Analysis: Plus-minus of 2019-20 schedule

The NHL schedule would seem to be, at first blush, a most fair and equitable document.

After all, it compels each of the league's 31 teams to play 82 regular-season games, evenly divided between home and away.

Eastern Conference clubs, like the Penguins, play four games against every division opponent and three each against clubs in the conference's other division. The balance of the schedule is two games, one home and one away, against Western Conference teams.

The format for Western teams, of which there is one fewer than in the East, is somewhat more complicated. Those clubs all face Eastern opponents twice, but the Central Division, which has seven members, has a slightly different set-up…