2020/21 DIVSIONAL MATCHUPS

As you all know the NHL 2020/21 season is going to look vastly different to normal. There are four new divisional bubbles, a mishmash of teams, vastly differing schedules and no pre-season.

The Divisions:

North

Calgary Flames	Toronto Maple Leafs
Edmonton Oilers	Vancouver Canucks
Montreal Canadiens	Winnipeg Jets
Ottawa Senators

Western

Anaheim Ducks	Minnesota Wild
Arizona Coyotes	San Jose Sharks
Colorado Avalanche	St Louis Blues
LA Kings	Vegas Golden Knights

Central

Carolina Hurricanes	Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks	Florida Panthers
Columbus Blue Jackets	Nashville Predators
Dallas Stars	Tampa Bay Lightning

Eastern

Boston Bruins	New York Rangers
Buffalo Sabres	Philadelphia Flyers
New Jersey Devils	Pittsburgh Penguins
New York Islanders	Washington Capitals

The Schedule:

First off training camps will formerly begin on Sunday, Jan. 3, and there will be no preseason games.

Each team will play the entirety of its 56-game schedule within their division. In the U.S. Divisions each team will face their opponents eight times apiece. Meanwhile the seven teams in the North/Canadian division will face their bubble teams either nine or 10 times each.

The official schedules are set to be released in the coming days.

The Playoffs:

With the temporary realignment and no set Eastern/Western Conferences, the playoffs will switch to a divisional format, with the top four teams in each division qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Payoffs will once again feature four rounds of best-of-seven series. The first two rounds will showcase intradivsional play, with the top placed team facing the fourth placed, and the second-placed team facing the third within each division in the First Round, with the winners squaring off in the second.

The four teams who advance to the Semifinals will be seeded by total points from the regular season, with the familiar 1vs4 and 2vs3 match-up structure. The two remaining teams will then go on to play the Stanley Cup Final.

The official start date of the 2020/21 NHL season is January 13th