The Ducks 2007-2008 Season Schedule and London thoughts

For those who haven’t taken a look at the Ducks schedule, it is now official here: NHL Ducks 2007-2008 Schedule

Anaheim will start the season off with two games versus cross-town rivals the Los Angeles Kings in faraway London, England. I like this move by the NHL a lot as they are trying to help spread the game and acquire more of a global fan base. I’m even more excited that *I* might even get to be there for both games! I have a business show to attend in Amsterdam a week later, so the current plan is to take a vacation to London for the games than make my way down to Amsterdam. This is assuming I can score tickets of course (and not for a King’s ransom; no pun intended) as both games have already sold out.

The thing most Ducks’ fans are talking about next is the lack of National television coverage when we hoist our championship banner. I’d have to agree with them. The Ducks should be the new poster child for the new NHL, yet once again the league is afraid to put the spotlight on them. This isn’t a Cinderella team either; despite the potential losses of Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim will still be coming into the season a contender. They will still be playing the up-tempo, hard-hitting game that brought them to the dance and excites fans. The NHL should consider hiring  someone like Snoop Dogg as a spokesperson (a new Ducks’ fan) if they want to be seen as in touch with today’s fans.

Next up for discussion is the block of games from January 17th until February 12th where Anaheim plays an incredible 12 of 13 games on the road. While many fans think this is a grueling screw job handed to us by Gary Bettman and the league, I don’t. The games for the most part are geographically organized. They will visit Nashville, Minnesota and Dallas then come home for Detroit. Then it’s a skip across town to L.A., followed by Minnesota again and St. Louis. Up next comes the Eastern swing, through Philly, New York (Isanders and Rangers) and New Jersey. Then the final peg of the trip is Detroit again, Colorado and finally home.

The Ducks then do have seven straight games at home to help balance out the long days on the road. Aside from that the interesting points are we hold our first home game against the Bruins, Ottawa comes calling for revenge on March 3rd and we will play Sid the Kid in the Penguins home opener. The Montreal Canadians will also visit Anaheim this year for any Habs fans residing in Orange County.

I think the road trip will truly test our team character and I have a feeling the guys will come out on top. It will be interesting to see what kind of activities Randy Carlyle comes up with to keep morale up (such as riding bicycles or wearing pink dresses).

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment!