After taking their bye week last week, the Capitals dropped back-to-back road games to the Red Wings and the Rangers. It was the first time the Capitals lost back-to-back games since late December.
Nearly all NHL teams have succumbed to this developing trend, which has been nicknamed by media as the “bye-week curse.” 16 of 20 NHL franchises (including the Caps) have lost their first post-bye game, posting a meek 4-12-4 record. This might explain why on Tuesday, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly discussed new changes to bye weeks that the NHL hopes to implement next season.
“We’re going to try to find two dedicated weeks, and perhaps split the clubs up almost on a 50-50 basis so that each group of clubs will be having their bye weeks at the same time, then perhaps we can schedule a little better out of those bye weeks in terms of clubs who’ve had rest versus clubs who haven’t had rest,” Daly told TSN 1040 radio, as transcribed by NBC Sports.
NHL teams first started taking their bye weeks on January 1st. According to NBC Sports, there are nine teams (Stars, Sharks, Canucks, Wild, Blues, Jets, Sabres, Red Wings, and Blue Jackets) who are on their bye week now or will start it later this week. The Anaheim Ducks are the last team to take theirs (February 26 to March 2).
Here’s how the first 19 teams performed in their first games back from their bye weeks.
- Arizona Coyotes (5 days) WIN, 4-3 vs. Winnipeg
- Calgary Flames (5 days) LOSS, 5-0 to Arizona
- Carolina Hurricanes (5 days) LOSS OT, 2-1 to Colorado
- Chicago Blackhawks (6 days) LOSS, 3-1 to Edmonton
- Colorado Avalanche (5 days) LOSS, 4-1 to Anaheim
- Edmonton Oilers (5 days) LOSS, 5-1 to Chicago
- Florida Panthers (5 days) LOSS, 6-3 to Los Angeles
- Los Angeles Kings (6 days) LOSS, 5-3 to Arizona
- Montreal Canadiens (5 days) LOSS, 3-1 Winnipeg
- Nashville Predators (5 days) LOSS, 5-2 to Minnesota
- New Jersey Devils (5 days) LOSS, 4-1 to San Jose
- New York Islanders (5 days) LOSS OT, 2-1 to Colorado
- New York Rangers (5 days) LOSS, 4-2 to Toronto
- Ottawa Senators (5 days) LOSS, 1-0 to Washington
- Philadelphia Flyers (5 days) LOSS, 4-1 to New Jersey
- Pittsburgh Penguins (7 days) WIN, 6-2 over Tampa
- Tampa Bay Lightning (6 days) LOSS OT, 4-3 to Dallas
- Toronto Maple Leafs (5 days) WIN, 4-2 over New York Rangers
- Washington Capitals (6 days) LOSS SO, 3-2 to Detroit
Yikes.
What do you guys think of the proposed change?
