2017-18 Philadelphia Flyers schedule released: Season begins October 4 in San Jose, ends at home April 17

For the second year in a row, the Philadelphia Flyers will open their season on the road.

The National Hockey League released the 2017-18 schedule on Thursday afternoon, and as we learned yesterday, the season will begin against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Wednesday, October 4.

It will continue the next night, October 5, in Los Angeles against the Kings. The season-opening road trip then move to Anaheim on October 7 and Nashville on October 10 before the Flyers finally come home for the opener against the Washington Capitals on October 14.

Following that opening road trip, the Flyers will stay home for five games in a row over a 10 day span: the Washington home opener, then games against Florida, Nashville, Edmonton and Anaheim.

The season concludes on Saturday, April 7 at home against the New York Rangers.

Here are some more notes:

• That five-game homestand in October is tied for the longest of the season. There’s another five game homestand in mid-December against Toronto, Buffalo, Dallas, Los Angeles and Detroit.
• The Flyers are in Las Vegas for their first (and only in 2017-18) game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, February 11. It’s a quick two-game road trip out west that also includes a game in Arizona the night prior. Vegas makes their lone trip to Philadelphia on Monday, March 12.
• Philadelphia will play each divisional opponent four times, unlike previous years in which they would play some teams four times and some teams five times. Their first game against Pittsburgh is on the road on Monday, November 27, and their first game home against their chief rival is on Tuesday, January 2.
• First home games against other division rivals: the Rangers on January 16; the Islanders on November 22; the Caps as previously mentioned in the home opener; the Devils on January 20.
• Three of the final four games are at home, which should benefit the Flyers should they find themselves in a playoff race. That other game in the stretch is just up the road in Brooklyn, too, so that’s not bad. However just prior to that, there’s a rare late-March road trip to Dallas and Colorado.
• There’s no long west coast trip around the New Year this season, which usually happens because Disney On Ice takes over the Wells Fargo Center. This year, that road trip is an easier one to Buffalo, Columbus, Florida and Tampa Bay. That ties the season-opening four game trip as the longest road trip of the season for Philadelphia.
• The lone Western Canada trip: December 4 in Calgary, the 6th in Edmonton, the 7th in Vancouver.
• For Atlantic Division opponents, the Flyers play four of them twice on the road and once at home: Boston, Toronto, Montreal and Buffalo. The other four — Ottawa, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Florida -- come to the Wells Fargo Center twice and the Flyers visit them each once.
• There are ten 1 p.m. starts, three 12:30 p.m. starts and two 3 p.m. starts on the schedule. There’s just one 5 p.m. start on Sunday, March 18 at home against Washington.

Here’s the full schedule: