NHL Schedule Day!

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Once in a while I’ll have days that I realize that I need to get a hold of my life. Today is one of those days. The NHL schedule is out, and I’m planning my entire year accordingly!

The first thing I asked was, “When do we play the Sharks?” From a strictly emotional level, Staples Center should be electric. So when I saw that the Kings open with a weekend home-and-home with San Jose, I couldn’t have planned a better way to start the season. There should be a healthy hatred between those two teams no later than mid-October! Not to mention, it’s so early in the season, the Kings won’t be out of it… yet. Follow the two games against the Sharks with a home game against the Ducks and it should be an emotional first week of the season.

The next thing I looked for was the schedule in late November. My fiancé and I are getting married the weekend before Thanksgiving, so I wanted to know which game was going to be on in the background of the wedding pictures. Maybe we can get the photographer to take a picture of us with Joe Sakic or Bob Miller—via high def television, of course!

(This wouldn’t be the first time, there a precedent here. Our housewarming, there is Jim Fox in the background of a few pictures. Since the Kings came back from a 5 goal deficit in the 3rd period, they played an important role in breaking our house in properly.)

That same weekend the Kings head north of the border to do their annual swing through Alberta. I don’t know, but could fate be taking us to beautiful downtown Edmonton and Calgary for a mini-honeymoon? Who needs Maui? In fact, we’ve already talked about it and she’s all over this idea. Reason #851354 we are getting married: Hockey-themed Honeymoons.

With the new layout, I was curious to see if the Kings were traveling to Philadelphia or if the Flyers were coming out west to play in Southern California. My boy Alex and I have been betting on King/Flyer games for 20 years, so it’s always something to look forward to when the schedule comes out.

Well, the gambling gods must want me to kick-up the action in my life, because the Flyers are one of the 3 “wild card” teams from the east. Starting this year, the Kings will play against all 15 Eastern Conference teams (half at home and half on the road). 3 of the 15 will be special wild-card teams that the Kings will play at home and on the road. Looks like I’ll be collecting TWICE from Alex this year. Come to think of it, even if the Kings suck this year (probable), if they can sweep Philadelphia, I think this rebuilding year will be a little more palatable. As long as kicked goals are not allowed, the Kings have a puncher’s chance. Maybe the wager will be something like: “Whoever wins gets Ron Hextall.” (He’s the Kings current Assistant GM and former Flyer goalie). Here is why you’d want him on your team...

So those are some of the first thoughts on the schedule. I love how teams play every team from the opposing conference. Whoever at the league office that had the bright idea to play 8 games against division foes, only to NOT play some of the teams from the opposing conference… well, that person needs to be fired. (Hey, wasn’t it Gary Bettman? Hmmm.) I missed seeing all of the eastern conference teams, and I think it will be better for the sport as a whole. Now all the fans in the east will become more familiar with the players that are out west. There’s even a possibility that next year, each team will play in EVERY CITY at least once. Here’s how the new layout breaks down for this season:

-- 6 games vs. your own division (3 home/3 away) 24 games
-- 4 games vs. your own conference (2 home/2 away) 40 games
-- 1 game vs. the other conference (1 home or away) 15 games
-- 3 wild-card games against the other conference (makes up the home-and-home with another team) 3 games

-- Total Games = 82 games

Another thing that should be interesting is that the Kings’ schedule is so front loaded. Of the first 14 games, 11 of them are at home. They better get off to a good start or its going to be a really long season. The silver lining is that attendance for the two major home stands should be great, because the Kings won’t be mathematically eliminated in October or early November! (They usually wait and make that a Christmas gift). The bad part of such a home-heavy schedule in October is that they have to make up all of those road games at the end of the season. From the beginning of February, the Kings have 23 road games and only 11 home games. In fact, 12 of the last 16 games are away from the friendly confines of Staples Center. If the Kings are in the playoff hunt, well… they better know how to win on the road, or it will get ugly fast.

For anyone that’s looking for roadies, the weekend after Christmas has some potential. The day after Christmas (a Friday night), the Kings welcome the Coyotes. Saturday night, the ‘yotes return the favor and host the back end of the home-and-home in the desert. Since there’s usually some bad blood that spills over between games, it looks like we’ll be traveling to Phoenix for a holiday gift to ourselves.

Another potential trip is to head up to Quebec at the end of January for a game against the Canadiens in Montreal. Take a day off, and then catch a game with the Kings visiting Ottawa. It’s always nice to take in some of the passion from the fans in Canada. It so much more fun to be part of a game where the fans care, as opposed to, say… Anaheim?

The season conveniently ends against the same team it starts again: the Sharks. If by some act of God the Kings are still relevant by April, it’ll be great to see these two teams go at it for the last time of the season. Either they’ll be chasing a playoff spot, or chasing the top spot in the Hedman/Tavares sweepstakes.

All in all, this is just another step in getting through the dog days of summer. The beginning of the season will be here, just not soon enough. The Dodgers are killing me!