From: wilson@cs.ucf.edu (tom wilson)
Subject: Re: Habs Schedule
Organization: University of Central Florida, Orlando
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 10:36:16 GMT

Bob_Daye@mindlink.bc.ca (Bob Daye) wrote:
>The Habs play the same number of games as all the other teams and still
>consistently finish among the top year after year - so much for your
>theory!!!

The original poster is right. The Habs do play more games than most teams
near the beginning of the season. As someone said here on the net, Montreal
requests a heavy schedule for the first half of the season. Not only that,
but almost all of the games are schedule in the Eastern and Central time
zones (not positive about Central), so travel is minimal. As a Boston fan, I
am one that seems to notice that every year through about December, Boston is
in second by about 3-6 points but with 3-5 fewer games played. It doesn't
bother me since I use percentage rather than points. It's all moot at the
end of the season too. Montreal gets scheduling priority because of its
seniority in the league. Tampa has the worst schedule by similar reasoning
(coupled with the late arena designation). Boston typically requests the
play-the-entire-Smythe-Division-in-early-October road trip, so they have a lot
of days off during the 5 or 6 game trip, and thus play fewer games.

I've included standings for the Adams division for the last 5 years. I randomly
picked 12/1 as the date. The number of games played on this date for each team
is:

      Bos Buf Har Mon Que Ott
1988:  26  25  23  28  27   -
1989:  24  27  27  29  27   -
1990:  26  25  26  28  28   -
1991:  25  24  25  29  25   -
1992:  23  25  24  28  26  26

I think that's pretty clear. The difference varies from 3 ('90) to 5 (all but
'90). I didn't pick the date to make it look neat, I just picked 12/1. Real
standings below.

Database set to 88-89 season

Division Standings for 12/1

Adams Division         TOTAL                 HOME              AWAY
TEAM                    W  L  T PTS  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA
---------------------- --------------------  ----------------  ----------------
Montreal Canadiens     15  9  4  34 111  96   9  3  1  58  47   6  6  3  53  49 
Boston Bruins          11 10  5  27  91  80   6  5  2  40  34   5  5  3  51  46 
Buffalo Sabres         11 12  2  24  93 102   8  3  1  54  45   3  9  1  39  57 
Hartford Whalers        9 13  1  19  78  88   4  7  0  39  48   5  6  1  39  40 
Quebec Nordiques        8 17  2  18  95 128   4  8  1  47  60   4  9  1  48  68 

Database set to 89-90 season

Division Standings for 12/1

Adams Division         TOTAL                 HOME              AWAY
TEAM                    W  L  T PTS  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA
---------------------- --------------------  ----------------  ----------------
Buffalo Sabres         17  6  4  38  99  80  11  0  1  55  33   6  6  3  44  47 
Montreal Canadiens     17 10  2  36  96  77  12  3  1  62  40   5  7  1  34  37 
Boston Bruins          15  7  2  32  88  64   9  1  1  45  23   6  6  1  43  41 
Hartford Whalers       12 14  1  25  86  89   5  9  1  43  50   7  5  0  43  39 
Quebec Nordiques        6 19  2  14  82 122   3  9  2  48  67   3 10  0  34  55 

Database set to 90-91 season

Division Standings for 12/1

Adams Division         TOTAL                 HOME              AWAY
TEAM                    W  L  T PTS  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA
---------------------- --------------------  ----------------  ----------------
Boston Bruins          14  8  4  32  84  78   7  3  2  45  29   7  5  2  39  49 
Montreal Canadiens     13 12  3  29  85  87   8  5  1  50  41   5  7  2  35  46 
Buffalo Sabres          9 10  6  24  77  78   4  2  4  37  27   5  8  2  40  51 
Hartford Whalers       10 12  4  24  74  84   5  6  3  42  44   5  6  1  32  40 
Quebec Nordiques        5 18  5  15  75 124   2  9  3  34  60   3  9  2  41  64 

Database set to 91-92 season

Division Standings for 12/1

Adams Division         TOTAL                 HOME              AWAY
TEAM                    W  L  T PTS  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA
---------------------- --------------------  ----------------  ----------------
Montreal Canadiens     17 10  2  36  92  60  11  4  0  51  31   6  6  2  41  29 
Boston Bruins          11 10  4  26  91  89   7  3  1  44  36   4  7  3  47  53 
Hartford Whalers       11 11  3  25  81  87   5  4  3  38  32   6  7  0  43  55 
Buffalo Sabres          9 12  3  21  70  80   6  4  2  38  33   3  8  1  32  47 
Quebec Nordiques        6 17  2  14  81 109   6  7  1  48  59   0 10  1  33  50 

Database set to 92-93 season

Division Standings for 12/1

Adams Division         TOTAL                 HOME              AWAY
TEAM                    W  L  T PTS  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA   W  L  T  GF  GA
---------------------- --------------------  ----------------  ----------------
Montreal Canadiens     17  6  3  37 114  77  11  2  2  66  35   6  4  1  48  42 
Quebec Nordiques       13  8  5  31 115  96   8  5  1  67  53   5  3  4  48  43 
Boston Bruins          14  7  2  30  96  82   8  2  2  50  36   6  5  0  46  46 
Buffalo Sabres         10 11  4  24 112  91   8  2  1  61  29   2  9  3  51  62 
Hartford Whalers        6 17  1  13  66 109   3  9  1  32  55   3  8  0  34  54 
Ottawa Senators         2 23  1   5  53 124   2 10  1  29  51   0 13  0  24  73 

Tom