It’s the time of the year when we turn our attention to Florida and the American Hockey Coaches Association convention in Naples. Things start Wednesday afternoon with some committee meetings before the real deal gets going on Thursday.
The conferences add their own annual meetings either before or after the convention, and this year there’s one more member in the party.
The schools of the Big Ten Conference are meeting during the AHCA convention, not before or after to avoid overlapping with WCHA and CCHA meetings.
Expect a lot of discussion about how that 20-game Big Ten schedule will look when the 2013-14 season rolls around so the six teams can start planning for larger non-conference schedules.
Word is that the schedule discussion is wide open in terms of altering the traditional weekend slate to allow for more games on the Big Ten Network. But the schools will be mindful of the school calendar and travel costs when planning things.
My interpretation there is that two-game series on weekends is still the preference, but we’ll have to see how that fits into a TV schedule.
Between all of the coaching changes made so far (and those still to come) and the impending changes to the conference landscape, there should be some interesting discussions in and around Naples in the coming days.
