With the Wings’ development camp ongoing, preseason schedule, and home opener already announced, today we get the rest of the picture of the 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings Season. Here are the leaguewide dates from the NHL along with a note on how the schedule is put together for the various division, conference, and league matchups (link):
Regular Season Opens: Wednesday, Oct. 2
Christmas Break: Monday, Dec. 24 – Wednesday, Dec. 26
All-Star Break: Thursday, Jan. 23 – Sunday, Jan. 26
Last Day of Regular Season: Saturday, April 4
We already knew Detroit would face Dallas on October 6th and Montreal on the 10th based on the home opener announcements from last week. Now we know that home opener will be the back end of consecutive nights, as they will be in Nashville on the 5th. Here’s how the rest of the schedule plays out from the team:
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today released their schedule for the 2019-20 season and the team’s 94th overall in the National Hockey League. The Red Wings will open the campaign on the road on Saturday, Oct. 5 against the Nashville Predators before hosting the Dallas Stars for the Home Opener on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 7:00 p.m. Little Caesars Arena will host 22 weekend home games (five Fridays, seven Saturdays and 10 Sundays), including the regular-season finale on Saturday, April 4 versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This season’s 82-game slate includes four games against each Atlantic Division rivals (28 games), three games against the eight teams in the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division (24 games) and two games against all 15 Western Conference foes (30 games).
The 2019-20 campaign begins with a balanced home and road split, with five dates on the road among the first eight games overall, including the annual Western Canada trip (Oct. 15 at Vancouver; Oct. 17 at Calgary; Oct. 18 at Edmonton). The month wraps up with four home games in a five-game stretch from Oct. 22-29 – highlighted by a visit from the defending Stanley Cup-champion St. Louis Blues on Sunday, Oct. 27.
The busiest month of the season is November, with a season-high nine road games among 16 total games for the month, beginning with a back-to-back set on Nov. 1 at Carolina and Nov. 2 at Florida. The Red Wings will play back-to-back games on 14 occasions in 2019-20, including three times in November. Home dates in November include the first meeting of the season against the Eastern Conference-champion Boston Bruins (Nov. 8), a game the night before Thanksgiving (Nov. 27) against the Atlantic Division-rival Toronto Maple Leafs and weekend home games against the Vegas Golden Knights (Nov. 10), Calgary Flames (Nov. 24) and Washington Capitals (Nov. 30).
December provides the most time at home for the Red Wings, with a season-low five road games during the month. From Nov. 30-Dec. 20, the Red Wings will play only two road games, as a three-game homestand stretches from Nov. 30-Dec. 7, part of a run of six home games in a eight-game span. Detroit will play only two games in an 11-day stretch (Dec. 21 at Toronto and Dec. 22 vs. Arizona), which includes a five-day holiday break from Dec. 23-27. After a weekend trip to Florida (Dec. 28 at Florida and Dec. 29 at Tampa Bay), the Red Wings will host their annual New Year’s Eve game on Tuesday, Dec. 31 against the San Jose Sharks.
The Red Wings will play a season-low five home games in January, though all of them come during a six-game stretch from Jan. 7-18. The end of January will see the team play only three games in a 13-day period (Jan. 20 at Colorado; Jan. 22 at Minnesota; Jan. 31 at NY Rangers), with the eight-day gap representing the NHL All-Star Break and the team’s bye week. The schedule picks back up with 15 games in the months of February, which includes the team’s longest road trip of the season with four games in six nights (Feb. 11 at Buffalo; Feb. 13 at New Jersey; Feb. 15 at Boston; Feb. 16 at Pittsburgh).
From Feb. 22-March 11, the Red Wings will play only one road game, with a three-consecutive games at Little Caesars Arena preceding a rare Leap Day game at Ottawa (Feb. 29), prior to a season-long four game homestand to begin March (March 2 vs. Colorado; March 6 vs. Chicago; March 8 vs. Tampa Bay and March 10 vs. Calgary). The regular season will conclude with seven of the team’s final 11 games on the road, beginning with March 12 at Washington and ending with just two April games (April 2 at Toronto and April 4 vs. Tampa Bay).
Ticket on-sale information for the preseason and regular season will be announced at a later date. Fans can sign up for the Single-Game Ticket Presale List to have an opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public by clicking HERE.
The full schedule PDF can be found right here.
Of note:
- The Wings will be completely done playing Ken Holland’s new team by the end of October.
- The Western Canadian and California road trips are early in the season.
- Four games against Tampa: the first not until the end of December and then three times in the last four weeks of the season.
- 13 back-to-backs. Six of them have Detroit at home on the second night. Just one of them has Detroit home on both./
