adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Sports

Five things to know about the NHL’s 2021 regular season schedule – Sportsnet.ca

Published

 on


While details still need to be sorted out within Canada about where each team will be able to play, we now know where the NHL hopes everyone plays when the puck drops for the 2020-21 season on Jan. 13.

The league released its full 56-game schedule for every team on Wednesday, and it’s all supposed to wrap up on Saturday, May 8, with the playoffs starting a few days later. There is a minimum of one game every night between the start and end of the season, and there will be more than that played on every night but four.

We know that the opening night plan is to feature five games: Toronto-Montreal, Edmonton-Vancouver, Colorado-St. Louis, Pittsburgh-Philadelphia, and Chicago-Tampa Bay, where the defending champion Lightning will raise their banner.

300x250x1

Every game this season will, of course, be played only within the realigned divisions, which are as follows:

North: Ottawa-Montreal-Toronto-Winnipeg-Edmonton-Calgary-Vancouver

East: Boston-Buffalo-New Jersey-NY Islanders-NY Rangers-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh-Washington

Central: Carolina-Chicago-Columbus-Detroit-Florida-Dallas-Nashville-Tampa Bay

West: Anaheim-Arizona-Colorado-Minnesota-Los Angeles-Vegas-San Jose-St. Louis

At the end of the regular season, the top four teams in each division will qualify for the playoffs. The first two rounds will be best-of-7 series to play out of your division, leaving one “champion” from each grouping. Those teams will be re-seeded from 1-4 based on regular season points, and then a best-of-7 semifinal will lead to a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Final. The Eastern and Western Conferences are of no consequence this season.

The 2021 schedule is also unlike any we’ve seen before. Here are some things you should know about how it looks:

THE ‘BASEBALL-STYLE’ SCHEDULE IS CONFIRMED

To limit travel between cities, when a visitor comes in they aren’t only there for one game. You’ll see a lot of two-game road trips now, but not necessarily on back-to-back nights. Having two games in three days will be a regular occurrence.

And, in fact, there are a number of situations where one team will fly into a city for a two-game series, then fly home and play that same team twice more for a four-game home-and-home.

This idea of a “baseball-style” schedule had been assumed for some time. In Major League Baseball, it is normal to play the same team three or four days in a row to get a 162-game season in over the summer. The NHL doesn’t have quite that much of a crunch, but has aligned the schedule in such a way that the same teams will play against one another for four games in a row on occasion. Anaheim and Los Angeles find themselves against each other five times in a row from April 20-May 1.

There are a few instances where the same teams will play each other three times in a row, and in the same destination. For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs will host the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 4, 6 and 8, and Ottawa on Feb. 15, 17 and 18. Similarly, Vancouver will host Calgary on Feb. 11, 13 and 15, Montreal will host Edmonton on March 22, 24 and 26, and Calgary hosts Winnipeg on March 26, 27 and 29.

CANADIAN TEAMS FACING EACH OTHER 10 TIMES

In a 56-game schedule for a seven-team division, the games can’t completely be split evenly. Each team will matchup against four of its divisional rivals nine times, and will face the other two rivals 10 times.

The NHL did a great job making sure all the best rivalries are given to us the most.

Here is the breakdown of how often each Canadian Division team will play against one another:

SAN JOSE’S LONG ROAD TRIP TO START THE SEASON

Due to local health regulations, the San Jose Sharks won’t be able to access SAP Center for the next while, and will host their training camp at the Ice Den in Scottsdale, Ariz. It’s too early to tell when they’d be allowed back into their home arena again, and the NHL built more time for that to get sorted into the Sharks’ schedule by starting them on an eight-game road trip.

But the won’t begin far from where they’re doing training camp, playing in Arizona against the Coyotes for the first two games. From there, the Sharks will go to St. Louis, Minnesota and Colorado — playing each of them twice — before their first home game shows up on Feb. 1 against Vegas.

In all, twelve of San Jose’s first 14 games are on the road, and their second home series isn’t scheduled until Feb. 13. Hopefully by either of those dates it will be safe enough to play in Santa Clara county. If not, though, the Sharks are considering backup plans.

“There’s a couple potential options that we’ve been exploring, just like we were exploring for training camp,” GM Doug Wilson said earlier this week. “Could be a hub city. Could be us playing in another NHL city for a while.”

BACK-TO-BACK SITUATIONS

The dreaded games on back-to-back days. In this compact schedule, fatigue will be a factor when you’re averaging one game roughly every other day. So each team’s back-to-back situation is of note, especially since it’ll be harder to start the same goalie for each one.

The Sharks lead the way with the most back-to-back situations, a total of 12 on the season. Edmonton and Ottawa have the most in the Canadian division with 11 each, while Vancouver has the least among the Canadian clubs with just seven. The fewest back-to-back situations of any team in the league are the six for Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers.

Via Sportsnet Stats, here is the full breakdown of back-to-backs:

San Jose: 12
Ottawa: 11
Edmonton: 11
Montreal: 10
Toronto: 10
Calgary: 10
Nashville: 10
Carolina: 10
St. Louis: 10
Los Angeles: 10
Winnipeg: 9
Minnesota: 9
Arizona: 9
Anaheim: 9
Columbus: 8
Detroit: 8
Boston: 8
Buffalo: 8
NY Islanders: 8
Philadelphia: 8
Vegas: 8
Washington: 8
Vancouver: 7
Florida: 7
Chicago: 7
Dallas: 7
New Jersey: 7
Colorado: 7
Tampa Bay: 6
NY Rangers: 6
Pittsburgh: 6

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF GAMES ON LAST TWO SATURDAYS

In a 31-team league, the most games you can have on one day is, of course, 15. Over the course of this coming season, that doesn’t happen as much as you may think, but the two times we will get treated to max hockey land is right in the thick of playoff hunt.

If all goes according to plan, Saturday May 1 and 8 will be the only two days where 15 games will occur around the league. Those are the last two Saturdays of the regular season, and May 8 is the final day of the regular season.

Hockey Night in Canada was already circled on your calendar, but maybe circle these last two again and again. Playoff spots will be on the line and those last two Saturdays will include matchups like Toronto-Vancouver and Toronto-Montreal, Edmonton-Calgary on both days, Pittsburgh-Washington, Boston-NY Rangers, and Philadelphia-Washington.

It’s on.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Canucks place goalie Thatcher Demko on long-term injured list – CBC.ca

Published

 on


The Vancouver Canucks have placed all-star goalie Thatcher Demko on the long-term injured reserve list retroactively.

“It’s just cap related,” coach Rick Tocchet said after practice Wednesday. “We get some cap relief, that’s all it is.” 

The 28-year-old netminder has been considered week to week since being sidelined with a lower-body injury midway through Vancouver’s 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9.

300x250x1

That injury designation hasn’t changed, Tocchet said.

Demko boasts a 34-18-2 record this season, with a .917 save percentage, a 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.

Casey DeSmith has taken over the starting job for Vancouver, going 3-2-1 since Demko’s injury. He has a .899 save percentage on the season with a 2.73 goals-against average and one shutout. 

The earliest Demko could be back in the Canucks’ lineup is April 6 against the Kings in Los Angeles.

He’s expected to be a key piece as Vancouver (45-19-8) prepares for its first playoff appearance since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign. 

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also announced Wednesday that the club has called up forward Arshdeep Bains from the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League. 

“I’d like to see where [Bains is] at,” Tocchet said, noting he isn’t sure whether the 23-year-old winger will slot into the lineup when the Canucks host the Dallas Stars on Thursday. 

WATCH | Bains makes NHL debut

Surrey, B.C.’s Arshdeep Bains makes Canucks debut

1 month ago

Duration 2:20

Arshdeep Bains from Surrey, B.C., has made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. As CBC’s Joel Ballard reports, it’s been a hard-fought journey for the hometown kid to the big leagues.

Bains played five games for the NHL team in February before being sent back to Abbotsford. 

“He went down, he’s done a couple of things that we like, and he’s got some speed,” Tocchet said. 

Vancouver may get another forward back in the lineup Thursday. 

Dakota Joshua practised in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in Vancouver’s 4-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Feb. 13. 

The physical winger, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has a career-high 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Sitting out injured “hasn’t been fun,” Joshua said.

“It feels like forever,” he said. “But at this point, that’s behind me and I’m moving forward.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Senators score 5 in 1st, cruise past Sabres – NHL.com

Published

 on


“I thought that we were ready to go,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We got some pucks at the net, we got people at the net. Took advantage of our opportunities and, I think, built a nice lead. And then I thought, in the third period, we continued again. Our goaltending was good. Made some key saves. But I thought we shut them down in the third period good.”

Shane Pinto had a goal and three assists, and Brady Tkachuk, Boris Katchouk, Jakob Chychrun and Drake Batherson each had a goal and an assist for the Senators (31-36-4), who have won three in a row. Korpisalo made 34 saves.

“If you want to win, you need balance,” Pinto said. “And we had that tonight and it’s going to be big for the back-to-back tomorrow (against the Chicago Blackhawks) to have that same thing. So, going to need all the guys on board.”

300x250x1

JJ Peterka and Connor Clifton scored for the Sabres (34-34-5), who have lost four of six. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on nine shots before he was replaced by Devon Levi, who made 31 saves in relief.

“We wanted, I guess, to play as individuals,” Clifton said. “I’m disappointed we let ‘Upie’ down, he’s the heart and soul of this team. He’s kept us in so many games, and just to not show up and play that careless style, give them freebies all over the place. … Yeah, obviously, the first 20 really dictated the rest of the game.”

Artem Zub gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 2:37 of the first period. He stuffed in a loose puck on the goal line after Katchouk’s shot was redirected by Mark Kastelic between Luukkonen’s pads.

Katchouk made it 2-0 at 4:56, tipping Parker Kelly’s shot from the top of the right face-off circle past Luukkonen.

“It’s keeping the consistency with good effort, right habits,” Katchouk said. “The small things matter so much in this game. And obviously, it worked out tonight with the tip. But kudos to my linemates. ‘Kels’ and ‘Kassy,’ they worked hard to get the puck as well. Those two battle hard every night as well. We feed off each other, and it’s good to play with them.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Vasilevskiy stops 23 as surging Lightning beat Bruins – Sportsnet.ca

Published

 on


* public_profileBlurb *

* public_displayName *

300x250x1

* public_name *
* public_gender *
* public_birthdate *
* public_emailAddress *
* public_address *
* public_phoneNumber *

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending