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The Tampa Bay Lightning to raise their second Stanley Cup Championship banner before playing against the Chicago Blackhawks at Amalie Arena on January 13, one of five games on the opening night of the 2020-21 season of the NHL.
In the rest of the day’s games, the Pittsburgh Penguins will play the Philadelphia Flyers; the Montreal Canadiens at the Toronto Maple Leafs; the Vancouver Canucks to the Edmonton Oilers; and the St. Louis Blues at the Colorado Avalanche.
They’re the top five in an 868-game regular season with 56 tag team games that ends on May 8, when 30 of the NHL’s 31 teams will be in action.
The NHL announced on Sunday that it has reached an agreement with the NHL Players Association on the format of the season, including four realigned divisions and all intradivisional play.
Official training camps will begin on January 3. There will be no preparatory matches. The seven teams that did not participate in the 2019-2020 return to play will be allowed to open their camps on December 31.
[RELATED: 2020-21 NHL schedule announced | Regular-season schedule has intriguing matchups]
Each team in the East, Center and West divisions will play against all other teams in its division eight times, and each team in the North division, made up of the seven teams based in Canada, will play against each other team in its division nine or 10 times. .
The top four teams from each division will advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The first two rounds will be intradivisional, with the first place team playing the fourth place team and the second place team facing the third place team in the first round. The four teams that advance from the second round to the semi-final will be ranked by their points total in the regular season (# 1 vs # 4; # 2 vs # 3).
The League anticipates that all matches will be held in home arenas, but is ready to play matches at one or more neutral venues per division if necessary.
The Lightning and Dallas Stars, who played in the Stanley Cup final last season, will play the first of eight games against each other on Jan. 17 at Amalie Arena. They will also play on January 19 at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning also won the Stanley Cup in 2004.
Tampa Bay and Dallas are the first teams to compete in the same division after meeting in the Stanley Cup final since the New York Flyers and Islanders played in the Patrick Division in 1980-81.
The first of nine games with Connor McDavid and the Oilers against Auston matthews and the Maple Leafs will be in Toronto on January 20. They will also play in Edmonton on January 28 and 30, and three more times in Edmonton from February 27 to March 3.
The Tkachuk brothers, Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk and Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk, will be played nine times, including five from February 25 to March 7.
This season will be the first since 1923-1924 when all the teams based in Canada will only play against each other. The NHL consisted only of teams in the Canadian markets from 1917 to 24. The Boston Bruins entered the NHL in 1924-1925, becoming the first team based in the United States.
The first of eight games between Eastern Division rivals the New York Rangers and Bruins will take place in New York on February 10. The Rangers and Bruins are in the same division for the first time since they were in the original East Division from 1967 to 1974..
It is also the first time since 1973-74 that the three teams based in New York State (Islanders, Rangers, Buffalo Sabers) have been in the same division.
Vegas Golden Knights Defender Alex Pietrangelo will face his former team, the Blues, eight times, starting with back-to-back home games on Jan.26-28. Pietrangelo signed a seven-year, $ 61.6 million contract with the Golden Knights on October 13.
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