Earlier on Sunday night, it was revealed that the New York Rangers have the easiest 2013-14 schedule, at least according to PHT readers. So, who faces the toughest road?
As you can see from the top five, the Vancouver Canucks’ combination of heavy mileage and back-to-backs gave them the nod. Their 403 votes (24.69 percent) edged the San Jose Sharks’ 19.55 percent share (319 votes), as those two teams took a hearty chunk of the 1,632 total votes:
If you want another idea regarding the popularity of the Chicago Blackhawks, chew on this: they were in the top five for both the easiest and toughest schedules. Another interesting fact is that the Rangers came in at eighth place among the toughest schedule poll with 50 votes, although that only accounted for 3.06 percent.
In case you want some context, here’s how the top five toughest schedules look from the context of On the Forecheck’s super schedule.
Vancouver: 48,510 miles traveled, 17 back-to-backs
San Jose: 57,612 miles, 10 BtB
Boston: 42,389 miles, 17 BtB
Phoenix: 52,633 miles, 12 BtB
Chicago: 38,680 miles, 18 BtB
Judging from that snapshot, it seems like voters weigh both mileage and back-to-backs quite a bit.
Here are the teams who drew the least amount of votes:
Colorado, Edmonton and Nashville were in the bottom five of the easiest poll, too.