NHL governors fail to reach consensus on new schedule, playoff format

Anaheim Ducks executive Brian Burke told reporters that the board was unable to reach a consensus on either issue. Many Western Conference teams had sought a change to the unbalanced schedule to have more games against the Eastern teams and young stars like Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.

A change to the playoff format was also discussed.

The board looked at going to a bracketed format similar to the NCAA basketball tournament but the necessary two-thirds majority could not be reached on that issue either.