Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Mark Your Calendars

This post is entitled "random thoughts from the Cheap Seats until CapsChick flies away to get her hockey fix by attending the end of today's baby Caps scrimmage".

(But we'll call it "Fred" for short.)

Your frozen moment for today:Hey, look! Sheldon Souray playing defense...sort of.
Poor Huet. No matter what jersey he's wearing he has to bail ol' Shel out. Can't imagine why no one's snapped up #44 yet.

- Finally! Here is the 2007-08 Washington Capitals Schedule. We open in Atlanta October 5, then back to VC for our second consecutive home opener against the 'Canes. Seemed to work out pretty well for them the first time around...

Preseason schedule is as follows:

Sun Sep 16, 2007 Capitals @ Hurricanes 3:00 PM ET
Thu Sep 20, 2007 Capitals @ Senators 7:00 PM ET
Sat Sep 22, 2007 Capitals @ Lightning 7:30 PM ET
Tue Sep 25, 2007 Hurricanes @ Capitals 7:00 PM ET
Wed Sep 26, 2007 Capitals @ Flyers 7:00 PM ET
Fri Sep 28, 2007 Flyers @ Capitals 7:00 PM ET
Sun Sep 30, 2007 Senators @ Capitals 5:00 PM ET

Bastards. Three home games and I'm out of town for all but the last one. I know they're meaningless, but this hockey withdrawal thing will be at critical mass by then. And so I repeat...bastards.

A couple of things that stick out on this year's schedule:

- The Caps kick off the season in full gear, playing five games in five cities over eight days with only one home game during that stretch. That's going to be fuuuun.

- Our one visit to the Western Conference will be to the Central Division, which features at least a few teams that have improved themselves (at least on paper) and the old farts Detroit Red Wings. The Caps get a reprieve from the Pacific Division and the defending Champs but will host the Northwest Division.

- No road trips longer than 3 games until, get this - the end of March. A big, fat 6 game road swing right when (we hope) the Caps will be in the thick of the playoff race. The first two games of the trip see the Caps taking on Nashville and Chicago, then down the coast to face all four division rivals.

- Three home games finish off the season after that long road trip, as Carolina, Tampa, and Florida all stop by for a visit.

- At first glance it looks like we won't have to suffer through another home and home and home stretch against any of our Southeast friends this time around, nor will there be any periods of time where we see one team 5 times in 2 weeks or anything like that. Chalk one up for the scheduling gods for that one...

- ...but take it away again for trying to kill me at the end of January. A home and home against my Habs? Booooo. In fact the Caps have two straight home and home series, one against the Leafs a little less than a week before.

- The traditional New Year's Day game will feature a visit from the other nation's capitals, Eastern Conference Champion Ottawa.

- Sidney alert: the Penguins and all their mulleted friends slide into DC on October 20th and March 9th

- Jagr alert: the Rags will be in town December 12th and February 10th...get those boos ready!

2 comments:

Bethany said...

I heart hockey season!!!!! This seriously made my day...and it's only calenders...I think I am going through withdrawls

Anonymous said...

OH HELL NO.

Did you listen to the Caps Report this week? Apparently, Versus has control of any hockey on Mondays for part of the season and Tuesday for the other part. That means if more than one game is played on a Monday or Tuesday, Versus picks which one they want to air. If they don't pick it, IT CAN'T BE AIRED ANYWHERE IN THE US. =0

I'm furious.