On Wednesday, the Washington Capitals released the schedule for the upcoming 2007-08 season, including the pre-season games. The complete schedule can be found at the bottom of this article, but let us take a look at some of the highlights.
The Caps open up with seven pre-season games, three of which are in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center. On the home exhibition schedule are Carolina, Philadelphia and Ottawa.
The regular season starts Friday, October 5, as the boys in red, white and blue travel to Atlanta to take on the Thrashers. The Caps return home the following night to take on the Hurricanes, before taking a three game tour of New York.
Looking at the schedule overall, 19 of the Caps 41 home games fall on weekends, and all but six are 7pm starts. The Caps also play the day before Thanksgiving and New Years Day.
The Capitals only have one road trip longer than three games all season. Conversely, they have six home stands of three games or more, including a five game home stand in January. Perhaps more importantly, the last three games of the season are at Verizon against Southeast Division foes, giving the Caps a slight advantage, should the Southeast Division title and a playoff berth come down to the wire