By Giles Ferrell -
Tuesday afternoon brought the much-anticipated schedule release for the 2019-20 NHL season. There are not a whole lot of questions in regards to the schedule as each team plays the rest of the league at least twice, with more games scheduled within your own division/conference.
With the Minnesota Wild schedule now out in the open, fans look ahead to the dates and plan road trips for both home and road games alike.
As the schedule is now released, let's have a look at the good, bad and ugly portions of Minnesota's 82 game schedule (full schedule below).
The Good
There are a few good points in the Wild schedule this year. The first is that their longest road trip of the season is four games which they have twice on the schedule. The first four-game road trip comes Nov. 5-12 in Anaheim, San Jose, Arizona and Los Angeles (make sure to load up on coffee that week) and the second comes in the final week of the season on March 29-April 4 at St. Louis, New York Islanders, Washington and Nashville.
Outside of those road trips, the Wild don't have any road trips longer than three games. This is a huge plus for fans who get tired of seeing extended trips of weeks on end away from the Xcel Energy Center.
The second good point is that their longest homestand of the season -- seven games between Jan. 16 and Feb. 6 -- is sandwiched around their All-Star break and bye week. As we have seen previously, teams coming off the bye are not permitted to practice up until a certain point and teams that have to travel right out of the break are at an immediate disadvantage. The Wild being at home at that time is a huge bonus. They just need to turn around their home play from last season to take advantage of it.
Lastly, the Wild have an 11-game stretch between Nov. 25 and Dec. 15 where they play eight teams who did not make the postseason in 2018-19. Only five of these games are at home and there are two sets of back to back in this time. But given the competition, this would be a good chance for the Wild to make some ground in the Central if they can figure out their scoring woes.
The Bad
Literally opening the season, the Wild play 13 out of 18 games away from Xcel Energy Center. 10 of those 18 games are against playoff teams from last season, including Nashville, Colorado, Winnipeg, St. Louis (twice), Toronto and San Jose. The Wild also get their patented four-day break between the second and third games of the season, as they have seen happen to them in many years previously in the month of October.
The Wild were a decent team away from Xcel Energy Center last season, so the hope is that their success will carry over into the new year. If not, the Wild will be instantly behind the eight ball and may not recover in an uber-competitive Central Division.
Also not great if you are Bruce Boudreau entering the final year of your contract with Minnesota. If the Wild have a rough stretch to open the season, he may not survive as Wild bench boss.
[caption id=attachment_47498" align="alignnone" width="3842]
A slow start for the Wild in 2019-20 could bring the end of the Bruce Boudreau era. Credit: David Berding-USA TODAY Sports[/caption]
The Ugly
If there is a real ugly stretch of the season, it is the stretch that just about takes the Wild into their long All-Star Break/bye week. Between Dec. 17 and Jan. 18, Minnesota takes part in 14 games. There is only one set of back to backs in that time, and nine of those games come at home. However, 12 of the 14 games are against teams that made the postseason last year, including Vegas, Winnipeg (Twice), Calgary (three times), Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh. Teams that are all going to be contenders as tops in the league and in their respective conferences once again next year.
It is a vicious stretch, but as mentioned before, the Wild will have their long stretch off shortly after it. Can they survive will be the ultimate question.
—-
2019-20 MINNESOTA WILD SCHEDULE
DAY DATE OPPONENT TIME (CT)
SEPTEMBER PRESEASON
TUE. 17 DALLAS 7:00 P.M.
Wed. 18 at Winnipeg 7:00 P.M.
SAT. 21 COLORADO 5:00 P.M.
Sun. 22 at Colorado 6:00 p.m.
Thur. 26 at Dallas 7:30 p.m.
SUN. 29 WINNIPEG 1:00 P.M.
OCTOBER REGULAR SEASON
Thur. 3 at Nashville 7:00 p.m.
Sat. 5 at Colorado 8:00 p.m.
Thur. 10 at Winnipeg 7:00 p.m.
SAT. 12 PITTSBURGH 7:00 P.M.
Mon. 14 at Ottawa 12:00 p.m.
Tue. 15 at Toronto 6:00 p.m.
Thur. 17 at Montreal 6:00 p.m.
SUN. 20 MONTREAL 4:00 P.M.
TUE. 22 EDMONTON 7:00 P.M.
Thur. 24 at Nashville 7:00 p.m.
SAT. 26 LOS ANGELES 7:00 P.M.
Tue. 29 at Dallas 7:30 p.m.
Wed. 30 at St. Louis 7:00 p.m.
NOVEMBER
SAT. 2 ST. LOUIS 7:00 P.M.
Tue. 5 at Anaheim 9:00 p.m.
Thur. 7 at San Jose 9:30 p.m.
Sat. 9 at Arizona 7:00 p.m.
Tue. 12 at Los Angeles 9:30 p.m.
THUR. 14 ARIZONA 7:00 P.M.
SAT. 16 CAROLINA 1:00 P.M.
Tue. 19 at Buffalo 6:00 p.m.
THUR. 21 COLORADO 7:00 P.M.
Sat. 23 at Boston 6:00 p.m.
Mon. 25 at N.Y. Rangers 6:00 p.m.
Tue. 26 at New Jersey 6:00 p.m.
FRI. 29 OTTAWA 3:00 P.M.
DECEMBER
SUN. 1 DALLAS 2:00 P.M.
Tue. 3 at Florida 6:00 p.m.
Thur. 5 at Tampa Bay 6:00 p.m.
Sat. 7 at Carolina 6:00 p.m.
TUE. 10 ANAHEIM 7:00 P.M.
THUR. 12 EDMONTON 7:00 P.M.
SAT. 14 PHILADELPHIA 6:00 P.M.
Sun. 15 at Chicago 6:00 p.m.
Tue. 17 at Vegas 9:00 p.m.
Thur. 19 at Arizona 8:30 p.m.
SAT. 21 WINNIPEG 1:00 P.M.
MON. 23 CALGARY 4:00 P.M.
Fri. 27 at Colorado 7:00 p.m.
SUN. 29 N.Y. ISLANDERS 5:00 P.M.
TUE. 31 TORONTO 5:00 P.M.
DAY DATE OPPONENT TIME (CT)
JANUARY
SAT. 4 WINNIPEG 1:00 P.M.
SUN. 5 CALGARY 6:00 P.M.
Thur. 9 at Calgary 8:00 p.m.
SUN. 12 VANCOUVER 3:00 P.M.
Tue. 14 at Pittsburgh 6:00 p.m.
THUR. 16 TAMPA BAY 7:00 P.M.
SAT. 18 DALLAS 8:00 P.M.
MON. 20 FLORIDA 7:00 P.M.
WED. 22 DETROIT 7:00 P.M.
Sun. 26 NHL ALL-STAR GAME
ST. LOUIS, MO
FEBRUARY
SAT. 1 BOSTON 7:00 P.M.
TUE. 4 CHICAGO 7:00 P.M.
THUR. 6 VANCOUVER 7:00 P.M.
Fri. 7 at Dallas 7:30 p.m.
SUN. 9 COLORADO 6:30 P.M.
TUE. 11 VEGAS 7:00 P.M.
THUR. 13 N.Y. RANGERS 7:00 P.M.
SAT. 15 SAN JOSE 4:00 P.M.
Wed. 19 at Vancouver 9:30 p.m.
Fri. 21 at Edmonton 8:00 p.m.
SUN. 23 ST. LOUIS 6:30 P.M.
TUE. 25 COLUMBUS 7:00 P.M.
Thur. 27 at Detroit 6:30 p.m.
Fri. 28 at Columbus 6:00 p.m.
MARCH
SUN. 1 WASHINGTON 7:00 P.M.
TUE. 3 NASHVILLE 7:00 P.M.
Thur. 5 at San Jose 9:30 p.m.
Sat. 7 at Los Angeles 3:00 p.m.
Sun. 8 at Anaheim 8:30 p.m.
THUR. 12 VEGAS 7:00 P.M.
Sat. 14 at Philadelphia 12:00 p.m.
SUN. 15 NASHVILLE 6:30 P.M.
TUE. 17 CHICAGO 7:00 P.M.
Thur. 19 at Chicago 7:30 p.m.
Fri. 20 at Winnipeg 7:00 p.m.
MON. 23 COLORADO 7:00 P.M.
THUR. 26 NEW JERSEY 7:00 P.M.
SAT. 28 BUFFALO 7:00 P.M.
Sun. 29 at St. Louis 6:00 p.m.
Tue. 31 at N.Y. Islanders 6:00 p.m.
APRIL
Thur. 2 at Washington 6:00 p.m.
Sat. 4 at Nashville 7:00 p.m.
BOLD INDICATES HOME GAME
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