The NHL is going overseas again. The league announced the 2022 NHL Global Series games, which will feature the Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Colorado Avalanche, and Columbus Blue Jackets playing in European cities during the regular season.
Two of those games will open the NHL season. The Sharks and Predators will do battle in a pair of games in Prague, Czechia at O2 Arena on October 7 and 8. Those games follow exhibition matches for both clubs, with the Sharks taking on Eisbaren Berlin in Germany on October 4 and the Predators battling SC Bern in Switzerland on October 3.
Then, a month later, the Avalanche and Blue Jackets will meet in Tampere, Finland for a pair of games on November 4 and 5.
Columbus and Colorado are obvious candidates for games in Finland, since they have some of the biggest current stars the country has produced. Patrik Laine and Mikko Rantanen will be the headliners, though others like Artturi Lehkonen and even general manager Jarmo Kekalainen will certainly draw some attention as well. Laine and Kekalainen are even from Tampere specifically, meaning this is a homecoming of sorts for the Blue Jackets.
It’s no different for the Czech games, where Tomas Hertl of the Sharks will be the big draw. Hertl just signed a massive extension with the Sharks that makes him the team’s highest-paid forward and will lead his club into his hometown a decade after he left for the NHL. Teammate Radim Simek is also from the Czech Republic, as is Nashville goaltender David Rittich, though the latter is not yet signed for next season.
As a Blue Jackets fan and full season ticket holder, I hate this. I get the fact Jarmo want to take his team to his home town, but this means here in Columbus, we won’t see the Avalanche next year, a team that was only coming once to begin with and as a result, we won’t see star players like McKinnon and Makar play. Secondly, this means the Jackets will have an 11 or 12 day gap in their schedule, which in turn means they have to make up games by cramming them into the latter part of the year. Colorado is in the same boat. There’s also the danger of extended travel outside of North America. On top of all that, I’ll bet I pay as much for 44 games (we have to buy the pre season games) as I did for 45. Yeah, it’s all BS.
Yeah I don’t know why they didn’t try to schedule the game with another eastern conference team, outside of trying to get Fin players on both teams.
Games earlier in the year tend to be spread out so I don’t think the schedule will be as compact as you would think.