NHL releases 04/05 schedule but will they need it?

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NHL releases 2004-05 schedule Wednesday but will they need it?[/u][/color]

Wednesday, July 14, 2004
original story: www.canada.com/sports/hockey/story.html?id=5C63DB42-7FF4-4E95-B7CA-F0A148CA10BB

NEW YORK (CP) - The NHL released the 2004-05 schedule Wednesday despite the likelihood of a lockout wiping out some games or perhaps the entire season.

Should the NHL and NHL Players' Association resolve their differences and agree to a new collective bargaining agreement in September, then the NHL's 88th regular season will get under way as planned Oct. 13 when the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning raise their championship banner at the St. Pete Times Forum against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

"We look forward to defending the Stanley Cup next season and rekindling all the wonderful memories from 2003-04," Lightning president Ron Campbell said in a statement. "And I can't think of a better way of doing that than by raising our championship banners and opening the season with one of the league's best teams in a sold out St. Pete Times Forum."

Opening night would also feature Dominik Hasek's Ottawa debut as the Senators host the Montreal Canadiens, the Western Conference champion Calgary Flames visiting the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Vancouver Canucks at the San Jose Sharks.

The Edmonton Oilers open the season at home Oct. 14 against the high-flying Detroit Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs kick it off at New Jersey on Oct. 15 before hosting Ontario rival Ottawa the next night.

Montreal's home opener sees the Flyers come to town Oct. 16, Vancouver's home opener goes the same night against Detroit while the Flames open with three road games before hosting Vancouver on Oct. 19.

In other games of note, the Maple Leafs are slated to host the Boston Bruins on Nov. 6 in the annual Hall of Fame game, honouring 2004 inductees Ray Bourque, Larry Murphy, Paul Coffey and Cliff Fletcher. Bourque spent the majority of his all-star career in a Bruins uniform.

The Flames and Lightning will renew their Stanley Cup rivalry Nov. 11 in Tampa.

The NHL all-star game is slated for Feb. 13 at Philips Arena in Atlanta.

CBC's Hockey Day In Canada returns for another year Feb. 19 with Ottawa at Montreal in the afternoon contest followed by Edmonton at Toronto and Calgary at Vancouver.

The busiest date in NHL history is scheduled for March 26 when all 30 teams see action. Never before have 15 games been played on the same night.

[roots]

optimism rears its ugly head again
damn Nucks don't hit the East coast till Feb..of course that could be when the season starts

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You can download the Vancouver Canucks[/size][/color] schedule here in both MS Excel and MS Word format.

Gurj in Vancouver.

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You can view the NHL schedule for any NHL Team[/size][/color] here.

Select your team of interest in the drop-box

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Canucks to open against San Jose
Vancouver slated to start season on the road if labour issues are settled on time[/color]

Ian Walker
July 15, 2004

It's a no brainer that the Vancouver Canucks are anticipating the team's 87th consecutive sellout Oct. 16 when the Detroit Red Wings come to town.

Of course, that all depends on whether the National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association resolve their differences and agree to a new collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement expires Sept. 15.

The Canucks, in conjunction with the NHL, released their 2004-05 regular season schedule on Wednesday. In the event of a work stoppage, a new schedule will have to be designed.

The Canucks open on Oct. 13 at San Jose. They end the season in Edmonton on April 9. There are 15 home stands and 16 road trips. The team will play back-to-back games 12 times.

December is the busiest month, with 15 games slated -- nine of which will be played at General Motors Place.

As was the case last year, when the NHL unveiled a new formula which heightened intra-division rivalries, B.C. fans are denied a chance to see all the game's teams in Vancouver. Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, along with Atlanta Thrashers, Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins will not visit the city.

"With every schedule now ... there's some parts of the schedule we're not thrilled with and there's some parts we really like. That's the nature of the business now," said Canucks general manager Dave Nonis. "I'm not going to comment on anything in particular but there's travel issues. It's always difficult being a West Coast team when you have to go through the travel we go through but that's not going to change in a 30-team league.

"We have some pretty good homestands. I like our level of opponents at home. We finish fairly strong in terms of a road- home split to end the season. So there's a number of good things as well."

The Canucks sold out all 41 regular season home games last year and have capped their season ticket base at 17,000. GM Place holds 18,630 fans.

John Rocha, Canucks vice president of customer sales and service, said unlike past years, he can look at the schedule a little differently. As of mid-day Wednesday, Rocha had 2,026 names on a waiting list for season tickets, which include halfseason tickets and Ice Packs of 11 or 15 games.

"The expectation is we should sellout every game," he said. "By capping season tickets at 17,000 we leave some tickets for the general public to have access to on a single-game basis. We're tying to set it up in a way that we expose as many people as we can into the building. That said, we not taking anything for granted -- we know we need to continue to build our wait list and continue to provide a great service to our ticket holders."

link: www.canada.com/sports/hockey/canucksstory.html?id=bee0b9fd-34cc-4dc7-8915-3ea0596982af