2021-2022 Buffalo Sabres Schedule has been released

[Thorner]

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

This assumes no COVID lockdowns and teams are free to travel to and fro, eh.

Why are they starting so late in October?  And why nothing in February?

I remember they always used to start up right around my birthday, which is early October.  Same day as Super Mario, but a year earlier for me.

[Taro T]

5 weeks w/ 4 games and 1 w/ FIVE!

And that's with stretching the season out ~2 extra weeks.

[Randall Flagg]

Easy start to the year.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

Easy start to the year.

Difficulty seems to ramp up as season progresses 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

DAMN!!

Winter Olympics!!

Again?????

[Taro T]

7 minutes ago, Thorny said:

 

 

2 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

DAMN!!

Winter Olympics!!

Again?????

AND ASG.

[Randall Flagg]

A small part of our improvement can come just from being able to face more of the dregs of the league more often. 

[Marvin]

So why take chances on travel and transmission?  Tennessee made checking for COVID19 shots illegal.  Missouri have the delta variant going nuts according to Axios.  Texas and Florida have lower vaccination rates that most of the hockey-based states.

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

DAMN!!

Winter Olympics!!

Again?????

I love it.  I'm so happy that the NHL is returning to the Winter Olympics that I might have to watch it even though it's in China.

[PromoTheRobot]

Holy crap, I just realized we are the Kraken's home opener. We're the tomato can they lined up. WTF. The NHL wants them to win their first home game.

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2021 by PromoTheRobot

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Holy crap, I just realized we are the Kraken's home opener. We're the tomato can they lined up. WTF. The NHL wants them to win their first home game.

 

 

 

According the NHL.com, the Kraken home opener is vs. the Canucks on 10/23. 

[Taro T]

16 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Holy crap, I just realized we are the Kraken's home opener. We're the tomato can they lined up. WTF. The NHL wants them to win their first home game.

 

 

 

The Krakers have no home games in October?

That doesn't seem accurate.

[Edit: it isn't.  Buffalo is their 5th home opponent after coming back from Edmonton following a 4 game homestand following a season opening 5 game road trip.]

Edited July 23, 2021 by Taro T

[Curt]

I wish the league had kept the back to backs.  I think both players and fans liked them.

[Taro T]

19 minutes ago, Curt said:

I wish the league had kept the back to backs.  I think both players and fans liked them.

Ticket buying fans aren't that fond of them.

[Curt]

2 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Ticket buying fans aren't that fond of them.

Why?  (He asked naively)

[Taro T]

3 minutes ago, Curt said:

Why?  (He asked naively)

When it's just the regular season, and you're only going to get to see a team at most 3 times; it's more fun to see different players in town rather than watch the same team 2 nights in a row and then not see them again for a year.

In the old days, btb's might create some bad blood in the 2nd game,  but as we saw last year, that's a thing of the past.

 

[Curt]

2 minutes ago, Taro T said:

When it's just the regular season, and you're only going to get to see a team at most 3 times; it's more fun to see different players in town rather than watch the same team 2 nights in a row and then not see them again for a year.

In the old days, btb's might create some bad blood in the 2nd game,  but as we saw last year, that's a thing of the past.

 

Oh, I thought it actually did create some bad blood type scenarios.

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, Curt said:

Oh, I thought it actually did create some bad blood type scenarios.

For the handful of times it did, it isn't IMHO worth having to see the same 2 teams all the other times.  

Not only that, but you definitely don't get an opportunity to see all the teams each year if they go to that format.  There is something inherently cool about being able to see every single star player in the league play your team in their own barn.

[Curt]

8 minutes ago, Taro T said:

For the handful of times it did, it isn't IMHO worth having to see the same 2 teams all the other times.  

Not only that, but you definitely don't get an opportunity to see all the teams each year if they go to that format.  There is something inherently cool about being able to see every single star player in the league play your team in their own barn.

You are probably in the majority.  It doesn’t bother me.

I wish the schedules were a little more unbalanced and they played teams in division/conference more often.  I’m probably weird though.

[DarthEbriate]

November 4th, eh? That's it. The Sabres are there. Set your course for the Hoth Pledge system.

[Taro T]

14 minutes ago, Curt said:

You are probably in the majority.  It doesn’t bother me.

I wish the schedules were a little more unbalanced and they played teams in division/conference more often.  I’m probably weird though.

Would like more division games.  Would add them at the expense of some of the extra in-conference games.  But now have only 20 random games to work with there (31 home games & 31 road games being locked in).

[Norcal]

1 hour ago, DarthEbriate said:

November 4th, eh? That's it. The Sabres are there. Set your course for the Hoth Pledge system.

Looking into this. Might make for a fun weekend.

[Eleven]

8 hours ago, Curt said:

You are probably in the majority.  It doesn’t bother me.

I wish the schedules were a little more unbalanced and they played teams in division/conference more often.  I’m probably weird though.

I'm with you.  One of the few things I enjoyed about last season was the division-only schedule.

7 hours ago, Taro T said:

Would like more division games.  Would add them at the expense of some of the extra in-conference games.  But now have only 20 random games to work with there (31 home games & 31 road games being locked in).

Those games aren't really locked in, though; there is no reason why they have to play home and away against every team in the league.  I think that just a few seasons ago, they only played one game against the West teams, and it was home OR away.  And they don't need to play everyone every season; they could make like MLB or NFL and be selective.  That would, however, destroy your preference of seeing every team here in a season.

[Curt]

59 minutes ago, Eleven said:

I'm with you.  One of the few things I enjoyed about last season was the division-only schedule.

Those games aren't really locked in, though; there is no reason why they have to play home and away against every team in the league.  I think that just a few seasons ago, they only played one game against the West teams, and it was home OR away.  And they don't need to play everyone every season; they could make like MLB or NFL and be selective.  That would, however, destroy your preference of seeing every team here in a season.

My “perfect” schedule setup:

-16 vs west teams (1 each, home or away, alternating yearly)

-24 vs other eastern division (3 each, alternating between 2 and 1 home/away yearly)

-42 vs your division (6 each, 3 home 3 away)