivals three times instead of four) by contracting the mostly useless exhibition schedule.
Some non free-agent news:
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 1, 2024
The NHL and NHLPA have had very preliminary discussions on what a new NHL calendar could look like. Wouldn't take effect until next CBA 2 years from now.
What's being discussed:
_ Move start of reg season up to very early Oct;
_ Award Cup earlier in…
Number of games: 7
Home-Road: 3-4
Conference Breakdown: 3 games vs. East; 4 games vs. West
Games Against Metro Division: 2
Back-to-Backs: 1
Highlights: A different than expected finish without much inter-divisional play for the Penguins. They do get Game 80 (@NJ) and 82 (WSH) against Metropolitan teams near the very end but oddly enough play more Western teams than Eastern in the final month. That’s highlighted by a home-and-home with Chicago on April 6/8, which will be odd to not see Connor Bedard all year until a double dose at the end. Pittsburgh starts the month with their last true road trip through the midwest (STL-DAL-CHI) before a final one-off road game in Jersey.
Beyond the natural Pens/Capitals rivalry, the April 17th regular season finale for both teams could be absolutely massive for history’s sake. Alex Ovechkin enters the season 41 goals behind Wayne Gretzky’s all-time total. He’ll have to do a lot of heavy lifting in the first 81 games of the season, but there is a chance he could be within striking distance of the record in Pittsburgh on the final day of the season.
Beyond the Ovechkin angle, it could be just an exciting game, period. The Penguins missed the playoffs by three points last season, Washington made it in by the skin of their teeth winning a tie-breaker over Detroit. It stands to reason that the game could be significant for one or both teams to need a result on the season’s last day to punch a ticket to the playoffs.
