Waiting on That Schedule
We have an official start date.
We also have the number of games the Red Wings are going to play. What we don't have is the official schedule just yet from the NHL. I'll be very interested to see what it actually looks like - a Leastern Conference team may not be so interested.
Why? Because they don't have teams in their conference that are 2 time zones of travel away. With the compressed season, those Western Canada and California trips become juuuuust a little more grueling.
As for that once a year show down with Crysob and his ugly Russian girlfriend? Not happening.
Make the jump.
January 19th is the date that the season officially will get started according to Khan(!).
And here are the numbers...
Number of games to be played - 48
Number of games to be played against Eastern Conference teams - 0
Number of games to be played against Division "rivals" - 10 (five games against two opponents)
Number of games to be played against Division "non-rivals" - 8 (four games against two opponents)
Number of games to be played against the rest of the Western Conference - 30 (three games against 10 opponents)
So does Bill Daly get to decide which of the Central Division is considered a "rival" of the Detroit Red Wings? Chicago is one obviously...but then who else do you pick? Would the St. Louis fans consider Detroit a "rival" team? How about the good folks of DSW and other fine retail fashion stores down in Columbus (fashion capital of the Midwest...just ask Sean Avery)?
I'm guessing Daly is going to pick Nashville as our other "rival" just to make sure that Bubba and all his cousins down there remember what the game of hockey is...at least that gives us a chance to see Carrie once or twice this year.
But again - those West Coast trips are probably going to suck even more than usual. And we'll play the San Jose Sharks one game less than we the Blue Jackets? That seems kind of screwy to me...but hey...what do I know.
I'm just a blogger.
did anyone else see them line combos the mentioned on the red wings official site?
here they are anyway...
"It’s expected that Smith and Kyle Quincey will be paired together on the Wings’ second defensive unit, while Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson will comprise the first unit, and former Maple Leafs teammates Ian White and Carlo Colaiacovo will make up the third until. Jakub Kindl will be the seventh defenseman in the rotation".
"It’s expected that the Red Wings line combinations will start out a little differently from where they left off last spring. Anticipate a Euro-twin reunion with Pavel Datsyuk centering a line with Henrik Zetterberg and new Swiss import Damien Brunner. The other lines are shaping up this way: Filppula, Johan Franzen, and Mikael Samuelson; Todd Bertuzzi, Darren Helm and Daniel Cleary; and Drew Miller, Justin Abdelkader and Jordin Tootoo".
im know this still aint final but maybe i is a bit more solid then from rumors and other things i've read, seem pretty legit tho, be good to see datsyuk and zetterberg together again, they had proper magic in the past and with the chemisry zetterberg and brunner have got already might make for some boss hockey.
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I'm glad they didn't follow through on the "play each team in your division seven times" idea being tossed around earlier.
