With the NHL schedule released last week, insiders and fans have started digging through its patterns, evaluating how the schedule will unfold for certain teams. One team that was known to have a unique schedule prior to its release is the Arizona Coyotes.
Frank Seravalli, upon looking through the schedule, found that the Arizona Coyotes will play 20 out of 24 games on the road to being the season next year, with only 2 home games per month for two months. Also, they will only play one home game on Saturday night, due to the Arizona State University team having priority of scheduling.
Presumably, playing almost all their games on the road for two months has to do with the shortened NCAA season and ASU's first right to the ice, but also gives the club time to prepare the rink to best resemble an NHL arena.
Already a dismal, non-competitive team, playing so many games on the road will further wear on the players. It's a comparable situation to when the Islanders moved from Nassau Coliseum, wherein the team played most games on the road to begin the season, losing many of them and citing fatigue from travel.
The scheduling will just be another obstacle the Coyotes' players will not be able to overcome. The travel will lead to more losses for the team, in a way, fulfilling the organizational goal of tanking for draft picks. They may hope to have a pick to select Bedard or Michkov next draft.
