Your morning ramble:
I was taking a peek at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ exhibition schedule on their website this morning, and Toronto has only played in 3 exhibition games thus far, going 2-and-1.
Now the Red Wings have turned over a good 40% of their roster, so it could be argued that their players and coaching staff need “more reps” on the ice to acclimate themselves to the team’s systems of play and their teammates’ tendencies…
But Detroit is finishing an unprecedented 3-games-in-3-nights schedule, the kind of thing that AHL and ECHL teams face, and they’re doing so as they play their 7th of 8 exhibition games by facing Toronto tonight (7 PM EDT at Scotiabank Arena; on TSN4, ESPN+, DetroitRedWings.com and 97.1 FM) and then hosting the Leafs on Saturday (on TSN4, Bally Sports Detroit and 97.1 FM).
In my opinion, playing in 8 exhibition games over the course of only 12 preseason nights is a bit nuts.
I understand that the Red Wings want to maximize their preseason income–and it’s a different world out there now that season ticket-holders are required to spend regular season prices to watch 8 games of exhibition hockey–but most teams play somewhere between 5 and 6 exhibition games, and no more.
Detroit has managed to avoid the injury bug (NO JINX) thus far, but there are two more games’ of bump-and-grind to go before the regular season starts, and one never knows when it’s a high-contact sport.
The fact that the Red Wings play in 8 exhibition games has always bothered me. I am guessing that the mandate to play 8 in 12 comes from somewhere high up in management, and I am loath to criticize what is probably an organizational decision, but I just cannot help but express my discomfort with the situation. I think that it’s excessive, and sometimes dangerous for the players, even though the Wings keep 2 full rosters until the very end of the exhibition season.
And along those lines, I don’t think that it helps the Grand Rapids Griffins or Toledo Walleye to receive only 4 or 5 days’ worth of training camp before starting the AHL and ECHL seasons (respectively). The Wings are most likely to make their cuts on Sunday and break camp on Monday, and most teams have already “broken camp” so that their AHL and ECHL affiliates can begin preparing for their regular season campaigns in earnest.
And I can’t imagine that it’s anything less than unwieldy for the NHL coaching staff to have to try and mange 45+ players over the course of two weeks. That workload has to be difficult in terms of managing two practices and three or four hours on the ice every day, not even counting games. This is a real grind for everyone involved, including the equipment staff and trainers.
All in all, this is just a morning ramble, and an unfocused one at that, but I think it’s important to go on the record as finding the Red Wings’ 8-exhibition-games-in-12-nights schedule unwieldy and excessive.
I think that it subjects the players, coaches and support staff to too much wear and tear even before the 82-game regular season begins, and given that the Wings don’t even pack Little Caesars Arena until the Maple Leafs fans who can’t afford to attend games at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto come to town en masse on Saturday to act badly, get drunk, get in fights, and otherwise behave badly in the home team’s barn…
I don’t see the purpose in the grind for the sake of 4 exhibition games’ worth of home revenues. I understand that hockey is ultimately the business of sport(s), but as we wrap up the three-games-in-three-nights schedule this evening, I can’t imagine that everyone is hunky dory with
