USA TODAY International Edition
Young teams benefit from changes
When Minnesota Wild coach Bruce Boudreau has seen NHL results looking like NFL scores this season, he has immediately blamed the compressed schedule. “There are a lot of tired players,” Boudreau tells USA TODAY Sports.
Because the World Cup was played in September and a bye week was included for the first time, NHL teams are playing 82 games in a season that is a week shorter than last season.
“I’m sure everyone has theories,” Boudreau says. “( But) that’s why there are so many discrepancies in the ( scores).”
The Montreal Canadiens have scored 10 goals in game this season, in a 10- 1 win against the Colorado Avalanche, and allowed 10 goals, in a 10- 0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“We just finished nine games in 15 days, and we never practiced the other six days, because you just can’t kill the guys,” Boudreau says.
Some NHL veterans, such as Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Toews, Corey Perry and Jamie Benn, have scoring numbers below their usual averages. It’s presumed that schedule compression affects older players more than youngsters because of recovery time.
The schedule compression might be helping some teams, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have eight rookies playing significant time.
Toronto prized rookie Auston Matthews, 19, has already played more games than he played all last season in the Swiss League. “It’s a tough schedule. But it’s good for us,” Matthews says. “It’s a learning lesson for us about how important recovery is.”
The rebuilding Maple Leafs have exceeded expectations by pushing into a playoff spot, and it might be because their younger players can handle the schedule grind better because it takes a shorter time for their bodies to recover from playing.
The Columbus Blue Jackets also might have benefited from the compressed schedule when they piled up 16 consecutive wins this season.
When they got on a roll, they never lost their momentum. During their winning streak, they played back- to- back games twice and had a stretch of four games in six days. They played eight games between Dec. 16- 31.
“For everybody, what you want to do is play games,” Columbus forward Cam Atkinson says. “It’s a different thing to practice. I think we did enough of that in training camp, especially a ( John Tortorella) training camp.”
Atkinson agrees that the Blue Jackets weren’t looking for days off during their streak. “It’s almost better to play games, not think about it, just play,” he says.
The Blue Jackets have a mind- set, defenseman Seth Jones says, that they are doing their jobs, not playing games. “It’s not a country club here,” Jones says. “It’s a workforce.”