There have been a lot of complaints about the NHL's unbalanced schedule.

And, to a large degree, I agree with them. While the increased number of intradivisional games have helped to try to recreate some of the longstanding and rancorous divisional feuds, it's also taken away one of the draws of seeing hockey in person. Under the old schedule, I always thought that one great argument for buying season tickets was that even with the sport essentially untelevised on any sort of wide, national level, you'd have the chance to see every great player in person at least once a year. That's not the case any more, and one of the public relations downsides for the sport that I've seen cited a few places is that with the unbalanced schedule there are certain Western Conference markets that won't have an opportunity to see the Penguins' young talent-- Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Staal-- in person any more often than once every three years.

For his part, Crosby also agrees that the schedule needs to be changed. He'd like to see a setup where the Penguins play the Flyers 82 times a year. In the 5 wins this season, Sid's piled up 15 points (7 goals, 8 assists), or 7.5 points for every tooth of his Derian Hatcher chipped last year. Over a full season, that translates to a SEGA NHL '95esque 246 points (115 goals, 131 assists).