A Fintastic Friday

It's definitely a Fintastic Friday!  The day that Eliot and I have been waiting for finally arrived... and it was here sooner than I had anticipated!  The 2022-2023 San Jose Sharks game schedule (along with the rest of the NHL games) has been posted!

Ok, so Eliot and I actually got our hands on the schedule Wednesday night.  It was posted in our Sharks Facebook group by someone earlier that afternoon.  The full schedule hadn't been publicly posted though, so Eliot and I took the one that we found with a grain of salt... even though we gave it a full glance over that night.

Yesterday afternoon, I went straight to the source, the San Jose Sharks website.  After a quick check, the schedule we had been looking at was the correct one.

Naturally, Eliot and I have already sat down and poured over the details.  Wednesday night, I sent the schedule to him and we thoroughly looked it over top to bottom.

There are a few highlights... the first being that the Sharks will actually open their season abroad in Europe as part of the NHL's Global Series.  They play two back-to-back games in Prague against the Nashville Predators on October 7th and October 8th- Timo Meier's birthday!  They also have a pre-season game versus Eisbaren Berlin on October 4th in Germany as part of the NHL Global Series Challenge.

Our first home game at the Shark Tank won't take place until October 14th, and there's another one the next night on October 15th.  The Sharks longest home-stand is in February when they will play seven games at home from February 18th to March 4th.

Eliot and I have also circled a few other games that we're looking forward to.  The Boston Bruins will play the Sharks at SAP Center on January 7th during our trip to Florida for the WDW Marathon Weekend.  Joe Pavelski and the Dallas Stars will be in San Jose on January 18th with their new coach, and our former coach, Peter DeBoer.  

The Sharks' week off and All-Star Break is from January 29th to February 6th.  Their first home game back at the Tank (after the All-Star Break and their road trip) isn't until February 14th against the Pittsburg Penguins.  The first time we play 2022 Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche isn't until March 7th.  Finally, the Sharks game that I'm most looking forward to right now is the one in Boston on Sunday, January 22nd which Eliot and I will probably go to... so that's definitely marked on my calendar!

There are also a few things we weren't so thrilled about.  The Sharks have 10 back-to-back games in the season... and the only one that's at home are the first two home games of the season.  10 of them are away, one is the Global Series in Prague and the last two are split between home and away games.  Blah... 

The longest road trip this season is from January 21st to February 12th.  The All-Star break splits the eight game road trip in half, so the Sharks will be away from playing at the Shark Tank just one day shy of 4 weeks!  (This is when I'm glad we aren't locals.)

Now, Eliot and I need to figure out which games we would like to go to... which might be a bigger task than we originally bargained for.  There isn't a clear cut weekend to go to San Jose since there are no back-to-back Saturday and Sunday home games on the schedule this year.  There also isn't an ideal road trip to travel for... which means that we will probably be doing a bit of flight and cost evaluations before we make any concrete travel plans to catch a few away games (other than the Boston game).

Regardless, I'm sure Eliot and I will figure something out so we can see a few Sharks home and away games.  Most importantly, I'm excited to have the schedule and to know when our boys in teal will be playing!  The countdown to October 7th is on!!!  °o°