Flyers Release 2013-14 Schedule

The Philadelphia Flyers, in conjunction with the National Hockey League, today unveiled their schedule for the 2013-14 season.

The Flyers will open their 47th NHL season at home on Wednesday, October 2 when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Wells Fargo Center.  They will also close the season at home when they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, April 13.

“Our entire organization,including our players, our coaches and our staff, is excited to begin the season playing for the best fans in the league,” said Comcast-Spectacor President Peter Luukko.

The Flyers schedule features a slightly new look this year as a result of the NHL’s new realignment, which groups the teams into four divisions – two each in the Eastern and Western Conference.  The two Eastern Conference divisions contain eight teams each and the two in the Western Conference each have seven teams.

The Flyers are a member of the newly-namedMetropolitan Division, which includes all the same teams from their most recent division – Pittsburgh, New Jersey, the NY Islanders and the NY Rangers – but they will also have three new division foes.

After a 14-season hiatus, the Flyers will once again be a division rival of the Washington Capitals, who battled the Flyers in the same division for 19 years – first in the old Patrick Division for 14 seasons from 1979-1993, and then in the Atlantic Division for five seasons from 1994-98. Also joining the division are the Carolina Hurricanes, who move in from the Southeast Division with Washington, and the Columbus Blue Jackets, who moved from the Western Conference as part of the realignment.

The Flyers will play all of their divisional opponents at least four times – twice at home and twice on the road.  The schedule format includes an additional game against two of their in-division counterparts for a total of five.  This year, the Flyers’ five-game opponents are Pittsburgh and Washington.  They will visit the Penguins a total of three times and will host the Capitals three times.  The Flyers will play a total of 30 games against opponents in their division.

The other new Eastern Conference division will be known as the Atlantic Division, but will not contain any of the old Atlantic Division teams.  It is comprised of the five former Northeast Division teams – Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto – along with Florida and Tampa Bay, who move from the Southeast Division, and the Detroit Red Wings, who also move over from the Western Conference.  The Flyers will play the eight Atlantic Division teams three times each for a total of 24 games against that division.  The Flyers will play two home games and one road game against Boston, Buffalo, Montreal and Toronto.  They will play two road games and one home game against the other four teams.

METROPOLITAN	ATLANTIC	CENTRAL	PACIFIC
Carolina Hurricanes	Boston Bruins	Chicago Blackhawks	Anaheim Ducks
Columbus Blue Jackets	Buffalo Sabres	Colorado Avalanche	Calgary Flames
New Jersey Devils	Detroit Red Wings	Dallas Stars	Edmonton Oilers
New York Islanders	Florida Panthers	Minnesota Wild	Los Angeles Kings
New York Rangers	Montreal Canadiens	Nashville Predators	Phoenix Coyotes
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS	Ottawa Senators	St. Louis Blues	San Jose Sharks
Pittsburgh Penguins	Tampa Bay Lightning	Winnipeg Jets	Vancouver Canucks
Washington Capitals	Toronto Maple Leafs

The realignment plan also provides for a home-and-home series with every Western Conference team, assuring that fans will have the opportunity to see every NHL club at the Wells Fargo Center at least once this season.  The Flyers will play a total of 28 games against the Western Conference, which is split into the Central Division and the Pacific Division.

The NHL also announced its television broadcasting schedule with NBC and the NBC Sports Network for the 2013-14 season, and the Flyers will play before a national audience a total of 19 times.  The Flyers have been pre-selected for one NBC telecast, on April 12 when they visit Pittsburgh.  On four other occasions, the Flyers will be available for selection by NBC as part of its flex scheduling option.  Those dates are March 2 at Washington, March 16 at Pittsburgh, March 30 vs. Boston and April 6  vs. Buffalo.  If not selected for broadcast by NBC, those games will be carried on the NBC Sports Network.

In addition to those four games, the Flyers have been selected for national broadcast on NBCSN on 14 other occasions; however, some of those games will be carried by Comcast SportsNet in the Philadelphia region.  The complete Flyers local television and radio broadcast schedules will be announced at a later date.

The Flyers will enjoy home cooking over the first month of the season, with eight of their first 12 games through November 1 coming on home ice.  A similar situation occurs in the two-month period from February 6 to April 6, when the Flyers will play 15 of 21 games at home and only leave the Eastern time zone once.

The Pittsburgh Penguins come to Philadelphia for the first time on October 17, with the New York Rangers making their first visit a week later.  Other highlights on the home schedule include the annual Black Friday matinee, which comes this year on Friday, November 29 vs. Winnipeg at 11:30 a.m.

The Flyers will embark on their first extended road trip on November 30 when they visit the Nashville Predators.  It starts a 12-day trip that includes stops in Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas, Ottawa and Chicago.

A month later, the Flyers will head on their annual holiday-week road trip while Disney On Ice presents Let’s Celebrate! comes to the Wells Fargo Center for shows from December 26 to January 5.  This year’s swing encompasses six games over 11 days from December 28 to January 7, with Western Conference stops in Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Colorado and Phoenix before returning to the East Coast to close the trip at New Jersey.

Other longer trips include a five-day trip to Florida, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh while the Wells Fargo Center hosts the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four hockey championships.

The NHL will break for the 2014 Winter Olympics from February 9-26.  While the Flyers are away, the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus will take place at the Wells Fargo Center from February 12-16.

The 2013-14 schedule also includes the 37th Annual Flyers Wives Fight For Lives Carnival, which will take place at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday, January 26.

The Flyers’ radio and television broadcast schedule will all be announced at a later date.

The 2013 Training Camp will open on September 12 at the Wells Fargo Center with practices free and open to the public on Sept. 12-14. More details regarding training camp at the Wells Fargo Center will be announced later this summer.