The NHL's publications relations issued a press release on Tuesday, August 8th pertaining to the upcoming NHL preseason. The games won't count for anything in the official standings. However, for hockey fans that haven't seen their teams on the ice in months, they promise to be welcome. The first game of the NHL preseason will take place on September 16th in Los Angeles as the Vancouver Canucks will travel to California to kick things off against the Kings.
Las Vegas Golden Knights debut
The scheduling for the preseason isn't all that kind to the Canucks as they will also play on the Sunday immediately following their Saturday game in Los Angeles.
Back-to-back situations are the toughest to manage in the NHL, especially when there is travel mixed in. Perhaps the situation will be easier to manage for the Canucks' management given that everyone will be fresh heading into the start of the preseason. Furthermore, the cast of players to draw upon is deeper in the preseason as coaches test out minor leaguers.
In this case, the Canucks will open in Los Angeles and then return home for a game within 24 hours' time. The latter game is a historic one as it will involve the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The expansion team in the upcoming NHL season will play its first preseason game in downtown Vancouver on September 17th.
There are plenty of other highlights with the preseason, including a host of neutral-site games.
The Montreal Canadiens will play the Boston Bruins in what will be officially noted as a neutral-site game from Quebec City. However, with the Nordiques long gone from the NHL, you'd think that there would be Montreal fans making the short trek to Quebec City for the game than Boston fans.
Vancouver heads to China
Vancouver and Los Angeles will play a second time in the preseason on September 21st.
The NHL looks as though they will be promoting NHL hockey to China as the two clubs will play in Shanghai on September 21st. Two days later the two teams will play in Beijing on September 23rd, meaning that LA and Vancouver should be very familiar with one another before the end of the preseason. It will be interesting to see if anything carries over in the regular season between the two Pacific Division clubs, neither of which made the post-season in the spring.
Prince Edward Island, Tucson, Saskatoon, Kansas City, Bridgeport, and Allentown are examples of non-NHL cities that will host games during the preseason.
The 2017 #NHLPreseason begins on Saturday, Sept. 16th.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) August 8, 2017
Schedule: https://t.co/zXbK6mu8TD