Year-end Road Trip Schedule

Next month I'll be taking a five-week trip to Canada and the US to see 25 or so games. I originally had planned 7 weeks in North America, but the dollar-a-day rental car special added a wrinkle that changed things quite a bit. I also need to return to Japan in early January, so the week of AHL games and the Boston visit in the middle of the month was deleted from the plan. So here is the final schedule:

Dec  1   Washington Wizards at Toronto Raptors 7:00
Dec  3   Calgary Flames at Minnesota Wild 7:00
Dec  4   Cleveland Cavaliers at Minnesota Timberwolves 7:00
Dec  5   Buffalo Bills at Minnesota Vikings 12:00 (First Bills Game!)
Dec  6   Dallas Stars at Columbus Blue Jackets 7:00
Dec  7   Robert Morris Colonials at West Virginia Mountaineers 7:00 (NCAA Basketball)
Dec  8   Toronto Maple Leafs at Pittsburgh Penguins 7:00
Dec  9   Florida Panthers at Washington Capitals 7:00
Dec 10   Hershey Bears at Charlotte Checkers 7:00 (AHL)
Dec 11   Boston Celtics at Charlotte Bobcats 7:00
Dec 12   Oakland Raiders at Jacksonville Jaguars 1:00 (not a bad matchup after all)
Dec 13   New Orleans Hornets at Miami Heat 7:30
Dec 15   Montreal Junior at Gatineau Olympique 7:30 (QMJHL)
Dec 16   Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadiens 7:00
Dec 19   Washington Capitals at Ottawa Senators 7:05
Dec 29   Peterborough Petes at Belleville Bulls 4:05 (OHL)
Dec 30   Lake Erie Monsters at Hamilton Bulldogs 7:00 (AHL)
Dec 31   Canada vs Sweden 4:00 (WJHC in Buffalo)
Jan  1   Washington Capitals at Pittsburgh Penguins 1:00 (Heinz Field, Winter Classic)
Jan  2   Dallas Mavericks at Cleveland Cavaliers 7:00
Jan  3   World Junior Hockey Championship Semi-finals in Buffalo
Jan  4   Rochester Americans at Lake Erie Monsters 7:00 (AHL)
Jan  5   World Junior Hockey Championship Finals in Buffalo
Jan  6   St. Louis Blues at Toronto Maple Leafs 7:00

Hotels and air tickets have been booked for the first half of the trip, so those games are set barring any travel difficulties. The end of the year and first week in January are still tentative and depend on family commitments and other issues. In particular, getting tickets to the World Juniors may be difficult as they are only sold in full packages, which is not good for road trippers as myself. So we'll see what happens there.

It's just over 3 weeks til I leave, and I can hardly wait. It will be cold, but it will be fun. If you are in town for any of those games, let me know, I'm always looking to meet local fans before or after the game.

Best,

Sean

Update: I originally planned to rent a car to see a game in Hamilton on December 1st but thought that the jet lag would make the return drive less than ideal. So I moved Hamilton to December 30th. Fortunately, the Raptors are in town with a stinker matchup against the Wizards that night so if I am lucid, I'll take transit downtown and check that out.