By: Evan Michael | Follow me on Twitter @00EvanMichael
It will be a “December to remember” for the Boston Bruins this upcoming ’22-’23 season. And not just because it’s one of the team’s busier hockey months on the calendar with fourteen games.
Here’s namely –and gamely– why: remember the guy pictured above? Bruce Cassidy? Sure you do. The former B’s bench boss went from the Black N’ Gold to the Golden Knights as the new head honcho at the helm in Vegas.
And you can bet on the 2020 Jack Adams Award Winner being the center of attention both in Beantown and Sin City when his current and former teams face-off on the night of December 5th (in Boston) and the knight of December 11th (in Vegas), respectively.
Mad respect. So, respectfully mark ’em down on your Bruins calendar ahead of the holidays this year. But good ol’ Butch doesn’t get to steal the whole month. Here are some other notable matchups to highlight:
CHAMPS AND CHUMPS
The Bruins will skate into the NHL’s current Cup Country on December 7th against the Avalanche in Colorado for a game sure to pull national attention. And not just because the Avs raised Lord Stanley’s coveted silver chalice last season (which is good enough for me).
Oh no. This game would be right around the six month marker marking Brad Marchand’s potential return from offseason hip surgery. Mark it down. Especially if, as recent rumors suggest, Captain Patrice Bergeron and “old” buddy David Krejci will reunite with Marchy for a trio-of-champs lineup. One can only hope!
Then there’s hopeless. Like the Arizona Coyotes. The B’s will immediately go from “first to worst” in the Western Conference’s Central Division and head to the desert to feel deserted on December 9th.
For, they’ll play not in the once-lauded Gila River Arena in Glendale’s beautiful billion dollar Westgate Entertainment District, but rather the shared budgetary building Arizona State just built to house 5,000 fans on campus in tepid Tempe.
That’s a pendulum swing of pucks not even Poe could’ve pondered (talk about “the pits”) for the Bruins. Yet, it will make for some mighty fine viewing on both TV and, if lucky enough, in person since who knows where the cameras or your eyes will go!
BACK-TO-BACK BACK-TO-BACKS
Now let’s go to something rarely seen on an NHL schedule: a pair of consecutive game splits — one home/road and the other road/road. That’s right… the ’22-’23 Boston Bruins will play back-to-back “back-to-backs” from December 22nd – 28th. Yowza!
Here’s how it breaks down (oh, the lamentations of the assistant traveling secretary): at TD Garden versus the Winnipeg Jets on the 22nd followed by a bus to New Jersey against the Devils on the 23rd. Then the Christmas weekend off in the States. Followed by Boxing Day travel to Canada. Bookended by a game against the Ottawa Senators on the 27th then back to Jersey on the 28th. That’s definitely bedeviling, indeed!
So, mark it down on the calendar in case you want to ask Santa for some tickets — plains, trains, automobiles and last but certainly not least the hockey ones!
NEW YEAR’S NEWS
One of the more exciting games this time of the year we will get to in our next edition of the annual Mark Your Bruins Calendar series here at the BN’G Hockey Blog but not before shouting out an always entertaining New Year’s Eve battle scheduled against Buffalo in Boston on December 31st.
Don’t worry if you have plans for New Year’s Day, either. The game we’ll all be geared up for is officially on the 2nd. And you won’t have to go too far down the road to see it!
Leave a Reply