Looking at the Schedule

Everyone loves schedule day, because its that energy flowing, you start making plans about which game you wanna go to. Hey thats probably a value game or mmm road trip?

Well its out and theres some issues.

1) Who made up the January part of this thing? Really only 3 home games?

Thursday January 1 @ Toronto 7:00 PM
Saturday January 3 @ Boston 1:00 PM
Tuesday January 6 OTTAWA 7:00 PM
Friday January 9 NY RANGERS 7:30 PM
Saturday January 10 @ Detroit 7:00 PM
Wednesday January 14 @ Chicago 8:30 PM
Thursday January 15 @ Dallas 8:30 PM
Saturday January 17 CAROLINA 7:00 PM
Monday January 19 @ Florida 7:30 PM
Wednesday January 21 @ Tampa Bay 7:30 PM
Tuesday January 27 @ Edmonton 9:00 PM
Wednesday January 28 @ Calgary 8:00 PM
Saturday January 31 @ Phoenix 9:00 PM
Monday February 2 @ Anaheim 10:00 PM

Plus the Florida road trip followed by a Albertan excursion, then back to warmer climates. That doesn't seem good on the body. But they'll have some golfing to do after the Calgary game. And that 3 game stretch against Detroit, Chicago and Dallas is a rough one.

2) Who from the West is coming here?

We all know the Eastern teams that are coming here, but which West teams are paying a visit to HSBC this year?

10/17 Vancouver
11/12 St Louis
11/14 Columbus
12/1 Nashville
12/19 Los Angeles
2/13 San Jose
2/24 Anaheim
3/6 Phoenix
4/6 Detroit

Ehhh, the Columbus game should be a Value, but its on Friday, same deal for LA and Phoenix. Games that are on good days, will be more expensive then the crappier days of the week. The Anaheim game is on a Tuesday and thats a game of interest for me and after last year nothing will get me to the Columbus game.

3) When can you buy tickets?

Well it looks like individuals go on sale 9-20-2008. Which seems kinda late. But oh well. I look for a lot of Gold and Silver games, with several value this year. I think they need all the ticket revenue they need. Its nice they have so much money now, but there won't be many cheap games anymore. Especially with old time value games turning into marquee games due to talent. Tampa might not be cheap anymore. But Florida games on Wednesday and Thursday in March will be cheap, so if you want to see the Sabres on the potential stretch run, mark those down. Monday April 6 vs Detroit should be interesting. The Atlanta games are on a Friday and Saturday so they won't be as cheap as they should be. Monday Oct 27 vs Ottawa, probably a early Bronze game.

Well hopefully I'll get to a couple games this year. They went 0-3 last year when I went. So maybe its best if I stay away from HSBC this year.