Finally, the lop-sided — not to mention short-sighted — schedule that the National Hockey League inflicted upon its fans is about to come to an end.

It's supposed to be a secret, and there's always a chance that the league's governors could suffer a brain cramp at the last minute (there's ample precedent) but it now appears almost certain that when they meet at the end of the month, they will change the schedule that has been in place for three years.

As usual, the NHL's governors are meeting in a place that has historic relevance to the sport they love the most — Pebble Beach, this time — so the amount of time they devote to hockey will be limited.

But judging by the early returns, the attempts to maintain the current schedule, led by Lou Lamoriello of the New Jersey Devils, will fail.

Lamoriello's dearly beloved concept of eight divisional games per year will be scrapped and reduced to six.

That frees up room to make sure that every team plays each other at least once. The existing format of playing the non-divisional teams in your conference four times — two in each venue — will stay.

So that will give us 24 divisional games, 40 conference games and 15 non-conference games. That's a total of 79, which should be enough to determine which teams belong in the playoffs. But it's three short of the existing total and you have to know that there's no way the governors will voluntarily reduce revenue.

Therefore, the league will add three wild-card games.

For Canadian teams, that's an ideal situation. The three Eastern teams will play the three Western teams twice a year instead of just once.

But it will give the governors some headaches in other areas because the relative strength of teams changes from year to year. Still, the NFL can find a way to do it, so the NHL should be able to manage — even though the NHL is much more accustomed to copying the NBA rather than the NFL.

The new schedule still has its flaws. Fans in the West will get to see players like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Rick Nash, Vincent Lecavalier and Ilya Kovalchuk only once every two years. Similarly, easterners won't become overly familiar with players like Anze Kopitar, Paul Stastny, Henrik Zetterburg and many others.

But at least it's better than seeing them once every three years, which is now the case. And depending on the wild-card breakdown, you might get lucky.

Most fans say that they'd like to have every team visit their town at least once a year. But that concept receives strong opposition from eastern teams who love their cozy (not to mention cheap) travel schedule.

Also, there are many governors who have been led to believe that rivalries are built through frequency of contact.

That was the argument Lamoriello used when he spearheaded the fight to bring in the existing system. Curiously enough, that system also allows his team to bus to a good portion of its road schedule.

But really, it would seem that the two primary sources of intense rivalry are geographical proximity and playoff competition. The three New York teams are always going to be rivals because they're located so near to each other. Ditto Calgary-Edmonton, and so on.

But there are also instances where passions are inflamed in the postseason and as a result, fans remember those series for years. That's why games between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche are still a hot ticket, for example.

The heart of the matter is that for once, the NHL should think of its fans rather than its profit margin.

The game is fortunate to have a huge crop of fantastic young players in the game right now. In an attempt to overcome commissioner Gary Bettman's ill-conceived notion to shut the game down for a year and thereby all but destroy interest, the league should be marketing those players.

It should be making clips of their dazzling plays and shipping them to TV outlets in the markets in which they will soon be playing. It should be developing a national ad campaign that promotes these kids and lets borderline fans know that they have emerged.

But if you follow that kind of plan, the whole concept falls apart if fans can't get to see the players in question.

You can imagine the conversation: "Hey did you see the clip of that incredible young hockey player? I think I'll go see him when he comes to town. When will that be?"

"February 2009."

"Oh. I guess I'll stick with synchronized refrigerator crushing."

At least the governors have recognized the error of their ways and will be making the young stars more accessible. But really, even with the new schedule, it's not good enough.

The new schedule still has its flaws. Fans in the West will get to see players like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Rick Nash, Vincent Lecavalier and Ilya Kovalchuk only once every two years. Similarly, easterners won't become overly familiar with players like Anze Kopitar, Paul Stastny, Henrik Zetterburg and many others.