Minnesota Wild: Early NHL schedule means late-night viewing for fans

Get ready for some late-night Minnesota Wild hockey viewing in the opening month of the NHL schedule.

Four of the team’s  first seven games will start at 9 p.m. central standard time, or later as the Wild face west coast trips to California, Washington and British Columbia.

The times for the NHL schedule were released Friday afternoon.

Minnesota opens the schedule against Anaheim on October 15 and then travels to Los Angeles the next night. The games start at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Then the Wild travel to Vancouver on a Oct. 26 and then to Seattle for an inaugural matchup with the Kraken two nights later. Both games are set for a 9 p.m. start.

Overall seven of Minnesota’ s first nine road games might result on fans fueling up on caffeine to make it through the matchups. Or perhaps just catching the highlights or watching a replay the next day.

The Wild have a three-game swing in the second week of November that consists of stops at Arizona, Vegas and a return visit to Seattle. You guess it. All three games are scheduled for a 9 p.m. faceoff.

On the bright side,  Wild fans should be use to the routine. Especially after this past season.

The Wild were placed in the Honda West Division due to COVID-19 purposes and their schedule included  road games at Arizona, Los Angeles, San Jose and Anaheim. The 9 p.m. starts were a regular occurrence.

The season feature back-to-back games and the Wild’s first four games were road contests at Los Angeles and Anaheim. The Wild seem to thrive in the late schedule as they won three of those road games.

Also, Wild fans will get somewhat of a break after the second Seattle road game. The next late start isn’t until Dec. 9 when Minnesota travels to San Jose for a 9:30 p.m. start. The faceoff is the same time for a matchup again at Los Angeles just two nights later.