T1B

http://www.nhl.com/schedules/index.html

As Bettman stated at the press conference last Friday, all 30 teams play on opening night (Wednesday, October 5). Nice rivalry games to open the season...Sens-Leafs, Wings-Blues, Habs-Bruins, Flyers-Rangers. I notice that they have some afternoon games scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays...I'm assuming those would be the national games if and when the league gets a new TV deal. I'm going to atleast one game this year for sure...maybe more depending on if the price of tickets go down.

Thoughts?

(BTW--the SNC will return...Week 1 will be on October 8 with a dozen games on the schedule)

You gotta love the first HNIC.

Habs vs Leafs
Canucks vs Oilers

I'm gonna wear my adult diaper and drink until the CBC signs off.

Cherry & Hrudey, I can't wait

Nice to see Vancouver visits Minnesota 3 times in the month of October, with 2 games being back to back.

Shoalzie wrote:http://www.nhl.com/schedules/index.html

As Bettman stated at the press conference last Friday, all 30 teams play on opening night (Wednesday, October 5). Nice rivalry games to open the season...Sens-Leafs, Wings-Blues, Habs-Bruins, Flyers-Rangers. I notice that they have some afternoon games scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays...I'm assuming those would be the national games if and when the league gets a new TV deal. I'm going to atleast one game this year for sure...maybe more depending on if the price of tickets go down.

Thoughts?

(BTW--the SNC will return...Week 1 will be on October 8 with a dozen games on the schedule)

Sweet...

You have room for a few more entries on it? There's a few people over at another site that might be interested in playing as well.

Otis wrote:Sweet...

You have room for a few more entries on it? There's a few people over at another site that might be interested in playing as well.

The more, the merrier...

Bruins have 8 straight home games in January, outstanding!

jtr wrote:Bruins have 8 straight home games in January, outstanding! Perfect time to play themselves out of a playoff spot

FTFY

I know Kings fan isnt running smack on another team not making the playoffs, even the Ducks have more playoff cred than the Kings

The Wings don't play Boston, Toronto, or Montreal all year.



Great. :roll:

Blitzkrieg wrote:The Wings don't play Boston, Toronto, or Montreal all year.



Great. :roll:

Isn't it about time you got over your Original Six fixations? Christ, it was 38 years ago.

You'll get to play them each once in the two years after anyway.

The Wings and the Blues have a rivalry? Thank you thank you thank you for legitimizing our obsessions despite the fact that Detroit considers us a speed bump on the road to the Cup.

Love,
Bluesfanfelice.

That is the one thing I hate about the schedule, too many divisional games, 8 against each divisional rival is too many. The Pacific Division will not see Sidney Crosby at all this season.

Kings don't really have a true rivalry with any of their divisional rivals. Kings fans make up 60% of crowds at the Pond when they play the Ducks.

I think that the NHL wants to cater to, as well as create new, rivalries with the new format.

Blitzkrieg wrote:The Wings don't play Boston, Toronto, or Montreal all year.



Great. :roll:

'Sup Blitz...ready for fantasy hockey?

I think the NHL is missing the boat by not squeezing in a couple of Detroit/Toronto games.

Geographically & historically they are rivals.

Captain Haddock wrote:I think the NHL is missing the boat by not squeezing in a couple of Detroit/Toronto games.

Geographically & historically they are rivals.

Geographically sure.

Historically, in the past 30 years you could argue that the Blues have had more of a rivalry with the Leafs than the Wings.

But I'm with Blitz... I'd have liked for the schedule to include more original 6 rivalries during the regular season..
It's enough for Leafs fans knowing we're in line to knock our divisional rivals out each and almost every spring.

Cross Traffic wrote:That is the one thing I hate about the schedule, too many divisional games, 8 against each divisional rival is too many. The Pacific Division will not see Sidney Crosby at all this season.

Kings don't really have a true rivalry with any of their divisional rivals. Kings fans make up 60% of crowds at the Pond when they play the Ducks.

That's exactly why they've done the schedule this way. If you see those teams more there's a greater chance that a rivalry will develop.

I love the new schedule. Bring back the battle of Alberta!

Currently the 2 most hated teams by Kings fans are the Wings and Avs, the Kings haven't played a divisional rival in the playoffs since 1993 under the old playoff format (Calgary and Vancouver).

Otis wrote:Historically, in the past 30 years you could argue that the Blues have had more of a rivalry with the Leafs than the Wings.

God bless the Norris. I just can't get up the ire for an Oilers game like I can for the Leafs. Sure, time and distance has tempered this somewhat and drawn more attention to the Wings and Stars. I'd hate the Avs more if they weren't Quebec so recently.

The Kings have 2 expansion teams in their division and the only reason neither have become a rival of LA is because both are better. You cant be a rival if youre so inferior to the team you should be rivals with

My take on the schedule is this: each team play 72 of their 82 games against their own conference. My feeling is why not just go all the way with the intra-conference idea and have all games be against your own conference. The idea of rotating inter-conference opponents is the only fair thing to do considering have 10 games with 15 teams. Some teams will be left out each year. I like the idea of putting more emphasis on conference play since they are the teams you're going to compete with for playoff position anyways.

I love some of the old time rivalries but other than Toronto, I don't need to see the Wings play the rest of the Original 6 every year. I'm not saying to hell with tradition but playing one game against the Leafs, Bruins, Rangers and Canadiens isn't going to make my hockey experience any better or worse. I started watching hockey when the Leafs were still in the Norris Division and the Wings and Leafs had some good battles in the postseason. With the realignment that came later, I wasn't heartbroken to see them go to the Eastern Conference along with the 3 other Original 6 teams. I'd like to think that Ottawa and Montreal are bigger rivals to the Leafs at this point anyways. The Wings have their own Western rivalries with Colorado, St. Louis and Dallas.

My only gripe about the new schedule is for some of the weird sets of games. The Wings play the Blackhawks three games in a row...at the Joe on October 27, in Chicago on the October 29 and then back in Detroit on November 1. Also, the Wings play back-to-back road games with Columbus on October 22 and 24.

JD wrote:

Blitzkrieg wrote:The Wings don't play Boston, Toronto, or Montreal all year.



Great. :roll:

Isn't it about time you got over your Original Six fixations? Christ, it was 38 years ago.

You'll get to play them each once in the two years after anyway.

Naw dude, that totally blows. The Leafs/Wings home and home was something I looked forward to every year.