How the NBA Finals schedule change will impact the Stanley Cup Finals

Thursday, the NBA announced a change to its Finals schedule. From now on, any travel period will contain two days between games, leaving the traditional Thursday-Sunday-Tuesday rotation. That rotation was in place to have three games a week while completely avoiding Friday and Saturday, the two lowest-rated nights of the week. Thus, the two-day breaks happened on weekends, and the one-day breaks happened on weekdays, regardless of travel. Sometimes, there was no travel on a two-day break, and other times teams had to travel on a one-day break.

ESPN

The only two-day break outside of a travel day is between Games 1 and 2, presumably to guarantee a game on a Sunday, the highest-rated night of the week. I assume the days of the week will stay the same in future seasons.

So how will this impact the schedule of the Stanley Cup Finals? As a reminder, in prior years, the Stanley Cup Finals started on a Wednesday, always the day before the NBA Finals, and the rotation was Wednesday-(Fri/Sat)-Monday-Wednesday-(Fri/Sat)-Monday-Wednesday.

On the Fri/Sat splits, it was Friday whenever the Belmont Stakes were not on that Saturday, and if the Belmont Stakes were on that Saturday, the game immediately followed the Belmont Stakes on NBC.

Here is how I believe the rotation will be in future years:

Game 1: Wednesday
Game 2: Fri/Sat (based on Belmont Stakes)

Game 3: Mon/Tue. Since neither of these days any longer has an NBA game, I think the NHL will place Game 3 three days after Game 2, to give an extra day for travel, just like the NBA.

Game 4: Thursday
Game 5: Sat/Sun (based on Belmont Stakes)
Game 6: Tuesday
Game 7: Friday

2016:
Game 1: Wednesday, June 1, 8:22 ET
Game 2: Friday, June 3, 8:22 ET
Game 3: Monday, June 6, 8:22 ET
Game 4: Thursday, June 9, 8:22 ET
Game 5: Saturday, June 11, 7:15 ET (after Belmont Stakes)
Game 6: Tuesday, June 14, 8:22 ET
Game 7: Friday, June 17, 8:22 ET