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Regular Season schedule released


dlbalr

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The Habs kick off their season October 1st at home to Toronto. They will finish up at home on April 12th, hosting someone other than Toronto (NY Rangers). Full schedule: http://www.nhl.com/ice/schedulebyseason.htm?team=MTL

Notes/Highlights:

Longest homestand: 5 games (Oct. 17-26)

Longest road trip: 6 games (Dec. 19-Jan. 2) - four other four-game trips as well

29 games on CBC, more than any other team (TSN to be determined later)

3 games on NBCSN, 12 on NHLN-US (for those watching in the States)

2 afternoon games (the annual Superbowl weekend contests, both at home)

Busiest full month: March (15 games)

Lightest full month: October/January (13 games)

'Bonus' divisional games are against Toronto and Ottawa

17 back-to-backs

Of the 13 games the Habs play in October, 9 are against Western Conference teams, good for more than 30% of their out-of-conference competition.

Montreal won't be changing time zones too often late in the year, just once after January 2nd.

Also announced are the new division names. Montreal is now in the Atlantic Division. The other names are Metropolitan (East), Pacific, and Central (both West).

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Bruins Canadiens only play 4 times, which stinks. Aside from birthday, Xmas etc, those are some of the best days in the year...12 games on the NHL Network means I'll have to keep buying the supplemental cable package. With Centre Ice and the Panther's games vs MTL, the Habs will ring up quite a bill next year.

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Bruins Canadiens only play 4 times, which stinks. Aside from birthday, Xmas etc, those are some of the best days in the year...12 games on the NHL Network means I'll have to keep buying the supplemental cable package. With Centre Ice and the Panther's games vs MTL, the Habs will ring up quite a bill next year.

Yeah, with all the previous talk about building rivalries we've cut down on the biggest ones we have. And how the hell are we in the Atlantic division, when only Boston and Florida (which shouldn't count) actually touch that ocean? And like has been said, Metropolitan division... yikes. Should have stuck with Atlantic for them - give me Flortheast or some name like Patrick or Norris that has nothing to do with geography, like the grouping of teams.

Glad that we only have two afternoon games, maybe it's just an old habit but I have bad feelings about the Habs' performance for them.

I wonder what the total number of travel miles will be for the Habs this year. It'll probably be almost double what it was in the last full season, what with the larger division and more games against the West.

Also, I wonder if the Olympic break will work for or against us. We have a tough string of games directly after it, including a four game stint on the west coast. And this year, more than in 2010, I expect we'll have more key players suiting up for Olympic teams, with Subban, Pleks, Patches and maybe Markov, Price and Galchenyuk (if he has the breakout we hope for).

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Yeah, with all the previous talk about building rivalries we've cut down on the biggest ones we have. And how the hell are we in the Atlantic division, when only Boston and Florida (which shouldn't count) actually touch that ocean? And like has been said, Metropolitan division... yikes. Should have stuck with Atlantic for them - give me Flortheast or some name like Patrick or Norris that has nothing to do with geography, like the grouping of teams.

Glad that we only have two afternoon games, maybe it's just an old habit but I have bad feelings about the Habs' performance for them.

I wonder what the total number of travel miles will be for the Habs this year. It'll probably be almost double what it was in the last full season, what with the larger division and more games against the West.

Also, I wonder if the Olympic break will work for or against us. We have a tough string of games directly after it, including a four game stint on the west coast. And this year, more than in 2010, I expect we'll have more key players suiting up for Olympic teams, with Subban, Pleks, Patches and maybe Markov, Price and Galchenyuk (if he has the breakout we hope for).

The Olympic break will be a boon for us if we're mired in injuries. Hopefully it will pre-empt the mid season slump.

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Our mid season slump usually starts in December or January, the best the Olympic break could do would be break us out of it. There's also the risk of injury to our guys playing over there, of which there will be more this year.

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Our mid season slump usually starts in December or January, the best the Olympic break could do would be break us out of it. There's also the risk of injury to our guys playing over there, of which there will be more this year.

We'll also be treated to a rash of bad behavior from Emelin, if the World Championships are any indication.

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When I told my wife that the first Game was Oct 1st, she just looked nervous and walked away without saying anything.....

Does this mean I have a hockey problem?

nope she probably left the room because she didn't want you to see how excited she got!

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I'll just move my post over from the NHL board.

Early West coast swing is interesting.

March is going to be hell for us. There's a Pacific swing week plus two games against the Leafs, two games against the Bruins, Detroit and Ottawa. Brutal. April ain't much better with the Ottawa and Detroit back to back.

The only time in the schedule where the team could get gassed will be between November 28 and December 7. Otherwise the schedule is pretty well spaced out for us with two game and three game breaks common between one day breaks.

I like looking at the schedules based on who was a playoff team last year.

In October, we play five games against teams who made the playoffs out of 13 games.

In November we play nine games against teams who made the playoffs out of 14 games.

In December, we play three games against teams who made the playoffs out of 14 games.

In January, we play eight games against teams who made the playoffs out of 13 games.

In February, we play three games against teams who made the playoffs out of seven games.

In March, we play nine games against teams who made the playoffs out of 15 games.

In April, we play four games against teams who made the playoffs out of six games.

Teams have changed and all of that (plus nobody did out of conference match ups last season) but really there's no excuse on not having a strong December. New Jersey twice, Florida twice, games against Carolina and Tampa, we should be winning those games. November seems just as bad as March but we play some teams like Minnesota and Washington twice, which are not the same compared to playing Boston and Toronto twice.

Home/Away

October: Eight home games, five away games (includes a four game away stretch followed by a five game home stretch)

November: Seven home games, seven away games

December: Six home games, eight away games (includes a five game away stretch but it's spread between the 18th and 31st, six game if you count the Jan 2 Dallas game)

January: Six home games, seven away games(four game away stretch between Ottawa, Toronto, Pittsburgh and Detroit might be tough though includes three day break between Toronto and Pittsburgh games)

February: Four home games, two away games (all of the Western Conference games are at home)

March: Six home games, nine away games (see how this month sucks? At least the Colorado and Columbus games are at home)

April: Three home games, three away games (ending at home against New York is a change of pace)

We were a pretty balanced team when it came to home (14-7-3) and away (15-7-2) but of course it doesn't include the West. For everyone pessimistic about Detroit entering our division, don't forget that Tampa and Florida have entered our division. Looking at last year, this is a great thing. We were undefeated against the two Florida teams and it isn't like either team has made great strides to improve. Tampa replaced Lecavalier with Filppula while a rookie Drouin is likely to play. Their defence is exactly the same while they plan to platoon two huge unproven goaltenders. Florida lost Weiss and might be playing a really young team. They didn't really add anyone and will gamble Markstrom instead of going with Theodore again. Playing the odds game we should have a great record against them for eight games.

10 games between Ottawa and Toronto. We were 2-3 against the Leafs and 2-1-1 against the Senators. Those games, plus how well we do in December and how we survive March is going to decide our fate I feel. I think we're more than capable of nabbing a top three spot in the "Atlantic" division and not have to worry about fighting over the last two spots in the East.

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Has the pre-season schedule been released?

Sept. 15 vs Buffalo, 7 PM

Sept. 16 vs Boston, 7 PM

Sept. 20 @ Carolina, 7:30 PM (in Quebec; yes, Carolina is the home team out of that)

Sept. 21 vs Carolina, 7 PM

Sept. 23 vs New Jersey, 7:30 PM

Sept. 25 @ Ottawa, 7:30 PM

Sept. 26 vs Ottawa, 7:30 PM

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March is going to be hell for us. April ain't much better with the Ottawa and Detroit back to back.

I can see it now. Habs have a good, competitive season and are solidly in playoff contention. Then March and April hit. We are rocked, struggling. Panic spreads in Habsland. We hear all about the urgent need to 'tank' and pile up high draft picks. We hear about how the previous five months were a 'mirage' and how this is the 'real' team.

Then the playoffs come, and one of two things occur:

1. The Habs are eliminated in Round One, thus 'proving' that the five successful months don't count because we fundamentally suck;

2. The Habs make a nice little run. This is summarily dismissed as a 'fluke,' lightning in a bottle, etc., because we looked pretty dodgy in March and April, which showed us what the team 'really' is. (This particular narrative is still being played out to this day vis-a-vis the 1993 team, which was in the mix for 1st overall until a late-season skid dropped us down to 6th overall; and ever since we've had to hear about how that team really wasn't very good - all because of a single late-season slump).

Bottom line: it is axiomatic that the Habs stink unless they dominate the entire league from pole to pole. Thank you Pierre McGuire.

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I can see it now. Habs have a good, competitive season and are solidly in playoff contention. Then March and April hit. We are rocked, struggling. Panic spreads in Habsland. We hear all about the urgent need to 'tank' and pile up high draft picks. We hear about how the previous five months were a 'mirage' and how this is the 'real' team.

The good news there is that the trade deadline is in early March, meaning it will pass before this hypothetical slump ensues. Of course, the consensus then is that management should have had the foresight to ignore the standings, expected to fail, and sold accordingly.

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This hypothetical slump will be blamed on the Olympic break. We will resent it if Canada doesn't take home the gold!

Or maybe it will provide needed rest for the core right before the toughest stretch of the season.

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An interesting thing to remember about Olympic years.... the playoffs become even more unpredictable than usualy.

2002 - 3rd seed Carolina (but 9th in the East in points) goes to the cup final.

2006 - 8th seed Edmonton goes to the cup final

2010 - 8th seed Montreal to final 4, Philly 7th seed to cup final

Other years.... mostly a matchup of teams who both are top 4 seeds with the only exceptions being Calgary's cup run in 2004 and Kings/Devils in 2012. (still 3 for 3 in Olympic years with a low seed in the final.... only 2 years out of the other 8 (2003-2013, skipping olympic year and lockout years)... have a low seed get there.

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