June 2nd -- 60 games

Blame the Olympics for all of it!!

The AJHL has reduced their number of regular season games from 62 to 60 for a number of reasons, one of which is the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

There have been rumblings at the board level for a couple of years there are too many games being played in the AJHL with a number of prime weekend dates being taken up with Showcase weekend, All Star game, World Jr. A Challenge, CJHL prospects game and now with the league trying to avoid conflicts of their games with the Team Canada games at the 2010 Olympics it seemed like the right time to reduce the overall number of games being played.

Teams will gain from the reduced costs on the hockey operation side of things and the games that will be taken away will, for most teams, be low revenue generating weekday contests.

The two games from the schedule which will be lost are the extra home and away game which was played against a traditional divisional rival. For instance, the Bonnyville Pontiacs will now only play Lloydminster 6 times a year instead of 8 making the early season contests for the Challenge Cut all that more interesting, not that the coaching staff of either team cares about the trophy as much as the two points on the line.

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There had also been talk of a midseason game played against the BCHL which would take the place of each leagues all star game. While there was discussion there was disagreement as to whether this should be played with all star teams or with top prospect teams. The game would also have taken place very close to the start of the Olympics and there is worry having any event in BC close to the Olympics will make it tough to find sponsorship as attention will be elsewhere. Expect talk of this type of matchup to continue and I would be shocked if something wasn't in place for the 2010-11 season. In the mean time Fort Mac gets the all star game.

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In case I don't get to the blogging tomorrow for some reason happy birthday voice of the Storm Jeff Hensen. Jeff also gets congrats on another child. Way to go bud.