Screamin'Weasel Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Jim mentioned it last night and I thought it odd that the Sabre's schedule sounded that skewed. Then I read the following post on another forum: Why does it always seems that the Sabres are playing 3 games in four nights and then play Tor or Ott on the back end of a back to back. To make it worse it always seems that Ott has 3-4 days off before they play us. Well the answer to this question is that it is true. The Sabres have more back to back games then any other team in the East. We play 16 back to back series (32 totals games). Of those, 12 of the back end games are against playoff type teams including 3 against ott, 4 against tor and 2 against mon. To make matters worse, in most of those games the opponenet has the night off before they play us. That includes tonight's game against Ottawa. The last injustice of the schedule is that our March schedule includes 5 back to back series with the back end games against (in order) Tor, NJ, TB, TOR, & Mon. Can't see how this could affect the playoff races, do you (LOL). To make matters even worse, our divisional opponents don't have nearly as many back to back series. Ottawa only has nine, Mon. 12, and Tor 12. Other playoff teams also don't have our tough schedule. NJ has only 12 back to back series. Atlanta has 12, TB has 10. Seeing a trend here. The story line of a tired Sabres club taking on a rested opponent isn't a figment of our imagination. It is a fact of the schedule, which seems designed to help some teams and harm one (US!). Just curious if anyone else noticed this issue? Do you care? What affect do you think it will have on the playoff race? yse325 on letsgosabres.com forums While I don't agree with the poster's conspirancy theory, I do think he has a point about the schedule looking rather out of whack. Why sould one team have 16 sets of BtB games and others only have 9? That is a huge difference when you realize it is worth a possible 10 points. March does, as he points out, look like a very rough road to travel. I am also curious as to how many of the BtB games have not only a rested opponent waiting for us but have the Sabres traveling between them too. I could look it up but I am too lazy...er, busy, right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Jim mentioned it last night and I thought it odd that the Sabre's schedule sounded that skewed. Then I read the following post on another forum: While I don't agree with the poster's conspirancy theory, I do think he has a point about the schedule looking rather out of whack. Why sould one team have 16 sets of BtB games and others only have 9? That is a huge difference when you realize it is worth a possible 10 points. March does, as he points out, look like a very rough road to travel. I am also curious as to how many of the BtB games have not only a rested opponent waiting for us but have the Sabres traveling between them too. I could look it up but I am too lazy...er, busy, right now. A portion of the reason for this is the Sabres (as do several other teams) specifically request weekend games and to go light on the games in the early part of the year to increase attendence. Now that the Sabres have a waiting list for tickets, they will probably be willing to take a couple of extra weeknight and October / November games that will make March a little more manageable. All but 2 of those BtB's fall on the weekend (typically Friday Saturday, with a couple of Saturday Sundays thrown in for good measure). When you want to squeeze 82 games into ~27 weeks and want to have a lot of games on weekends, you will necessarily end up with a lot of BtB games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffalOhio Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Someone please explain why they have to play BtB games when after Saturday against Calgary, they don't play again until Thursday. How the hell am I supposed to make it that long without a Sabres game? C'mon!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corp000085 Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 How the hell am I supposed to make it that long without a Sabres game? C'mon!!! beer?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregkash Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 Also keep in mind the Sabres aren't the only thing that happens at HSBC, as is the same with every other Arena in the NHL. You're not going to see back to back home games in tampa, because rarely is their arena dormant for two nights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 beer?? Sex??... Preferably with your wife... Hey, and NO making any more "little" Sabre fans (why besiege them with a life of near misses and heart wrenching torture!)... :chris: :D Wow... I am in such a "pirate" mood... See what a Sabres win against the Otters does! <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjag Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 A portion of the reason for this is the Sabres (as do several other teams) specifically request weekend games and to go light on the games in the early part of the year to increase attendence. Now that the Sabres have a waiting list for tickets, they will probably be willing to take a couple of extra weeknight and October / November games that will make March a little more manageable. All but 2 of those BtB's fall on the weekend (typically Friday Saturday, with a couple of Saturday Sundays thrown in for good measure). When you want to squeeze 82 games into ~27 weeks and want to have a lot of games on weekends, you will necessarily end up with a lot of BtB games. I have no trouble believing this. It makes a lot of sense. Most teams don't want games on Mondays. It's a weak attendance night. Sundays conflict with the NFL. That leaves you five nights to schedule games in the early part of the season. Weekends are probably the best for attendance and teams with historically poor attendance probably need all the help they can get. Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa have no attendance problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Another little scheduling quirk that I just noticed: All year we had games in hand on everyone else. Now we've played the most games of any team in the league (tied with 2 or 3 teams). That's probably a good thing though because we should get a little extra rest down the stretch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Haven't they talked about changing the unbalanced schedule? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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