Chicago Blackhawks: Schedule for “play-in” round is out

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to dance in the “play-in” round and we know the schedule.

We finally have some more clarity on the next time we are going to see the Chicago Blackhawks back in action. We have known that they are going to play the Edmonton Oilers in a “play-in” series for a long time now. We now finally know the days and a little more about how it is going to work. The Hawks are going to play in the hub city of Edmonton with all of the Western Conference playoff teams while the Eastern Conference playoff teams play in Toronto.

There are going to be anywhere from five to six NHL games going on for the first five days and then it will depend on how many series get to four or five games after that. The Hawks open up against the Oilers on August 1st. Then, they will play them every other day for the first three games (August 3rd, 5th). Then, if necessary, they will play the Oilers in games four and five on August 7th and 8th.

The Oilers are deemed the home team in the first two and would be in the decisive game five if necessary. All of the games are in hub cities so it doesn’t matter from a crowd point of view but there are a few rules that favor the home teams. For example, the sticks on the ice for faceoffs rule favor the home teams and the designated home team gets to make the last line changes. That last rule is especially important in the playoffs when coaches start to play chess with their players.

This schedule is going to be no easy task for the Chicago Blackhawks. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl‘s Oilers are very good. They have their issues as they are a very top-heavy team but when you have two players like that on the same team they can be very hard to contain. The Blackhawks weren’t even that good of a team at all anyway so getting a second chance should be fun to watch. Now that the schedule is out, we can start getting excited.