Finally saw the complete schedule for the Chiefs-Americans series and I have to say it is very disappointing. Games 2, 3, and 4 will be played on consecutive nights....3-in-3's are common in the regular season but this is the playoffs and is this what we really want to see in a crucial playoff game: two tired teams?
Regular season also has no potentially lengthy overtime requirement....what if game two or game three (or both!) go deep into OT....how much gas will either team have in the tank for that game four? I don't think this is how a crucial playoff series should be settled, by two exhausted teams. It's a ripoff for everyone involved, from players to fans.
I guess this is the downside of teams playing in populous areas with multi-use facilities; the people who run the arenas want to keep the building in use every day because idle facilities don't make money. So come playoff time, when the dates often have to be arranged on a few days' notice, the pickings are sometimes slim. WHL teams can't afford to do what NHL teams do, which means paying a fee to reserve their arenas for potential playoff dates well ahead of time, so they're stuck trying to fit playoff games into available timeslots. It stinks but there is also probably very little that can be done to improve the situation, unfortunately. So this is what we sometimes get: three-in-threes in the playoffs.
One other note today, both the Kamloops and Vancouver media (see Gregg Drinnan and Steve Ewen's blogs on the left if you haven't already) are reporting that Vancouver Giants assistant coach/assistant G.M. Craig Bonner will very likely be the next G.M. of the Blazers, perhaps as early as the next week once he agrees on a contract with the Blazers - who Bonner admits he has spoken to about their opening. The two teams have apparently already worked out the compensation for him changing teams, should that happen.
If Bonner is the guy, then it continues the new ownership's pattern of hiring former Blazers. Bonner played four years for the Blazers in the early 90's, including appearing in two Memorial Cups and winning one. He was a 3-year teammate of Blazers part-owner Darryl Sydor and a one-year teammate of part-owner Shane Doan.
1 comment:
Not only is it 3-in-3, but 4 games in 5 nights. And with these 2 teams, overtime, long ones at that, are a distinct possibility. It's unfortunate that there couldn't be another solution.
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