This morning the NHL released it's upcoming regular season schedule. Fingers crossed the season actually starts on time with the CBA expiring in September. Similar to what I did here, here is the breakdown of some of the highlighted games as well as our favorite teams.
Opening night is Thursday, October 11th, featuring 4 games and 2 broadcasted nationally here on NBC Sports Network. At 7 we have the Boston Bruins heading to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers and at 10 we'll see the St. Louis Blues take on the Colorado Avalance in Denver. On Friday, October 12th, NBC Sports Network will also televise the 10:30 match up between the Kings and Rangers to show the raising of their championship banner. The Kings and Devils only game will come on February 9th in New Jersey.
Tuesday, January 1st features only 1 game and that is the 2013 Winter Classic in Detroit featuring the Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. A 1pm start and nationally televised on NBC, it will be a classic original six match up. This game is always fun to watch and will be played at the University of Michigan's football stadium. This game will most likely break the record for highest attendance ever for any hockey game ever.
January 24th through the 28th is the All Star Break where players will get together in Columbus, Ohio for the annual All-Star game. Speaking of which, let's check out what's in store for the Columbus Blue Jackets this upcoming season.
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COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
The Blue Jackets kick off the season on the road with a familiar central division foe in the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, October 13th. They have a 3 game road trip to start the season before opening up at Nationwide Arena (with a new scoreboard and everything!) on Friday, October 19 against the Vancouver Canucks. You play each of your division teams 6 times (24 games), teams in your conference 4 times (40 games), the Eastern Conference once (15 games) and 3 of those Eastern teams 1 extra time for a total of 82. The 3 Eastern Conference teams CBJ play twice are Carolina, Winnipeg, and New Jersey.
October:
Features 8 games of which only 3 are at home.
Best games:
Opening night obviously and a home game on the 23rd versus Detroit.
November:
Features 13 games of which only 6 are at home meaning 12 of their first 21 games are on the road. This includes their first west coast road trip (4 in row) to Anaheim, LA, San Jose, and Buffalo. Friday, November 2nd is the only time CBJ and the Pens meet up at this year it's at Nationwide.
Best games:
Saturday night game at home against the defending champs LA Kings on the 10th and another home game against LA on Friday, November 30th. A home and home weekend (Fri/Sat) on the 23rd and 24th against Nashville after Thanksgiving.
December:
Features 15 games (LOADED month) of which only FIVE games are at home. This will be a crucial month for the CBJ not only having to face 10 road games but 15 total games in a 31 day period is a brutal stretch. They make their 2nd (and final) west coast trip (4 in a row again) to LA, Anaheim, San Jose, and Phoenix as well as a 3 gamer in the mid west heading to Detroit, St. Louis, and Dallas. 2012 started with Chicago and will culminate with a home game on New Year's Eve against Chicago.
Best games:
Saturday December 15th vs. Phoenix as many familiar CBJ faces will be back in town. The Eastern Conference Champs Devils will be in town Saturday December 29th.
January:
Features the normal-ish 13 games of which only 6 are home (granted the final 2 home games of this month are a part of a 3 game homestand that stretches into first game of February). To kick off 2013, CBJ heads up for their first northwest Canada trip to see Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
Best games:
Obviously All Star Weekend will be the highlight of this month for the fans. January features many Central Division match ups on the 12th, 15th, 17th, 29th, and 31st. Luckily none will be the Red Wings.
February:
Features just 12 games of which 8 are at home (FINALLY!). This includes a large 6 game homestand from the 8th to the 18th against Colorado, Edmonton, San Jose, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, and Anaheim. Those are going to be all great games!
March:
March tends to be the heaviest month for all teams and CBJ get 14 games of which 8 are at home including a 5 game homestand. The 8th and 9th will be a home and home with Detroit. The homestand is from my birthday on the 12th to the 22nd featuring Nashville, Phoenix, Anaheim, Chicago and Ottawa. The month finishes with a rough 4 game trip up to the Northwest again to take on Nashville, Edmonton, Vancouver and Calgary.
April:
With the season starting rather late this year due to the calendar, the regular season won't finish until Saturday, April 13th. CBJ will play 7 games and have 4 of them at home. They finish the season at the Wild.
Best games:
April 2nd home vs. Detroit. The Rangers come to town on April 5th. April 11th will see San Jose as the final home game of the season.
Summary:
If the Blue Jackets can muster a decent effort in the first half of the season including the early January trip to NW Canada, the homestretch of February, March and April are very kind to CBJ fans. The problem is getting to the All Star Weekend. They play 47 games before that weekend and only 19 are at Nationwide Arena. They'll finish the season with 35 games of which 22 are at home
Worst Case Scenario:
The Blue Jackets just get creamed with their brutal stretch of games in December and are once again out of the hunt before New Year's Day. It's only good to have a lot of home games late in the season if you are in the hunt. They finish near the bottom, if not the worst in the West because it's de ja vu all over again. Rick Nash leads his new team to a President's Trophy haha.
Best Case Scenario:
They hold down the fort and play close to .500 hockey through the All-Star Weekend (floating somewhere between the 8th and 12th spots). They ramp it up with some trading deadline acquisitions and give the city of Columbus something to cheer for with more than a handful of home games to finish the season. They'll make a concentrated effort to snag the 7th or 8th seed and somehow pull it off. Rick Nash is a bust for his new team and doesn't make the playoffs. A very HMD moment for CBJ fans everywhere.
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PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
The Penguins kick off the season at home against Atlantic Division rival the New York Islanders on Friday, October 12th. They immediately play their first road game in Buffalo the following night. Lame. Again, the breakdown is the same except they play the West all once except for Red Wings, Blues and Wild.
October:
Features 9 games of which only 4 are at home. The final 2 games of the month are on the road as a part of a big 6 game road trip that goes from October 26th through November 7th.
Best games:
Home opener duh! The first game against the Flyers is in Philly on October 18th. Vancouver and the Rangers come to town on the 23rd and 25th.
November:
Features 14 games of which only 6 are at home. This includes finishing up the long road trip that featured Ottawa, Washington, Columbus, New Jersey, Chicago, and Toronto. They then get their first 3 game homestand against Edmonton, Colorado and Toronto. 4 of the final 5 are home against New Jersey, Carolina (Friday after Thanksgiving), Minnesota, and San Jose.
December:
Features 14 games of which half are at home. This includes a 3 game trip to the Caps, Bruins and Jets. It also features an awesome New Year's Eve game at home against Ovechkin and the Craps.
Summary:
37 games and 17 are at home. A relatively balanced schedule. The end of October/early November six game road trip really stands out. I expect the Penguins to have a fairly decent record by this points and be in the top 5-6 in the East.
January:
Only 11 games of which only 4 are at home (all before the All-Star game too). Ok, so after 48 games, only 21 are at home. This month features a west coast trip to Anaheim and Phoenix and finishes with Montreal. Nothing crazy here.
February:
Features 13 games of which 7 are at home. This includes the first 5 at home between the 2nd and 12th featuring the Senators, Devils, Canadiens, defending Cup Champs Kings, and the stupid stupid match up with the Flyers. 8 days later is another game with the Cryers. The last 2 games of the month are the beginning of a 6 game road trip.
March:
Features 14 games of which 9 are at home. The month starts with the final 4 games of the 6 game road trip that features Florida, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, NY Rangers, Carolina, and Toronto. Then the Pens embark on a 7 game homestand against the Sabres, Rangers, Sabres again, Bruins, Panthers, Isalnders, and Flyers.
Best games:
Their 5th game with Philly comes 2 days after the final game of that homestand at Philly. They play the Rangers twice at home as well as the Islanders.
April:
Features 7 games of which only 3 are at home. Their final home game is April 7th against the Crapitals before going on a 3 game road trip to Philly, Tampa Bay, and Florida to finish on the 13th.
Summary:
A couple things here. First, there is no west coast trip beyond 2 days in this schedule including no NW Canada trip which is nice. Second, we play the Flyers 5 times from February on out including 3 times between March 24 and April 9th. Division on the line perhaps? If they can get through the month of January which is their most difficult month, I really like February and love March. The end of April kind of sucks but any time your final 12 of 17 games are at home, you don't complain much.
Worst Case Scenario:
The Pens get off to a slow start and January just owns them forcing them to take advantage of February and March. Barring a couple catastrophic injuries, this team will make the playoffs but could be as low as 6-7. Sid Crosby gets injured again, Staal gets traded and Vokoun is forced to replace MAF in net.
Best Case Scenario:
They handle the first 4 months with relative ease, dominate their heavy home schedule in the homestretch leading to a top 3 seed, if not the best team in the East. We sign Staal long term, our 3 center model once again dominates, and Sid and Geno are neck in neck for the lead in the points race.
