The Dallas Stars released their full regular season schedule Wednesday, opening the season at home on Oct. 14 after two games on the road.
The schedule release usually signifies the last bit of hockey news for a while as players don't usually start skating again for a little while and training camp is still a full two months away. The free agent frenzy is usually over other than an occasional straggler signing here and there.
Let's dive in and analyze what the Stars schedule has to offer over 82 games, breaking it down 10 at a time until the final stretch of 12 games.
The first ten games all come in October (11 October games overall) with six at home and four on the road.
Dallas opens the season two days after the official opening night triple header on Oct. 7. The Stars open up with three Central Division match-ups in a row, starting out with a rematch of the second round playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday Oct. 9 in Winnipeg.
The Stars have struggled to play the Jets on the road for seemingly quite a while, and while Dallas scraped a win out of Game 1 of the series last year, they ended up getting shut out by Connor Hellebuyck in the two other games in Winnipeg. Now with a freshly won Vezina and Hart Trophy, Hellebuyck and the Jets will be looking to win their home opener while Dallas looks to spoil one for the second season in a row after a 4-3 season opening win in Nashville last season.
After facing a stiff test in Winnipeg, Dallas heads to their other vanquished foe from the playoffs last season, heading to Colorado to play the Avalanche Saturday Oct. 11. Mikko Rantanen will be back to play under his new eight year contract that Avalanche fans will still probably wish was signed with Colorado and not Dallas, and Avs fans will have their first reckoning (aside from a preseason game) with him since single-handedly rag-dolling them out of the playoffs with an unforgettable third period performance in Game 7.
Next, Dallas heads home to open the season against Minnesota, a late 8:30 p.m. start on Tuesday Oct. 14 that indicates it being a nationally televised game. Stars fans will get their first look at a new regime with Glen Gulutzan behind the bench. Dallas plays Minnesota and Colorado in the preseason, so it will be the first meaningful game against the rival Wild team.
After that, Dallas is back home to face the Vancouver Canucks in their only non-Central Division match-up of the first five games of the season. Compared to when the Stars opened 4-0 last year, the start of the schedule is far more difficult this year to open up.
Going to St. Louis in game five of the season means Dallas will also be playing four playoff teams in their first five games as well - every Central Division playoff team.
The Stars get two days off of that and then start a three game homestand that starts with the much-improved Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus has a knack for giving Dallas more of a test than usual at home, and head coach Dean Evason had the Blue Jackets just behind Montreal for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot last year in a season that was supposed to be a major throw-away.
Next, Dallas plays two more playoff teams from last year, welcoming the Los Angeles Kings and Carolina Hurricanes. The game against Carolina will feature the two runners-up in each Conference Final.
After playing Carolina at home, the Stars have their first back-to-back of the season, flying to Nashville for a Saturday-Sunday home-away set. The Predators are trying to rebound after a horrible season last year.
Finally, the tenth game of the season will feature Alexander Ovechkin's last game in Dallas, as Ovechkin will leave the Washington Capitals and retire from the NHL at the conclusion of the season. Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's record for career goals at the end of last season, and now will have a farewell tour to a storied career. This one is a can't miss game for Stars fans on Tuesday Oct. 28.
Overall this is an incredibly difficult start to the season, featuring eight of ten teams having made the playoffs last year, and the other two finishing one and two places out of the playoffs as well. Coming out with a winning record will get Dallas on track for another good season.
Next up in the series will be games 11-20 as the Stars season moves along.
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