Island hockey fans will get to see the next thing, consensus 2023 NHL No. 1 draft pick Connor Bedard, on Nov. 26 when the Regina Pats roll onto Blanshard Street.
The Victoria Royals released their entire 2022-23 Western Hockey League home schedule on Thursday. The club last week, in a teaser, had announced its opening two games at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre would be Sept. 23-24 against the Spokane Chiefs in a reprise of the critical 2021-22 season finale in which the Chiefs denied the Royals a playoff berth.
The Royals in total will play 34 home games from Sept. 23 to the close-out on March 25 against the Everett Silvertips, the traditional pre-pandemic final-game opponent.
Five of the Royals home dates will be against the Vancouver Giants and Prince George Cougars and four each against the other B.C. Division rival Kamloops Blazers and Kelowna Rockets. Each of the U.S. Division teams will visit twice in their usual back-to-back sets.
Inter-conference plays resumes from the pandemic, so the Eastern Conference teams will come through the Memorial Centre for the first time since 2019-20. That includes Bedard and the Pats. The other Eastern Conference clubs from the Eastern Division set to make appearances here are the Brandon Wheat Kings (Oct. 15), Moose Jaw Warriors (Nov. 29), Prince Albert Raiders (Jan. 31), Saskatoon Blades (Feb. 17) and Winnipeg Ice (Oct. 18). The Royals will also play the Eastern Conference Central Division teams once each this season, but all on the road.
In a time change, Saturday night home games will begin at 6:05 p.m. to make them more “family friendly.” Weekday games remain at 7:05 p.m. There are two matinees, Feb. 20 on the Family Day Monday against the Seattle Thunderbirds and Sunday, Feb. 26, against the Silvertips.
The WHL road schedules will be released next month.
