The new schedule has been designed with a single goal in mind: breeding and perpetuating intense rivalries. Teams will now play 32 of their 82 games within their division and an additional 40 games against teams within their conference. Which means only 10 games are left for inter-conference games - 5 of which will be played as host to a specific cross conference division and 5 will be played on the road visiting all the teams of a specific division. For instance, this year teams in the Northeast Division like Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal will play host to the Pacific Division (San Jose, Dallas, LA, Anaheim, Phoenix) and will travel to Northwest sites (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado, Minnesota). Each year the divisions a team will host and visit will alternate. This means that fans will have to wait for up to 3 years to see a specific team/player.

I went searching for an answer of why the league would reformat the schedule in such a way and found the answer on NHL.com.

· The new schedule strengthens division rivalries; division rivals played each other six times under the previous schedule.
· The new schedule maintains integrity of the conference-based playoff format; each club continues to play 40 games against non-division, intra-conference opponents.
· The new schedule allows for continued exposure of teams and star players from the other conference.
· The new schedule allows for more compelling television matchups, thanks to the combination of stronger division rivalries with continued intra- and inter-conference play.

I can somewhat follow the league's reasoning on the first two points. Although just because you pair two teams up 8 times during a season does it mean a natural rivalry will ensue? If two completely opposite and incompatible people are hooked up on a blind date the number of dates the two have becomes inconsequential after about the first date when there's zero spark or chemistry. Pitting Nashville against St. Louis over half a dozen times is not an automatic means to creating a Red Sox-Yankees rivalry.

This rivalry-slanted schedule also makes one major assumption: That people by default support the home team. Plenty of people attend games to watch the visiting teams and if you've ever been to a game with an Original 6 team in town you already know that the visiting club gets near equal support than that of the home team.

But it's really the last two points of the league's justification where they state the new format will bring greater exposure to teams and players and create more compelling TV matchups where they've lost me.

	Crosby & Lemieux are sure to be a major attraction this year. (Source: AP)

The new schedule actually provides less exposure for teams and players because the majority of games are regionalized. The Pittsburgh Penguins led by Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby will without a doubt be one of the top road draws this season but unless your team plays in the Eastern Conference or the Western Conference's Central division they'll be no chance to see The Magnificent One and The Next One. That's tough luck for Canadian fans out west in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Not to mention Crosby will also not be visiting Los Angeles, North America's second largest media market.

The Penguins are just one example of how this new schedule will affect other markets. There are plenty of others. Jarome Iginla is one of the leagues brightest and most popular stars but he and the Flames won't be making a trip to Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa or Boston. Kovalchuk and Heatley won't be seen in hockey-mad cities like Detroit, Colorado and Vancouver. The Detroit Red Wings who are perennially the top draw on the road will not even be making a visit to 4 of the Original 6 cities - just think how crazy it is for an Original 6 club to go an entire season without making an appearance in Boston, New York, Toronto or Montreal.

The league's schedule is a true contradiction. The league states the best way to view the game is in person yet the league's best players may not even be making a live appearance for a few years time in certain cities. And I'm not sure I'm quite sold on the fact that this rivalry-based schedule will create more compelling matchups. I know the old adage is that familiarity breeds contempt but even the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry as great as it is has gotten over saturated with the amount of regular season games they've played over the last few years. If anything this schedule may result in less tickets getting sold. How many times can you actually watch the Carolina Hurricanes or Buffalo Sabres play? I guarantee you it's not eight.