If you missed it yesterday, I broke down some of the key dates and trends through the first half of the Vancouver Canucks' 2015-16 schedule.
You can
click here to read the complete summary, or you can take my word for it: the first half of the schedule is TOUGH next year.
By Christmas, the Canucks will have played 22 of 36 games on the road, with two long trips on the agenda. They're away for seven games between November 5-20, then for six games heading into Christmas, from December 10-25.
If there's a silver lining in that early schedule, it's that 10 of those 22 road games will be against Eastern Conference teams. Yes, they're far away, but Vancouver was a solid 21-10-1 against teams from the East last season, including a 9-6-1 record on the road.
After Christmas, the Canucks will be home for their longest stretch of the season—seven games over the holidays, between Boxing Day and January 11. Highlights will include Boxing Day with the Oilers, New Year's Day with the Ducks, Eddie Lack's visit with the Carolina Hurricanes on January 6 and Roberto Luongo's second return with the Florida Panthers on the 11th.
For the second half of the month, the Canucks will finish off their road games against the East in one swoop on another six-gamer—this one through Washington, Carolina, Brooklyn (!), Manhattan, Boston and Pittsburgh. That'll leave just four games against Eastern Conference teams after the All-Star Break, with Columbus, Toronto, Ottawa and the Islanders visiting Rogers Arena in the second half of the season.
So even though the Canucks will play 20 of their last 33 regular-season games at home, 29 of those games will be against Western Conference foes that they will (hopefully) be battling for playoff position. Their last game of the year against a team from the East will be when they host the New York Islanders on March 1—every game after that will be a potential four-pointer.
This year's All-Star Break will take place from January 28-February 1 in Nashville, where I'm sure they'll throw a heckuva party for sponsors and fans.
I don't know what kind of Canuck representation we'll have, but I do know we might be jonesing for some hockey activity that weekend. Another quirk in Vancouver's schedule gives the team a NINE day break surrounding the All-Star festivities.
The Canucks play their last game before the break on Tuesday, January 26, when they host the Predators at Rogers Arena. After that, they don't get back into action until Thursday, February 4, when they're home to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
If the team's banged up at that point, a long rest could be just the ticket to get players rehabbed and feeling healthier—especially some of the older guys. But such a long break could also be a real momentum-killer. And of course, a long break here means games compressed into bunches at other points in the season.
Altogether, the Canucks will play 13 back-to-backs in 2015-16. Ten will come on road trips, while two others will include one game at Rogers Arena—at home to Anaheim on February 18 before flying to Calgary the next night, then in Edmonton one month later on March 18 before returning home to play St. Louis the following evening. The Canucks play one home back-to-back, against Chicago on November 21 and New Jersey on the 22nd.
More interesting insight into back-to-backs in this tweet, from Gus Katsaros of McKeen's Hockey:
The Canucks will be playing a rested team on 12 of those 13 back-to-backs, the highest percentage in the league, but they'll also see 13 teams over the course of the season when they're rested and the opponent is on a back-to-back of their own.
Of course, back-to-backs are especially interesting when it comes to goalie starts. Should we start pencilling in which games we expect Jacob Markstrom to play?
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