NHL Schedule Rules

Every June, the National Hockey League releases its schedule for the upcoming season. The day is a popular one for NHL fans, who can't wait to find out when their favorite teams will be facing off against their biggest arch rivals. While the schedule varies from year to year, certain parameters remain constant. These regulations are in place to ensure the 82-game regular-season schedule is both balanced and entertaining.

  1. Divisional Games

    • Each NHL team is required to play 24 of its 82 games against teams from the same division. The league is made up of six divisions, each containing five teams. The Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, share a division with the Montreal Canadiens, the Ottawa Senators, the Buffalo Sabres and the Boston Bruins. The NHL schedule will be built so that the Maple Leafs face each of those teams six times over the course of the regular season. To keep things balanced, each divisional series will see one team host three games, and play the other three games in its opponent's rink. This setup was put in place to maximize divisional matchups, which tend to draw bigger crowds than other games.

    Conference Games

    • The six NHL divisions are contained in two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Teams are required to play 40 regular-season games against teams in their conference, but not in their division. Returning to the Maple Leafs example, this means they will face the other 10 teams in the Eastern Conference four times each. Under this setup, each team hosts two games against a non-divisional conference opponent, while the other two games are played on the road. Conference games aren't as important as divisional meetings, but since each conference is given just eight post-season berths, these games are still important for the purposes of jockeying for playoff position.

    Non-Conference Games

    • The remaining 18 games on the schedule are reserved for teams from the other conference. This means that teams will face every opponent from the opposite conference at least once, with three games left over for a second meeting. The downside is that, with only one regular-season matchup between teams from opposite conferences, one team will have home-ice advantage, while the other will have to wait until next year. This could mean that fans of the Maple Leafs might get to see the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks come to town in a given season, but not the Edmonton Oilers or Detroit Red Wings. Usually, the matchups are reversed the following season, meaning Edmonton and Detroit would visit Toronto while Calgary and Vancouver would not.