It’s the hockey equivalent of high school kids being told there will be four fewer math tests next year.

Yay!

This is the final year of the ridiculous money grab known as the extended NHL pre-season and the end of the era can’t come fast enough.

Starting next fall, training camps will be reduced to 13 days from 21 days and the number of exhibition games will be slashed from eight in some cases (like Edmonton) down to four.

Instead of rolling out a bunch of players who are never going to make the team for the first four or five games and then getting serious in the last three, coaches will have to get right to it.

No messing around. Get the veterans out there and start preparing everyone for opening night.

Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch likes the idea of getting right down to business in a 13-day, four-game camp.

“I think four, maybe five exhibition games would be the best case scenario,” he said, the morning after Edmonton just wrapped up its sixth pre-season game, with two more to go on Wednesday and Friday.

There might be some clubs, in the rebuilding stage of their life cycle, who might want an extra game or two to evaluate incoming youth and see where all the pieces fit. For them, five or even six games might make sense.

But for established teams who’ve had their spots filled since the middle of summer, why waste time icing pre-season rosters that are comprised mostly of rookies and AHLers who won’t be playing on the team?

“You have a pretty good idea what your team is going to look like,” said Knoblauch. “It will get you down to your roster quicker. And we’ll have a little more practice time.”

It’s a great change for fans and media who want to see the team get to the meat of things faster, but it will also cut into the opportunity a young player has to get noticed and make an impression. If pre-season lineups are stronger, with veterans taking up most of the spots, good luck trying to wedge your way in.

Then again, the days of an unheralded rookie coming in unexpectedly and stealing a spot are exceedingly rare. In this age of guaranteed contracts, the teams are pretty much picked on the first day of camp.

“It will definitely be harder, and probably harder for veterans who are on PTOs because they’re only allowed two games,” said Knoblauch. “But the young guys can play all four games. Overall, as a coach trying to get his team ready for the regular season, I’m looking forward to only four games.”

Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner agrees that no scenario is perfect.

“Everyone is in so many different situations,” he said. “It’s a tricky thing. You hear one person’s opinion and think, ‘Oh yeah, that sounds great.’ And then you hear somebody else and think that might be a little bit of a tougher situation. It’s all very relative to each person.”

But they all admit the eight-game thing was almost a make-work project. It forced coaches to ice lineups that everyone knew had nothing to do with the NHL season and it forced veterans to sit in the press box for half the games because they didn’t want to get worn out or risk injury before the season even started.

“I believe it is (a make-work project), I believe eight is too many,” said Knoblauch. “Last year we had some of our better players playing four or five games, this year it’s down to three or four.

“It’s almost a month of training camp. Players start to get in right after Labour Day and are skating. I think they’re ready for the real deal.”

Oilers defenceman Brett Kulak is already getting into the spirit of things. He’s only played two of the six exhibition games sofar and says the schedule agrees with him.

“Over the last two seasons I’ve played around 110 games each, so taking one off in the pre-season is a good thing,” he said. “That’s probably the sweet spot for me, three pre-season games.

“The first game is different, just getting your touches. Game 2 is a little better and you’re kind of getting your game legs back and being tested that way. Then the third game gets you ready for what the live action is going to be.”

The flip side is that next year’s regular season is 84 games instead of 82. Gotta make up that pre-season gate money somehow.

That’s less of an issue, said Kulak.

“Eighty-two is already a lot of hockey. At that point it’s kind of like what’s two more?”

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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