Today is schedule day, which coincides with Dev Camp for the majority of NHL teams, thus the Bruins have released their full regular season schedule for the upcoming season, which looks like this!
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This schedule has some notable highlights. As is customary, the Bruins begin their season on the road against the Florida Panthers, where they will have to sit and watch their Stanley Cup banner go up. Laugh at me.
There’s also the Centennial Game, which will be played against the Montreal Canadiens on December 1st to commemorate the original 1924 inaugural game at Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena). What more that includes remains unknown. Given that Matthews Arena appears to be nearing the end of its life and has serious structural difficulties, I doubt they’ll use it.
It’s a shame; it would be a fitting farewell to the ancient barn if they did.
Other notable highlights include the usual suspects four times: Tampa, Toronto, Ottawa, and Florida. Montreal will only play three times this year, but given how lopsided the rivalry has gotten in Boston’s advantage, I believe we can safely conclude that rivalry is still cooling. Detroit is also a three-timer this year, but I think the spacing will make it intriguing to see how that squad evolves/mutates over the next season. The Pacific road trip is now in March rather than December/January, and it’s worth noting that there aren’t many long homestands: the Black and Gold have only ever stayed at home for three games before playing somewhere else.
Also, all of their back-to-backs, which are six in total, are all rather reasonable: They play Vancouver at home in late November before heading to Long Island immediately after. In January, they will play away against New Jersey before returning home to face Ottawa. A home-and-home with Columbus…for whatever reason, they open the Pacific road trip with it (which, frankly, sucks), and then in February, there’s a home game against Minnesota, followed by a journey down to Manhattan to face the Rangers. These are all totally normal distances to travel on short notice.
Starts on the road, ends at home, and very definitely includes a date with a Blue and White squad in late April/early May. There’s nothing else like it.
