NHL Makes Litany of Schedule Changes, and 7 Instances Impact the Maple Leafs

The National Hockey League rolled out a litany of changes to their regular season schedule earlier today that will impact the starting time of a lot of their games, including 7 for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Those 7 games in question that had their start times changed include:

7:30 PM start time on the 24th of October at the Buffalo Sabres.

6:15 PM start time the 28th of October vs the Calgary Flames

7:30 PM start time on the 2nd of December at the Florida Panthers

7:30 PM start time on the 4th of December at the Carolina Hurricanes

7:00 PM start on the 28th of December at the Detroit Red Wings

8:00 PM start time on the 13th of January at the Utah Mammoth

1:30 PM start on the 25th of January vs the Colorado Avalanche

The reason for the changes were not released by the NHL but it is interesting to note that 5 of these games will be road matchups for the Leafs, so perhaps they're looking to take advantage of primetime opportunities in different markets.

Nevertheless, the rest of the schedule remained untouched, leaving the Maple Leafs opening the season on home ice against the Montreal Canadiens on the 8th of October at 7:00 PM.

The month of October is set to be very home friendly as the Leafs host 8 games at the Scotiabank Arena compared to just 3 games on the road. Included in those 8 games is a 5-game home-stand where they welcome Detroit, Nashville, New York Rangers, Seattle, and New Jersey.

It's almost imperative that the new-look Leafs come out firing to start the year. A hot start in October will set the stage for a very congested schedule due to the lengthy break in February because of the Olympic Games, leaving no room for errors in the final stretch drive.