NHL schedule release 2018: 5 matchups we’re looking forward to most

The NHL has released the full schedule for the 2018-2019 season. These are the five matchups we’re most looking forward to.

The time to reflect on the season that ended not even two weeks ago is over; let the countdown to the next NHL season begin once again with the NHL releasing the full schedule for the upcoming season.

The 1,271-game journey to the Stanley Cup Playoffs begins Oct. 3 in Toronto and ends April 6. Every team will play each team within their division four or five times, teams within their conference three times and teams in the other conference twice. There will banners being raised, games in Finland and, surely, plenty of drama.

Now that we have concrete dates for each teams games around the league, lets look at the five matchups that we’re most looking forward to for the upcoming season.

1. Capitals vs. Golden Knights, Stanley Cup Final rematch

This one is a gimme. The Capitals claimed their first-ever Stanley Cup in five games over the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, and much more than a playoff series forced rivalry may have been born from it.

Washington vs. Vegas was some of the most entertaining hockey of last year’s postseason, and drew massive ratings as one of the most viewed Final series of this decade. The teams were both incredible stories in their own right, Vegas being an expansion team in the first season and Washington finally shedding the playoff choker label, but they were also matched up incredibly well. Washington was able to get the bounces at the right times and make the big plays when it needed them to come out on top with the Stanley Cup in a series we won’t soon forget.

Throughout the series, it became more and more clear that both teams hated each other and it progressively got more nasty. The Stanley Cup Final will always bring out a level of intensity, but not at the level these brought it to. Skirmishes after the whistle, late hits, slashes, cross checks are all normal, but there were fingers cut off, cross checks to the face, blind side hits, targeting and multiple times the benches were almost cleared. All of it will likely be brought back in full force when these two meet again.

The Capitals and Golden Knights will meet again twice for this upcoming season, first on October 10 in Washington D.C and later on December 4 in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights won both regular season match-ups last year.

A Stanley Cup Finals rematch is always good television, and once these two meet up again it’ll be a spectacle to watch. The amount of star power and skill on display along with a newly minted rivalry is a matchup that will be worth watching every single time.