LOS ANGELES — Avalanche general manager Francois Giguere on Saturday said he and team president Pierre Lacroix, who represented the franchise at the NHL Board of Governors meeting last week at Pebble Beach, Calif., favored guaranteeing that all 15 Eastern Conference teams visit the Pepsi Center every season.
Instead, the board approved a schedule “matrix” for next season that calls for 18 interconference games for each team. That’s an increase from the 10 interconference games for each team in the three post-lockout seasons. Still, it guarantees only that each Eastern Conference team — the Pittsburgh Penguins, for example — will visit Denver once every two seasons. Under the much-criticized post-lockout format, each team visited opposite-conference arenas only once in the three seasons.
Also, the Governors’ approved change reduces the number of games between division rivals from eight to six.
“Anything we could do to have more games against the Eastern Conference, we were for,” Giguere said. “We’re just happy we were able to add eight games against the Eastern Conference, to get those teams to come into our building. We think that’s what our fans want, and that’s definitely what the players want, and I think it’s going to get better.”
And what of a full home-and-home every season with teams in the opposite conference, making up 30 games of each team’s schedule?
“Yeah, we would be in favor of that, but that didn’t come along,” Giguere said. “You’re in a position where there’s different interests, and to me, just to find a way to increase it by eight was a big step forward. Hopefully, as time moves on, we can strive to get a home-and-home against everybody in the Eastern Conference.”
Footnotes. Giguere, on the Avalanche last week recording its 500th regular-season victory since the franchise moved to Denver in 1995: “It shows consistency. Winning consistently. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll be able to continue to do. In this day and age, especially with the cap era, I think it’s going to be tougher and tougher to do it, but that’s the challenge we have.” Although he still looks young enough to be playing Midget AAA, today is Avs defenseman Kyle Cumiskey’s 21st birthday.
