09/12/2016 – CanucksBanter

CANUCKS BANTER By Andrew Chernoff Sept 12, 2016

The Canucks open the regular season with consecutive home games against division rival Calgary on Saturday, October 15th, followed by the Carolina Hurricanes on October 16th.

The Canucks schedule has 29 games against Pacific Division teams, 21 games against remaining Western Conference opponents and 32 games against Eastern Conference clubs.

The busiest night of the week is Saturday with 19 games; Tuesday and Thursday 17 games each.

DATES TO BE AWARE OF

October 15th Season/home opener vs Calgary Flames
December 3rd vs Toronto Maple Leafs
March 7th vs Montreal Canadiens
March 11th vs 2016 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins
April 8th Regular season home finale vs Edmonton Oilers
April 9th Regular season finale at Edmonton Oilers

SCHEDULE

SCHEDULE TIDBITS

Vancouver will play 16 back-to-back series in 2016.17 with 9 taking place on the road, 3 at home, and 4 home/road back-to-back splits.
The Canucks will make 13 road trips and host 13 home stands.
Vancouver’s longest road trip consists of 6 away games, twice; the first from November 2nd to 10th, and then again from February 7th to 16th.
The Canucks longest home stand is 5 games from March 7th to March 16th.
By month Vancouver plays:
- 9 games in October (7 at home; 2 on road)
- 14 games in November (5 at home; 9 on road)
- 15 games in December (8 at home; 7 on road)
- 12 games in January (6 at home; 6 on road)
- 12 games in February (6 at home; 6 on road)
- 15 games in March (7 at home; 8 on road)
- 5 games in April (2 at home; 3 on road).
Against Pacific Division opponents by month, Canucks have:
- 4 games in October (Flames, Kings, Ducks, Oilers)
- 2 games in November (both against Coyotes)
- 5 games in December (Ducks with 2; Flames, Kings, Oilers
- 4 games in January (Coyotes and Flames with 2 games each)
- 3 games in February (Sharks with 2 games; Flames)
- 6 games in March (Kings and Ducks with 2 games each; Sharks, Oilers)
- 5 games in April (Sharks and Oilers with 2 each; Coyotes)

PRE-SEASON ACTION

The Canucks will play seven pre-season games, all against Pacific Division rivals.

They will play four games at home against:

Edmonton (September 28th)
San Jose (October 2nd)
Arizona (October 3rd)
Calgary (October 6th).

The Canucks play three games on the road in:

San Jose (September 27th)
Calgary (September 30th)
Edmonton (October 8th).

Source: http://canucks.nhl.com/

The World Cup of Hockey is a two-week international hockey tournament that will take place in Toronto, Ontario from September 17 – October 1, 2016. It’s a joint effort between the NHL and the NHLPA, in cooperation with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

More than 150 NHL players will come together to form eight teams, starting their season early to compete in the best-on-best championship. As with all tournaments, teams will be broken into two groups for the preliminary round:

Group A

Canada
Czech Republic
Europe (with players from several smaller European countries)
USA

Group B

Finland
North America (Canadian and American players who will be under 24 years of age on October 1)
Russia
Sweden

Each team will play three round-robin games versus each opponent in its group. The top two finishers from Groups A and B will advance to the semi-finals, where the first-place teams will play an elimination game against the second-place team from the opposing group. The winners of the semi-finals will meet in a best-of-three final series.

Unlike most international tournaments, theWorld Cup of Hockey will follow NHL rules. Games will be played on the NHL-sized ice surface at the Air Canada Centre with full NHL rules. Round-robin overtimes will follow the NHL regular season format (3-on-3 for five minutes followed by a shootout) and elimination-round overtimes will follow the NHL playoff format (20 minute periods of continuous overtime).

The World Cup replaced what was the Canada Cup in 1996, with the tournament taking place seven times since 1976. Team Canada has dominated almost every time – bringing home the gold five times and silver twice. Their stacked roster entering this World Cup, including high-profile head coach Mike Babcock, makes them the team to beat once again.

ROUND	DATE	MATCHUP	TIME (ET)	TV
Preliminary	Saturday, Sept 17	Team USA vs Team EUR	3:30 PM	ESPN2, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Saturday, Sept 17	Team CZE vs Team CAN	8:00 PM	ESPNEWS, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Sunday, Sept 18	Team SWE vs Team RUS	3:00 PM	ESPN, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Sunday, Sept 18	Team NA vs Team FIN	8:00 PM	ESPN2, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Monday, Sept 19	Team EUR vs Team CZE	3:00 PM	ESPN, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Monday, Sept 19	Team RUS vs Team NA	8:00 PM	ESPN2, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Tuesday, Sept 20	Team FIN vs Team SWE	3:00 PM	ESPN, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Tuesday, Sept 20	Team CAN vs Team USA	8:00 PM	ESPN, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Wednesday, Sept 21	Team NA vs Team SWE	3:00 PM	ESPN, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Wednesday, Sept 21	Team EUR vs Team CAN	8:00 PM	ESPN2, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Thursday, Sept 22	Team FIN vs Team RUS	3:00 PM	ESPN, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Preliminary	Thursday, Sept 22	Team USA vs Team CZE	8:00 PM	ESPN2, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
Semi-final 1	Saturday, Sept 24	Group A1 vs Group B2	7:00 PM	ESPN2, CBC, TVA SPORTS
Semi-final 2	Sunday, Sept 25	Group B1 vs Group A2	1:00 PM	ESPN, CBC, TVA SPORTS
Final	Tuesday, Sept 27	SF1 vs SF2	8:00 PM	ESPN, CBC, TVA SPORTS
Final	Thursday, Sept 29	SF1 vs SF2	8:00 PM	ESPN2, CBC, TVA SPORTS
Final (if necessary)	Saturday, Oct 1	SF1 vs SF2	7:00 PM	ESPN2, CBC, TVA SPORTS