Saturday, December 13, 2008

Wings revised 2009 schedule

By Tom Hoffman

With the announcement of the Chicago Shamrox folding yesterday, the National Lacrosse League revised its 2009 schedule. For Wings fans, the home dates and opponents will remain the same but now the Minnesota Swarm will make a second visit to the Wachovia Center on February 21, the night the Shamrox would've played in Philadelphia. The road schedule had a few more tweaks done to it. Gone, in addition to Chicago, are visits to Minnesota and San Jose, replaced by a second trip to Rochester (January 10) and a weekend trip to Edmonton and Portland (February 27 and 28). The Wings visit to Madison Square Garden also was a casualty of the new schedule, that game is now on February 8 at Newark's Prudential Center. Here is the new Wings schedule for 2009 (home games in bold):

Sat. January 3 at Buffalo 7:30

Sat. January 10 at Rochester 8:05

Fri. January 23 Boston 8:00

Sat. January 24 at Boston 7:30

Fri. February 6 Buffalo 8:00

Sun. February 8 at New York (Prudential Center) 7:00

Fri. February 13 Boston 8:00

Sat. February 21 Minnesota 7:30

Fri. February 27 at Edmonton 9:30

Sat. February 28 at Portland 10:30

Sat. March 14 Minnesota 7:30

Sat. March 28 Colorado 7:30

Sat. April 4 at New York (Prudential Center) 7:30

Sun. April 5 New York 2:30

Sat. April 11 Toronto 7:30

Sat. April 18 at Rochester 7:35

In the Shamrox dispersal draft, also done yesterday, the Wings took Mat Giles. Giles had 27 goals and 23 assists last season for Chicago and is a 10 year veteran in the NLL.