MVN - Most Valuable Network

The release of the 2008-09 schedule, an idea of the road ahead

Dates and places are always immortalized in history; whether for reasons to celebrate like the franchise’s first regular season home game on Oct. 11th, 2000, but they can also mark dubious points in a team’s / or in this case state’s past as in April 14th, 1992 the last game the Minnesota North Stars played in Minnesota. The release of the schedule is always something anxiously awaited by die-hard fans as they want to see who their team opens up the season with as well as what dates do the Wild play their rivals. Last year, many fans marked Oct. 30th, 2007 when superstar Sidney Crosby came to town for the first time. A quick check of wild.com the team has a feature which they call “Mark your calendar” where they boast the team defending its Northwest Division title. Many Wild fans like myself think that is a rather bold thing for the team to say considering its massive roster changes.

I will re-post the schedule right here; but I will also take the time to analyze the schedule as well identifying what could very likely be the most critical stretches of games. Home games will be in bold. All times for the games are listed in Central Standard Time.

October:

Game #1 - Oct. 11th ~ Bruins - 7:30PM

Game #2 - Oct. 14th ~ @ Thrashers - 6:00PM

Game #3 - Oct. 16th ~ @ Panthers - 6:30PM

Game #4 - Oct. 18th ~ @ Lightning - 6:30PM

Game #5 - Oct. 23rd ~ Sabres - 7:00PM

Game #6 - Oct. 25th ~ Blue Jackets - 7:00PM

Game #7 - Oct. 27th ~ Blackhawks - 7:00PM

Game #8 - Oct. 29th ~ @ Stars - 7:30PM

Game #9 - Oct. 30th ~ Canadiens - 7:00PM

November:

Game #10 - Nov. 1st ~ @ Coyotes - 9:00PM

Game #11 - Nov. 4th ~ @ Sharks - 9:30PM

Game #12 - Nov. 6th ~ @ Avalanche - 8:00PM

Game #13 - Nov. 8th ~ @ Canucks - 9:00PM

Game #14 - Nov. 13th ~ Coyotes - 7:00PM

Game #15 - Nov. 15th ~ Blue Jackets - 7:00PM

Game #16 - Nov. 18th ~ @ Penguins - 6:00PM

Game #17 - Nov. 20th ~ Canucks - 7:00PM

Game #18 - Nov. 22nd ~ Blues - 7:00PM

Game #19 - Nov. 24th ~ Capitals - 7:00PM

Game #20 - Nov. 26th ~ Stars - 7:00PM

Game #21 - Nov. 28th ~ Lightning - 1:00PM

Game #22 - Nov. 29th ~ @ Predators - 7:00PM

December:

Game #23 - Dec. 1st ~ Avalanche - 7:00PM

Game #24 - Dec. 3rd ~ Blues - 7:00PM

Game #25 - Dec. 5th ~ Canucks - 7:00PM

Game #26 - Dec. 6th ~ @ Predators - 7:00PM

Game #27 - Dec. 11th ~ @ Coyotes - 8:00PM

Game #28 - Dec. 13th ~ @ Kings - 3:00PM

Game #29 - Dec. 14th ~ @ Ducks - 7:00PM

Game #30 - Dec. 17th ~ Flames - 7:00PM

Game #31 - Dec. 19th ~ Islanders - 7:00PM

Game #32 - Dec. 20th ~ @ Blues - 7:30PM

Game #33 - Dec. 23rd ~ @ Hurricanes - 7:00PM

Game #34 - Dec. 28th ~ @ Blackhawks - 5:00PM

Game #35 - Dec. 29th ~ @ Flames - 8:00PM

Game #36 - Dec. 31st ~ Sharks - 7:00PM

January:

Game #37 - Jan. 3rd ~ Red Wings - 7:00PM

Game #38 - Jan. 4th ~ @ Avalanche - 7:00PM

Game #39 - Jan. 6th ~ @ Bruins - 6:00PM

Game #40 - Jan. 8th ~ @ Flyers - 6:00PM

Game #41 - Jan. 10th ~ @ Blue Jackets - 6:00PM

Game #42 - Jan. 13th ~ Coyotes - 7:00PM

Game #43 - Jan. 15th ~ Oilers - 7:00PM

Game #44 - Jan. 17th ~ Ducks - 7:00PM

Game #45 - Jan. 19th ~ @ Blackhawks - 7:00PM

Game #46 - Jan. 20th ~ Kings - 7:00PM

Game #47 - Jan. 27th ~ Maple Leafs - 7:00PM

Game #48 - Jan. 30th ~ @ Oilers - 8:00PM

Game #49 - Jan. 31st ~ @ Canucks - 9:00PM

February:

Game #50 - Feb. 4th ~ Ducks - 7:00PM

Game #51 - Feb. 6th ~ Predators - 7:00PM

Game #52 - Feb. 8th ~ Oilers - 7:00PM

Game #53 - Feb. 11th ~ Avalanche - 7:00PM

Game #54 - Feb. 12th ~ @ Red Wings - 6:30PM

Game #55 - Feb. 14th ~ Senators - 7:00PM

Game #56 - Feb. 19th ~ Flames - 7:00PM

Game #57 - Feb. 21st ~ Red Wings - 7:00PM

Game #58 - Feb. 22nd ~ @ Blackhawks - 7:00PM

Game #59 - Feb. 24th ~ Kings - 7:00PM

Game #60 - Feb. 27 ~ @ Flames - 8:00PM

Game #61 - Feb. 28th ~ @ Oilers - 9:00PM

March:

Game #62 - Mar. 3rd ~ @ Canucks - 9:00PM

Game #63 - Mar. 5th ~ @ Sharks - 9:30PM

Game #64 - Mar. 7th ~ @ Kings - 3:00PM

Game #65 - Mar. 8th ~ @ Ducks - 7:00PM

Game #66 - Mar. 10th ~ Sharks - 7:00PM

Game #67 - Mar. 12th ~ @ Avalanche - 8:00PM

Game #68 - Mar. 14th ~ @ Stars - 7:00PM

Game #69 - Mar. 15th ~ @ Blues - 5:00PM

Game #70 - Mar. 17th ~ Avalanche - 7:00PM

Game #71 - Mar. 20th ~ @ Devils - 6:00PM

Game #72 - Mar. 22nd ~ Oilers - 7:00PM

Game #73 - Mar. 24th ~ @ Rangers - 6:00PM

Game #74 - Mar. 25th ~ @ Islanders - 6:00PM

Game #75 - Mar. 28th ~ @ Flames - 9:00PM

Game #76 - Mar. 29th ~ @ Oilers - 7:00PM

Game #77 - Mar. 31st ~ Canucks - 7:00PM

April:

Game #78 - Apr. 3rd ~ Flames - 7:00PM

Game #79 - Apr. 5th ~ @ Red Wings - 4:00PM

Game #80 - Apr. 7th ~ Stars - 7:00PM

Game #81 - Apr. 10th ~ Predators - 7:00PM

Game #82 - Apr. 11th ~ @ Blue Jackets - 6:00PM

Even from a quick glance, two months really jump out at you. The first is February where the Wild play 9 of its 12 games at home, and March where it plays 12 of its 16 games away from the friendly confines of the Xcel Energy Centre. These two months are at the critical swing point of the season where you separate the contenders (for a post-season bearth) from the pretenders. March in particular stacks the Wild up with lots of away games against Calgary and Edmonton; which could very well prove to be critical to qualifying in the post-season or scheduling tee times early.

Much of the same things could be said for February as the Wild will have the difficult struggles in matchups against likely Western Conference powers in Detroit, Anaheim, and Calgary as well as non-conference foes Ottawa, New York Rangers and New Jersey. Hopefully the Wild take full advantage of having home-ice advantage throughout most of that month.

The Wild do not have its first Northwest Division battle until Nov. 6th when the Wild travel to Colorado to seek revenge for vanquishing them in just 6 games in the 1st round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Unlike last season the home stretch of games is not Northwest Division heavy; which really served to push the team to its first division title in franchise history. Only one its last five games, on April 3rd is against Calgary as its lone divisional matchup.

The league is implementing its ‘new and improved’ schedule where divisional games have been trimmed down to 6 meetings per divisional opponent, and giving everyone a chance to play all 30 teams in the league. The rotation method used the past few years would have every team not play against one Eastern Conference Division. Now that has been replaced by having a rotation that has teams play a home-at-home series against one Eastern Conference Division. For the Wild, this division rotation is with the Southeast.

Here are some home games perhaps you ought to consider circling on your calendar.

Nov. 20th - Canucks - This will likely be the return of Pavol Demitra to the state of hockey. Apart from that, any game against the Canucks has a way of raising the hackles of Wild fans. The Canucks added Darcy Hordichuk this season, which could prove to be an intriguing matchup for Derek Boogaard.  Don’t forget about the tension and karma surrounding Canucks’ defenseman Mattias Ohlund and Wild forward Mikko Koivu.

Nov. 24th - Capitals - Last year’s league MVP, Alexander Ovechkin comes to town with a dynamic offensive attack that surprised many by winning the Southeast Division title. Last year the Wild were totally embarrassed by the Capitals, this is a great chance to settle the score.

Nov. 28th - Lightning - In odd year where the Wild had seen an exodus of its own players; a former Wild favorite, Wes Walz returns as an assistant coach for Tampa Bay.   While it is doubtful many fans would pay extra to see the coach; its likely he’ll receive a bit of an ovation when his name is announced before the game.

Nov. 29th - @ Predators - This may not be a big day for Wild fans, but Predators fans might have an extra rude welcome for the State of Hockey since our new owner, Craig Leipold dumped the Predators to become the Wild’s chief shareholder.  While Leipold had solid reasons; like the inability to establish corporate support, losing $30+ million dollars since they are fans they probably do not see it as anything other than disrespect.

Mar. 20th - @ Devils - This will be the likely rather awkward reunion for the team and last year’s 2nd leading goal scorer Brian Rolston.  Many fans across the State of Hockey felt losing Rolston was a mistake; imagine how intense that feeling will be if Rolston scores on his former team?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Wild Editorials, Wild News & Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.