If there is a job in sports more thankless than being a referee for the WWE, it may be a schedule-maker. It’s hard enough pleasing one team; forget trying to please an entire league.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are complaining because they play seven straight home games. Teams get “stale” and family life intrudes on a team that is home that many days in a row, Maple Leafs coach-general manager Pat Quinn said.
Or a team is playing too many games in too few days, or not enough games in too many days. Glancing at a schedule is a sure-fire way to find something to complain about, unless you’re Blackhawks goaltender Jocelyn Thibault.
“There are games to be played,” Thibault said.
“To me it doesn’t matter whether it’s too much at home or too much on the road. You have to take advantage of the days off.”
Given their choice, however, the Hawks would have preferred to take the ice for their next game about 10:30 p.m. last Saturday, an hour or so after their 5-2 loss to Calgary.
Off days are OK. Four days off after a loss is a different story.
“It’s very hard to wait for the next game,” Hawks captain Alex Zhamnov said. “Especially if you lost the last game. It’s better to play as soon as possible.”
After playing just four games in the first 14 days of the season, the Hawks begin a stretch Thursday against Minnesota in which they will play 11 games in 19 days.
The Hawks won’t have more than one day off between games until after Nov. 11, which is fine with some players.
“If you get off to a good start, you can roll with it,” Steve Sullivan said. “Three or four days is a long time [between games] for us, especially after a loss.”
Coach Brian Sutter has been spending the last four days drilling fundamentals into his team–not so much because he thinks the Hawks are lacking in them, but because he believes you can never stop stressing them.
“Practices are like studying for the test and the games are the tests,” Sutter said.
Because of the Olympic break, nearly every NHL team played every other night last season. It may have taken a toll physically on some players, but mentally it was easier to get into a rhythm.
“It’s tough to get into a groove” with a lot of days off, Sullivan said.
“You really have to be mentally focused. It doesn’t just come to you like in the middle of a season.”
The Hawks will face a Minnesota team Thursday that is leading the Western Conference and can be a frustrating team to play against because of its disciplined neutral-zone trap.
The Wild has added offense to its tough defense this season, scoring 21 goals, third most in the conference.
After losing four of the first five games against the third-year team, the Hawks have beaten the Wild the last three meetings.
