Mike Harrington and Rachel Lenzi hop the boards for the latest edition of Ice Time, now that the NHL draft, the big wave of free agency has passed and Sabres development camp is over.
The Buffalo Sabres won’t open the season Oct. 7, but the NHL will.
The NHL announced Monday morning that the 2025-2026 season will start Oct. 7 with three games. The league will announce the full schedule at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson (72) aims to pass the puck as Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) defends during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla.
There will be three opening-night matchups:
The Florida Panthers will host the Chicago Blackhawks at 5 p.m. in Sunrise, Fla., and the Panthers will raise their Stanley Cup championship banner at Amerant Bank Arena prior to the NHL’s first game of the season.
The New York Rangers will host the Pittsburgh Penguins at 8 p.m. at Madison Square Garden, and it will be the first time Mike Sullivan faces the Penguins as coach of the Rangers. The Rangers hired Sullivan as coach in May, four days after the Penguins parted ways with him. Sullivan led the Penguins to Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
The Los Angeles Kings will host the Colorado Avalanche at 10:30 p.m. at Crypto.com arena in Southern California.
This will be the final season for an 82-game schedule in the NHL. It will move to an 84-game schedule, with two fewer exhibition games, for the 2026-27 season, part of newest collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players’ Association. The next CBA goes into effect July 1, 2026, and runs through the 2029-30 season.
The NHL will also include a hiatus in February for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy. This season will be the first time since 2014 that NHL players will participate in the Winter Olympics.
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Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson (72) aims to pass the puck as Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) defends during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla.
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