The Pre-Season

Opening Night is still a ridiculous two months away and free agency is winding down (quick! someone sign Yashin!) but the pre-season schedule has been released. Sadly, this is becoming the only time that the Leafs will see some teams. This year's schedule has two Red Wings games in addition to the February 9th tilt but if the league continues with its scheduling format pre-season will be the only time that these two rivals will meet for two seasons.

Toronto will also tease Winnipeg with a taste of 'NHL Hockey' with a game on September 19th. Just to rub salt in the wounds they'll be playing the team that flew the coop, the Phoenix Coyotes. Actually, looking at their roster, Winnipeg is probably better off.

These games will all be on LeafsTV so odds are that most fans won't get a good idea of what the Leafs can do until the season starts. Fear not, I'll be watching the games and writing game recaps to let you know who plays with Blake.

2007-2008 Schedule

The Leafs' 2007-2008 schedule was released today. The season will be kicked off with the renewal of the friendly neighbourhood rivalry with ottawa which features a home and home series kicking off the festivities. These two games will set the tone for the early part of the season. The defending Stanley Cup Finalists will look to get their season off to a good start after meekly bowing out in the Finals. Who is starting in goal could be a question as Emery still has his arbitration hearing and teams are rumoured to be waiting to see how Ottawa deals with an award.

One year after eliminating the Canadiens from the playoffs the Leafs will once again be able to put the final nail in their season's coffin as they play them twice in the final week of the season including the finale. This season will have the Leafs hosting the Central Division and travelling to the west to take on the Pacific Division teams. The Buds will play 26 Saturday night games most of which will grace Hockey Night in Canada since the CBC likes high ratings. The nights that they choose to show another game at 7pm will feature their lowest ratings of the year.

Highlights of the schedule can be found below.

Battle of Ontario:

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 - senators
Thursday, October 4th, 2007 - @ senators
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 - @ senators
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 - senators
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 - senators
Monday, February 25th, 2008 - @ senators
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 - @ senators
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 - senators

English Canada takes on French Canada:

Saturday, October 6th, 2007 - Canadiens
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 - @ Canadiens
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 - Canadiens @
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 - Canadiens @
Saturday, December 15th, 2007 - @ Canadiens
Thursday, February 7th, 2008 - @ Canadiens
Saturday, March 29th, 2008 - Canadiens
Saturday, April 5th, 2008 - @ Canadiens

Defending Champs:

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 - @ Ducks

Original Six matchup that comes around once in a blue moon:

Saturday, February 9th, 2008 - Red Wings

Looks like someone in the scheduling office listened to the complaints about spreading the games between division rivals out. Except, of course, for the Bruins once again who the Leafs play 5 times between February 16th and March 25th. Great work NHL.

February 9th will also double as Hockey Day in Canada with the Red Wings and Avalanche acting as guests as they take on the Leafs and Canucks respectively while the Oilers and Flames renew the Battle of Alberta and the senators and Canadiens fight each other for the title of 'Fanbase that most hates the Leafs'.

2006-2007 Schedule!

Schedule Out
The NHL has released the schedule for the upcoming 2006-2007 season. This season the Leafs will be facing the second toughest division in the league, the Northwest, in its crossover games. This means that all of those Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver fans get to see their first love, the Leafs, play their hometown teams. Sadly, for them (especially those bitter fans that so light up any Sportsnet blog with anti-Leafs venom) their teams won't get to reap the benefits of a guaranteed sellout because all of this games will take place in the friendly confines of the ACC.

The Leafs host:

• Calgary on October 14, 2006
• Vancouver on January 13, 2007
• Edmonton on February 17, 2007

Don't worry though, since it is the Leafs that they are playing the games with either be on Hockey Night In Canada on the National broadcast on TSN.

senators
Again, we face our arch-nemesis ottawa EIGHT times (I understand the need to build rivalries but both sets of fans know that that happens in the playoffs. And only when both teams have a chance of advancing.) including a season opening double header on October 4 and 5, 2006

Other dates include:

• HOME - October 24, 2006
• AWAY - October 26, 2006
• HOME - December 30, 2006
• AWAY - February 3, 2007
• AWAY - March 8, 2007
• HOME - March 10, 2007

Montreal
Our Original 6 cousins match up with us eight times as well. These games will likely go a long way towards determining out playoff spot (last year's blow up games in Montreal attest to that fact). Our first game is at home on October 7, 2006 followed by our first visit to the Gillette Centre (or is it Bell?) three weeks later on October 28, 2006.

The rest of the matches:

• HOME - November 11, 2006
• AWAY - December 2, 2006
• HOME - January 27, 2007
• AWAY - February 26, 2007
• AWAY - March 17, 2007
• HOME - April 7, 2007

That last home game against the Habs is also the final game in the season.

Other Notable Dates
Other games of interest include the January 9, 2007 visit of the Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes to the ACC and a December 9, 2007 visit to Joe Louis Arena to face off with the Stevie Y-less Red Wings.

As always, guaranteed losses should be pencilled in on:

• November 4, 2006
• November 22, 2006
• January 11, 2007
• March 23, 2007

Those are the dates that we visit Alphabet Arena in Buffalo, a traditional burial ground for Leafs teams.

Well that's all of the special stuff. As usual it features too many games against the Northeast, not enough trips out west (free points in Western Canada are fun!), and too much Southeast Division.