My friends, we’ve arrived at the special time in the summer where things are actually starting to happen! This morning, Sportsnet announced the Oilers TV schedule for the upcoming season which includes 37 nation games, 45 regional games, and a whole bunch of 7pm starts. Let’s break it down.

Before we start, having the TV schedule come out means that we can all spend the next day or so planning our hockey lives for the upcoming season and that’s exciting. Not to mention, seeing the TV schedule finally come out is amazing because it means that we’re finally getting through the dead zone that is August and inching closer towards the guys actually being on the ice. Whether you’re a tier 1 or tier 2 fan, small news releases like the TV schedule mean that the wait is almost over and for that, we can all be grateful.

For the Edmonton Oilers, the 2017-18 season sees them playing for a national audience 37 times with Hockey Night in Canada making up 15 of those games. That means that we’ll have plenty of Saturday excuses to drink beers without having to be hungover for work. That’s good living, as far as I’m concerned.

As we know, the Oilers open up their season against Calgary on October 4th and won’t have to wait long before knocking out their first HNIC appearance on October 7th against the Canucks. From where I blog, fewer 8pm weekday starts and more Saturday night games make this guy a happy McCamper.

Let’s check out some of the highlights courtesy of Sportsnet:

Frankly, I don’t think I can remember a season where the Oilers got 15 Saturday night games and I think it’s awesome. Clearly, the people at Sportsnet are betting on the Oilers to be one of the league’s most exciting teams and I agree with them. Call it the McDavid effect, call it whatever you want, I’m just happy to see the Oilers getting the TV love they deserve. In fact, I look forward to people complaining that Edmonton is on TV too much. While that has happened before, it was generally because the Oilers were so bad and not worth watching, but the times they are a changing.The days of getting blown out with regularity while a national audience looks are are over. The McDavid era is here and the rest of the country needs to know about it.

For this Oilers fan, I couldn’t be more excited for this season to get going.