Wray Morrison: Bye and bye

I’ve heard a lot of discussion about the NHL’s bye weeks.

This is the first season teams get at least one five-day break with no practices or games during the season.

It was a trade off the NHL had to make with the players association to maintain the three-on-three tournament at all star weekend. All of the bye weeks for every team is either in January or February.

A coach or two and a handful of players have grumbled about the bye weeks.The slightly compressed schedule does mean more back-to-back games.

However, even though this was something the players wanted, I can see advantages for coaches, general managers and owners.

The bye week gives coaches a chance to re-think strategy, GM’s a chance to prep for the trade deadline and ownership a chance to assess management and gives them a window to make a personnel change.

To me, the benefits outweigh the inconvenience of added back to back nights of hockey.