Breaking down the Canucks 2022-23 schedule

The Vancouver Canucks dropped some news on Wednesday.

No, J.T. Miller hasn’t been traded (yet) but the team has released their schedule for the upcoming season.

Here is the full Canucks schedule below.

With the schedule now out, let’s break it down by going over the important details.

A five-game road trip to start the season

For the fourth straight season, the Canucks will open their season in Edmonton to face Connor McDavid and the Oilers. The game in Edmonton is the start of a five-game road trip to open the season.

After the Oilers game, it is off to the Eastern time zone to face the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets. After that, they go to the Central time zone to face the Minnesota Wild.

Long road trips

The opening five-game road trip is the first of eight road trips that are three games or more.

The Canucks will have three five-game road trips next season which are the longest ones.

The second one is where they play the Canadian Eastern teams: Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs and then head down to the United States to face the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres. This road trip runs from November 8 to 15.

The third five-game road trip runs from January 8 to 15. It starts in Winnipeg where they will face the Jets and then the Canucks will head east to face Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. After that, they head to Florida to face the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Panthers and end the trip in Raleigh to face  the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Canucks also end the season on the road. They head down to California to face the Los Angeles Kings on April 10 and then the Anaheim Ducks on April 11. The Canucks’ regular season concludes on April 13 against the Arizona Coyotes. So the Canucks will conclude their season in the 5000-seat Arizona State University arena. It will look like they are playing in a junior hockey rink. (Some junior rinks are bigger than the ASU Arena.)

Notable home games

The Canucks have their home opener on October 22 against the Buffalo Sabres.

Among all the teams in the NHL, Vancouver’s home opener is the second latest. The latest is the Coyotes due to the ASU arena being under construction. (The Coyotes won’t have their logo at centre ice by the way.)

Other notable home games include October 28 when Crosby and the Penguins come to town. There is also November 1 when Quinn Hughes faces his brother Jack for the first of two Hughes Derbies.

The Montreal Canadiens always draw a crowd of their own fans to Rogers Arena and they come to town on December 5.

The Oilers come to Vancouver only once next season and they face the Canucks at Rogers Arena on January 21. The other Alberta rival, the Calgary Flames come to town twice and that is on March 31 and April 8 which is the final home game of the regular season for the Canucks.

Some other notable home games include January 20 when the Stanley Cup Champions Colorado Avalanche come to town. There is also March 4 against the Toronto Maple Leafs which is always one to look forward to.

The game against the Leafs is part of a six-game homestand which is the longest of the season.

How many back-to-backs will the Canucks have?

The Canucks had ten back-to-backs last season. Next season it jumps up to 13.

In case you are wondering, the teams with the most back-to-backs in the NHL next season are the Columbus Blue Jackets and the New York Rangers who have 16. The Vegas Golden Knights have the least back-to-backs with 7.

Which days and months are the busiest for the Canucks?

The Canucks will play 19 games on Saturdays and 11 of those games are at home.

The least busy day for them is Friday with six games scheduled. Five of those will be at home.

The earliest and latest Canucks games

So every year, the Canucks have a game that is early in the morning. This year, the earliest Canucks game is at 9:00 a.m. Pacific on January 11. They will face the Detroit Red Wings. So you better set your alarms for this one, then grab some coffee so you can let the Canucks dictate your mood for the rest of the day. If you get up early to watch English Premier League or any other European soccer league games, getting up early for this game will be routine for you.

As for the latest game, they will play at 7:30 Pacific six times. Five of those will be home games. Those will be on October 24 against the Hurricanes, November 21 against Vegas, December 5 against Montreal, December 18 against the St. Louis Blues, March 6 against the Nashville Predators and April 10 in Los Angeles.

What do you think of the Canucks schedule? Let us know in the comments below, in the Facebook comments or on Twitter.