Let the vacation planning begin!
The National Hockey League released the 2010-11 regular season schedule today and Nashville Predators fans – along with fans in all 30 NHL cities – will spend several unproductive hours at work figuring out where they’d like to travel to watch their team play.
And, to add to those unproductive hours, Southwest Airlines just happened to announce a 72-hour only 39th Anniversary Sale this morning.
So, like we said, let the vacation planning begin!
As announced yesterday, the Preds will open their season at home against the Anaheim Ducks on October 9. Other early opponents that will visit Bridgestone Arena are Washington, Calgary and Pittsburgh while Nashville will visit Dallas, Tampa Bay, Chicago and Detroit in the month of October.
Last year, the Preds played superstars Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin in their barn but, this season, they’ll have those guys on their own turf, in the confines of 501 Broadway. Both games should be sold out due to the star power alone.
Also, go ahead and request off for Monday, December 6 now as the Preds will visit the Atlanta Thrashers. Philips Arena is a great place to take in a game, it’s only a three and a half hour drive from Nashville and, as we saw first-hand last season, Preds faithful could turn it into a home game by outnumbering the Thrashers fans in their own building.
Per usual, the Preds are loaded with home games towards the end of the season. Nine of their 15 games in March – and 11 of their final 13 overall – are in the friendly confines of Bridgestone Arena. This is heavily beneficial for ticket sales in Music City as Nashville always sees a spike in attendance once football season comes to an end in January.
In case you were wondering, former Predators captain Jason Arnott will play against his old team but he’ll do it in New Jersey as the Devils aren’t slated to visit Middle Tennessee this season. And, on a related note, neither will newly acquired Flyers defenseman (assuming he signs) and former Pred Dan Hamhuis. The Flyers will, instead, host Nashville on February 3.
To see the complete schedule, log onto nashvillepredators.com.