The Washington Capitals schedule just came out not too long ago. There are a ton of burning questions regarding how it's all going to play out and one of the biggest ones is is the team schedule too tough to handle?
It looks like it on the surface. A home game to start off against the New Jersey Devils will do that and following that game is home games against Vegas and Dallas. The season ends on April 17 in Pittsburgh which will have the season last a span of 198 days, per Mike Vogel of WashCaps.com.
A big break in the schedule isn't due to the All Star Game but rather the Four Nations Faceoff. Also Amazon Prime announced a deal for subscribers in Canada for their Monday Night Hockey feature. The Caps just like last year will be the final team to open up their season as it'll begin on the fourth day of the season.
No All Star Game
That Four Nations Faceoff will take place on Feb. 12-20 in Boston and Montreal. The two Metropolitan teams the Caps face just three times in this upcoming season are the New York Rangers and New York Islanders. Caps will be in New York on March 5 and will host the Islanders on Nov. 29 for Black Friday.
In the top 3 games to look forward too we went with the Bruins as a good measuring stick since it'll be New Years Eve and the Bruins will be in the District. We all know about the back to back home sets within the division. That includes a Philly matchup on Oct. 22 and then hosting the Flyers in DC the next night. The Caps will also face the Blue Jackets in Columbus on April 12 and host them a night later.
Vogs also notes that the toughest stretch of the season comes in the month of November. That includes four sets of back to backs and just three multi day breaks in between the games. Also each of the Caps first five road trips are to be one game adventures with the first multi game journey in mid November with three games in four nights in Colorado, Vegas and Utah.
There will be 10 games on Sunday with six at home and four away, one home game and five road games on Monday, eight home games and eight road games on Tuesdays, five home games and three road games on Wednesdays. So that's a combined 24 games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
On Thursday there will be 14 games with six at Capital One Arena and eight away. On Saturday there will be 20 games with nine at home and 11 on the road. Based on the month there will be nine games in October with six at home and three away.
In November there's 15 games with seven at home and eight on the road. In December there's 13 games with five at home and eight away. In January there's 14 games with six at home and eight on the road. In February there will be eight games with six at home and two away.
In the month of March there's eight home games and six road games while in April there will be three home games and six road games. While it looks intimidating, it all worked out last season. Just have to believe that it'll work again.