The Dallas Stars will kickoff the 2021 regular season on the road in a series of inter-conference games.
In a surprising twist, the Stars won’t do their typical three-game road trip through the New York City area. Instead, they’ll open the season at Madison Square Garden versus the New York Rangers on Thursday, October 14th before heading to Boston as part of their four-game road trip through the Eastern Conference.
The Boston Bruins will open their season versus the Stars at TD Garden on Saturday, October 16th. Dallas will host them at the American Airlines Center on Sunday, January 30th to complete the home-and-home the league schedules between inter-conference opponents.
Dallas then heads north of the border for their first back-to-back of the season with one game versus the Ottawa Senators on October 17th before heading to Pennsylvania to play the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 19th.
The Stars will open their home schedule nearly a week into the season on Friday, October 22nd when they host the Los Angeles Kings.
In the 82-game schedule, the Stars will have 15 back-to-back sets which feels pretty standard for the Stars playing in the West. The majority of those games (22 of 30) will take place on the road. There’s only one home-and-home on the schedule, in April when the Stars host the Vegas Golden Knights and the Arizona Coyotes on consecutive nights near the end of the season.
Here’s the breakdown of the schedule by month:
October: 8 total (3 home / 5 road)
November: 12 total (7 home / 5 road)
December: 14 total (8 home / 6 road)
January: 14 total (6 home / 8 road)
February: 4 total (3 home / 1 road)
March: 14 total (4 home / 10 road)
April: 16 total (10 home / 6 road)
The February schedule accounts for the All-Star break, which is slated from February 3rd through February 6th, as well as an Olympic break should NHL players come to an agreement to participate in the Winter games next year. Should that not occur, the NHL stated that a revised regular-season schedule would be issued that revises the games after the All-Star break.
They’ll face off against the NHL’s newest franchise three times, with the first of two home contests scheduled for January 12th. The only time they’ll travel to Climate Pledge Arena will be April 3rd, if you’re looking for a day to make it up to the newest NHL town.
Overall, this feels like a fairly balanced schedule. The front half is slightly more home-heavy while the back half is slightly more road-heavy. March will be the toughest month in that regard, but generally the team doesn’t have long stretches of play either on the road or at home, with four games being the longest set of games in either location.
For those planning to travel to Dallas for a game this season, the home schedule is skewed towards weekend games: 17 total are on a weekend night or day, with six on Friday, nine on Saturday, and two on Sunday this season.
You can check out the full schedule here.