Why Mike Cavanaugh supports moving away from Friday-Saturday schedule

UConn is set to turn back the clock over its next two contests. Instead of playing the usual Friday-Saturday games, the Huskies will battle Maine on Friday night before facing Boston University of Tuesday.

That’s a throwback to the early days of Hockey East.

“Back when I was in college (the late 1980s), I think Hockey East played Friday and Tuesdays,” head coach Mike Cavanaugh said.

Nowadays, almost every game takes place on Friday or Saturday with the occasional Sunday contest. On its 34-game schedule, UConn has just four midweek contests and across the entire league, there are just 15 such matchups (excluding the Beanpot). The same is generally true across all of college hockey: Friday and Saturday dominantes.

Cavanaugh is a proponent of changing that. While the current setup creates a routine for teams and fans alike, it also means almost every Hockey East game happens simultaneously. Take this upcoming weekend as an example. On Friday, three games kick off at 7 p.m. followed by UConn-Maine at 7:30. The next day, the first contest begins at 6 p.m., two more follow at 7 p.m., then the latest starts at 7:30 p.m.

Yet when the Huskies take on BU on Tuesday, they’ll be the only game. Cavanaugh believes more games outside the traditional Friday/Saturday slots would be beneficial to Hockey East.

“I think the league should pick a night and say: This is Hockey East’s night,” he explained. “The Big East used to have Big Monday, I think that Wednesday or whatever, the league should mandate that there's going to be the Hockey East Game of the Week. And why not? Take advantage of it.”

Cavanaugh then presented an idea for the playoffs. Currently, the first round is held on Wednesday and all the quarterfinals take place on Saturday. That schedule could be tweaked, though.

“The 4/5 games should be Friday night. I think we should maximize our viewers for the quarterfinal games. The four and five guys know they’re playing each other in advance. They're not playing on that Wednesday night. Let's play Friday night. Play that game Friday night and then you can play the other three games Saturday at 2:00, 5:00 and 8:00 — or whatever — so we're maximizing our viewership.”

Providence coach Nate Leaman suggested similar, proposing that games be scheduled all throughout the week instead of being limited to just two days. Unlike leagues like the NCHC or Big 10 where most teams have to travel by plane for road trips, Hockey East is all within driving distance. Though Vermont and Maine (both 4-5 hour drives) are longer trips, it’s plenty doable for everyone else.

“Our league is a bus league,” Cavanaugh said. “Yeah, it gets a little challenging with Vermont, Maine but the rest of us, it's not that hard.”

It’s not just about the days of the week, either. While midweek and Friday night games have to start later to allow fans time to get there after work, Saturdays don’t have the same problem. In spite of that, pretty much every single team in the league still schedules contests around 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

The long exception is UConn. All but two of its Saturday and Sunday home games have started at 3:30 p.m. ET. or earlier.

“I'm a big proponent of Saturday afternoon games. I think our Saturday afternoon game attendance is fantastic,” Cavanaugh said. “That's another window that we need to exploit. I don't know why we're playing seven o'clock on a Saturday. Then you're taking all the families out of it that want to bring their kids to a game.”

A counter argument could be that, unlike college basketball or football, hockey is driven by attendance more than television or streaming ratings. A shift away from Friday and Saturdays would favor viewers from home over live crowds.

In theory, at least. Cavanaugh isn’t worried about that for his program’s own fanbase.

“I don't think that's a concern at UConn. It might be at other schools,” the coach said. “There's basketball games every night and the buildings are packed… We had a pretty full building Wednesday (against Alaska Anchorage) and the women's basketball team was playing an hour and a half after us. Then last week we played UMass at 4 p.m. on a Friday and had a full building because men’s basketball was playing at 7:30. So when you have a great fan base, it doesn't matter.”

UConn will certainly be plenty familiar with non-traditional game days and start times by the time the regular season ends. Over its final eight games, half will be outside the traditional Friday night/Saturday window.

Perhaps Cavanaugh’s ideas will fall on deaf ears across the rest of the league and it’ll stick to Friday/Saturday. Or maybe the last month or so of the Huskies’ slate will serve as a preview for the future.