It’s no secret by now, the bye-week has been a fail for the NHL. The Capitals in particular felt the bye-weeks impact, after two back-to-back losses.
It’s a great concept, an 82-game season is grueling on players. With the high level of intensity that players preform, no one is complaining about giving them a week off.
The problem with the bye-week though, comes in how the NHL has built their schedule.
With a whole-week off, games are now forced to be crammed together even more so than the past. It’s effectively done worse for player safety than what the NHL expected.