The NHL has had a long list of highly questionable ideas. Whether we’re talking about the infuriating “intent to blow” rule or the infamous Guardian Project, some ideas have been worse than others. One recent change, giving each team in the league a five-day bye week, was one of those good ideas on paper which failed to pan out as expected.
Gary Bettman on this year's bye week schedule: "It didn't work."
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 8, 2017
The bye week was originally intended to give players time to rest and recover in the middle of the season. Players are excused from all activities, including practice, during their five-day vacation. The addition of the bye week was reportedly added during negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA in order to have the players sign off on the new 3-on-3 All-Star Game format.
Well … the bye week has been nothing short of a disaster.
Logically, a team coming off of its bye week should face another team coming off of its bye week in their first game back. That hasn’t been the case and it has led to a seriously ugly record by teams returning from their bye. That’s a pretty huge problem as teams look extremely rusty off of their bye and are facing (and losing) to teams who are still in a rhythm.
The NHL might be changing that approach to their bye week.
The NHL is looking at changing bye week to having 15 teams off at one time, 16 the next. First two games would be vs. teams coming off bye.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 8, 2017
That’s a step in the right direction, but the bye week still presents some problems. For instance, in order to have the bye week fit into this season’s schedule, teams have been forced to play more back-to-back games. More back-to-back games and a condensed schedule not only drains players quicker, but it also makes scheduling practices more difficult.
The Minnesota Wild played nine times in 15 days and weren’t able to hold a single practice during that time. That makes things challenging for coaches who want to try out a new strategy in a non-game situation.
Mike Babcock spoke about the bye week issue, via the Washington Post:
“I think it’s 100 percent wrong for player safety. You’ve got so many games in such a short period of time and you’re jamming in more. To me, the more days rest you can have by not playing back-to-backs and jamming it in, the healthier you have a chance to be.”
In short, the bye week needs to be adjusted. Giving players time off is a good idea, but lumping it into one segment of the season might be causing more harm than good.
