The Leafs schedule just went down. Another 82 games await the playoffs. This sounds very pessimistic. After a summer without hockey, we’ll gladly take our opener on October 11th against Montreal and with a new GM there will certainly be interest in taking the new roster for a test drive and establishing new playoff expectations ahead of new disappointments.
The Leafs schedule requires some specifics, and we’ll start with some key dates.
October 11th is the season opener/home opener against Montreal.
Their first meeting with the Panthers comes on October 19th in Florida, and they’ll face the Lightning two nights later, too.
April 17th is Tampa’s last regular season game. The Leafs finish off the year on a road trip in Florida yet again.
As mentioned just about everywhere, Kyle Dubas returns to Toronto on December 16th, but the Leafs will take on the Penguins in Pittsburgh on November 25th.
Dubas’ game will be preceded by the return of Mike Babcock two nights ago on December 14th with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Spencer Carberry coaches his first game against the Leafs on October 24 but won’t return to Toronto until March 28.
The western Canadian road trip begins on January 16th and after Canada returns the three games to Seattle for the last game of this road on the 21st. The California road trip will kick off earlier in the month of January starting on the 6th.
The game against the Canucks on the 20th is Leafs’ Hockey Day in Canada.
The longest road trip of the season comes early in the year and will be at five games in October starting with the Oct. 19 game against the Panthers. The Leafs have 2 homes out of 5 games. One in November, and the other starting in late February.
After the Leafs’ home game (the Hockey Hall of Fame game?) on November 11, the Leafs will head to Sweden to play Detroit and Minnesota on November 17 and November 19, respectively. Their next match after that will be on the road on November 24th.
The Leafs have 13 situations where they’ve played consecutive nights, including the last two games of the season.
The All-Star Game break runs from January 28 to February 4.
Also, the Leafs face Connor Beddard for the first time on October 16th.
Games per month:
Oct-9
November-12
December 13th
Jan-13
February 12th
March 14th
April 9th
The NHL used the following as its scheduling matrix this year:
Section games
5 teams x 2 home / 2 away (subtotal 10 home / 10 away)
1 team x 2 home / 1 away (subtotal 2 away / 1 away)
1 team x 1 home / 2 away (subtotal 1 home / 2 away)Games within the conference (non-divisional)
4 teams x 2 H / 1 A (subtotal 8 H / 4 A)
4 teams x 1 home / 2 away (subtotal 4 home / 8 away)Non-conference games
16 teams x 1 away / 1 away (subtotal 16 teams / 16 away)
The Leafs regular season is actually a big season for them. They’re playing two overseas games, hosting the All-Star Game, and before any player was delisted, they’d already had some embarrassing grudge matches/home families facing former coaches and coaches.
The Leafs also released their preseason schedule consisting of eight games:
Sunday, September 24th at the Canadian Ottawa Image Center (Ottawa, Ontario)
Monday, September 25th vs. Ottawa Scotiabank Arena (Toronto, Ontario)
Wednesday, September 27th vs. Buffalo Joe Thornton Community Center (St. Thomas, Ontario)
Friday, September 29 at the Montreal Bell Center (Montreal, QC)
Saturday, September 30th at the Montreal Bell Center (Montreal, QC)
Monday, October 2 vs. Montreal Scotiabank Arena (Toronto, Ontario)
Friday, October 6th vs. Detroit Scotiabank Arena (Toronto, Ontario)
Saturday, October 7th at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena (Detroit, MI)
