By: Evan Michael | Follow me on Twitter @00EvanMichael
Hot on the heels, or should we say skates, of the Bruins first announcing the upcoming 2021-2022 schedule and then the fact that individual game tickets went on sale, it’s now time to mark your B’s calendar for some must-see action this upcoming season.
With the preseason for Boston beginning in late September and wrapping in early October, the team will have a little more than a week to prepare for “opening night” to be followed by six more games through Halloween.
So, without further ado, let the games begin!
HOME OPENER VERSUS DALLAS
The Bruins open the ’21-’22 NHL season at home against the Dallas Stars on Saturday, October 16th. It’s always nice to start the most grueling campaign in all of sports with the first game in the friendly confines of your home building. And you can best believe TD Garden will be rocking that weekend when the B’s take the ice — Todd Angilly included!
Two things to mark down: it will be the first time the Bruins have played a Western Conference (aka outside-the-COVID-realignment-league) team in nearly two years, automatically amping up, and ramping up, the excitement factor.
Secondly, the B’s will be rolling out a vastly different line-up — particularly lines 2-4 — with the addition of new players Nick Foligno, Derek Forbort, Erik Haula, Tomas Nosek and Linus Ullmark and the subtraction of fan favorite David Krejci (though Head Coach Bruce Cassidy’s recent comments about the door being open to a Krejci reunion in 2022 have fan-fueled new speculation).
Nevertheless, everyone in attendance, and of course all watching on TV or streaming, will be eager to see how the “new look” Bruins truly look playing together for the first time!
SOUTHERN SWING VERSUS CAROLINA & FLORIDA
After a few spread-out road games against recently familiar foes (Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres) and a West Coast outlier at home (San Jose), the B’s will wrap up the month of October with three games in four nights against the Florida Panthers (2 games) and Carolina Hurricanes of Hartford Whalerdom.
This includes the season’s first back-to-back midweek contest on October 27th and 28th, respectively. With both the Panthers and Canes being playoff-caliber teams who also made a modicum of offseason moves to strengthen their rosters, it will be a timely challenge for the Bruins to take them on one after each other… and on the road!
Our Black N’ Gold Hockey blog and podcast partners over at @BetOnline_ag have all three teams — the B’s, Panthers and Canes — at nearly the same odds to win the Stanley Cup in 2022 so these three games to close out the first month of the season could be a foreshadowing of playoff success or a harbinger of early exit disappointment.
No matter how you draw it up, the Boston Bruins will be BACK this Fall for a full fan-filled season (fingers crossed) with plenty of exciting games to mark on your B’s calendar. So keep it right here every Wednesday afternoon for another installment in our annual series!
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