from Tim Leone of PennLive,

Yingst is a member of the AHL's Board of Governors, which last week made it official that the Bakersfield Condors (Edmonton Oilers), Ontario Reign (Los Angeles Kings), San Diego Gulls (Anaheim Ducks), San Jose Barracuda (San Jose Sharks) and Stockton Heat (Calgary Flames) will play 10.5 percent fewer regular-season games.

It was that or risk their potential AHL exit....

As a practical matter, it will only affect the Western Conference teams, particularly the Texas-based members of the Pacific Division. The San Antonio Rampage and Texas Stars will play 76 games (standings positions will be decided by points percentage rather than straight points).

Every team in the Eastern Conference will play the same number of games.

"It would be nice if there was some common ground where everybody was playing the same amount of games," Bears head coach Troy Mann said. "But from our perspective, the Eastern Conference is all set at 76.

"You hope maybe once everybody gets a feel for the new teams, the new division alignments, that maybe they come to some agreement where everybody can play the same amount of games. It's not for me to determine that. Overall, we can't really worry about it. We've got to just worry about the conference itself."

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