Quite frankly, there's only so many times you can write game previews when you're playing the same teams over and over and over. Just look at our February fixtures.
- Belfast
- Belfast
- Nottingham
- Coventry
- Nottingham
- Cardiff
- Nottingham
- Cardiff
- Braehead
- Nottingham
Then next weekend, the start of March, we play Nottingham and Cardiff again! Granted, some of these were cup games, but we'll have played the Panthers 5 times in 21 days. Its ridiculous.
A lot of this overkill of fixtures is purely down to the conference system, or at least in its current format. Each team plays their conference opponents 8 times (4 home, 4 away) and the teams from the opposite conference 4 times (2 home, 2 away). But you already knew this. We just need to figure out how to fix it.
Personally, I'm actually a fan of the conferences. I think they give all teams something to aim for - Hull may not realistically ever be in the title hunt (I hope one day this changes) but they have a realistic chance of winning the Gardiner conference, which would be a great achievement for them. I just don't think the way the fixtures are panned out work.
Here's my suggestion:
When I first started watching ice hockey in the UK, we had a 10 team Elite League, with no separate conferences, just a straight up league. The teams played each other 6 times a season - 3 home and 3 away.
What's wrong with that? You still have 54 league games. You could still incorporate the conferences - only games against your conference foes count towards that. You'd still have time to run the Challenge Cup mostly in September (if it is going to stay in its current format - but I've talked about that before), before the Elite League season starts.
I think I worked out earlier in the year, that with Challenge Cup games taken into account, and the way the playoff rankings could yet work out, that we could end up facing the Panthers 14 times this season, which is pathetic, quite frankly. Sure, by the same working, my method would only bring that down to 12, but at least we'd have had more games against other opponents to spread those games out a bit. I've even worked out in my head where the league games between the two could go:
- Early October - maybe even the league openers - home and away.
- Christmas period - home and away
- Mid February - the "Valentines" weekend games - home and away
Looks dead simple on paper. It could work - it has before. It would eliminate fan fatigue - I think everyone is bored of seeing them lot this year. And it would freshen up both the rivalries, and the league as a whole.
I've even got basic plans for if/when the league expands to 12.
- 4 games vs all opponents (2h 2a) - 48 game league
- Playoffs become best of 3 for 1/4s, best of 3 for 1/2s
- Playoff final single game
- Playoff weekend can still happen, but the Saturday would hold a single-legged Challenge Cup Final
Its all pipe dreams and ifs, buts, and maybes, but I feel its all workable.
What do you think?
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Thanks for reading, hope it makes as much sense now as it did when it was coming out of my head.
Liam
@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
@AwkwardGinge
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