Thread: Kings Opening Night?

There is no way they can squeeze all the October games into the middle of the rest of the schedule. For each game, both teams have to be available, one of them has to be able to travel to the other arena, the arena has to be available, and back-to-back-to-backs have to be avoided (unless the owners and players are completely insane and did not pay attention to the NBA season). The NHL can either be lazy and just play what is left, yanking out a game for the teams that have more games left than others, even though it makes for an unbalanced schedule (the Kings avoid a Rangers game that other teams won't) (this will probably be what happens, because it is stupid), or the NHL can come up with a whole new balanced schedule and realign Winnipeg while they are at it (preferrably without that inane 'four conference' setup). 70 games, 4x5 (four teams times five games per team) in the division, 10x3 in the rest of the conference, 10x1 and 5x2 in the other conference. I'd prefer 4x5 / 10x2 / 15x2 but this is the NHL we are talking about. Why would I want to see Pittsburgh every year when I can see Dallas a third time?

AFter reading your post all I cant think about is

Opening night for Kings is gonna be Nov 3. and that came from a pretty reliable source. They will add 1 game to the schedule every 5 weeks to accomodate the months games from Oct. I know nothing is true til etched in stone but I think what I heard and who I heard it from it is pretty reliable.

OMG!!!!!!!!! You know what I just realized while I was reading thru the posts? I have a half season and the game for Nov 3 is not on it!!!!!!!!! I had the first game on the half season and would have been able to see the banner raised. Does that mean if we had half season tickets we don't get to see it unless we buy additional tickets?

This is very very upsetting!

Originally Posted by 05/29/93

It's a 1 pm game against ST. Louis on November 3rd, as the current schedule stands. An odd time to raise a banner to be sure, but there may be no other choice.

Sorry, but ANY TIME you raise THAT banner it's the perfect time. PERIOD!

Originally Posted by Tracy M

OMG!!!!!!!!! You know what I just realized while I was reading thru the posts? I have a half season and the game for Nov 3 is not on it!!!!!!!!! I had the first game on the half season and would have been able to see the banner raised. Does that mean if we had half season tickets we don't get to see it unless we buy additional tickets?

This is very very upsetting!

I wouldn't worry too much about it Tracy. I think organizations would likely make sure those who had opening night have well... opening night tickets. They'll rearrange the half season plans accordingly. Remember, they didn't ship out any tickets yet.

Besides, I still don't think they'll play by Nov 3. So that's another thing to not worry about until it is confirmed.

I went to the Kings opening night! It was fun! Gretz was there! So was Kurry! And fun was had at the Fabulous Forum.

Oh, wait, you peeps are talking about this year, I don't think it's happening soon, but like a wet dream, lol, I have memories of past opening nights to get me through those long lonely nights, haha!

Originally Posted by amacontent

Opening night for Kings is gonna be Nov 3. and that came from a pretty reliable source. They will add 1 game to the schedule every 5 weeks to accomodate the months games from Oct. I know nothing is true til etched in stone but I think what I heard and who I heard it from it is pretty reliable.

Adding one game to the schedule every five weeks wouldn't be sufficient. If the season does start on November 2 (and there's no question that's the league's current plan), the Kings will have lost NINE games (I assume other teams will have lost anywhere from 7-10 games). There are only 23 weeks between November 2 and the scheduled last day of the season (April 13), so adding one game every five weeks would only allow four or five games to be made up. And, as KingsInTheWest mentioned, there are a lot of logistics involved. For example, when could the game against the Rangers be made up? The Rangers were not scheduled to play at Anaheim this season, and they also had their October 15 game against San Jose cancelled. The Rangers are scheduled to play at Phoenix on January 5, but they are also scheduled to play at Chicago on January 2, to play at Dallas on January 4, and to host Buffalo on January 8. Therefore, January 3 and 6 aren't feasible (unless they're willing to schedule back-to-back-to-back road games, which would be insane). January 7 would work for the Kings but isn't likely because of the game the next day in NYC. I didn't see that the Rangers have any long blocks of time off that would allow for a special cross-country trip to make up the game. Maybe it could happen over Christmas week between the Rangers' Dec. 22 home game with NJ and the Dec. 29 game at Tampa Bay, but the only dates that would work for the Kings would be Dec. 23 (which would mean the Rangers would be playing back-to-back games on opposite coasts) or Christmas Eve (neither the Lakers nor the Clippers have home games scheduled either of those days, but I don't know if there's anything else scheduled at Staples Center).

So that's the process for one game for two teams. Presumably the process will be easier for other games (e.g., the 10/27 game against Phoenix), but it would be a nightmare to try and do this for all missed games for all teams.

I think it was fairly clear that it is the league's intent to keep the schedule from November 2 through the end of the season and to make up the October games by EITHER fitting them into the schedule where possible OR adding them on at the end. It would extend the SCF deep into June, but I think that's a reasonable trade-off for keeping a full 82 game schedule.

In any event, this is all premature given Fehr's public reaction to the league's proposal (PRICK!).

Originally Posted by TooCool

I wouldn't worry too much about it Tracy. I think organizations would likely make sure those who had opening night have well... opening night tickets. They'll rearrange the half season plans accordingly. Remember, they didn't ship out any tickets yet.

Besides, I still don't think they'll play by Nov 3. So that's another thing to not worry about until it is confirmed.

I still don't see how the players can be ready and the players have not gotten back yet to the owners.This could be a drawn out process