Brady Tkachuk

The Florida Panthers offseason acquisition gets a great first test against the Hurricanes on opening night. Does he fight playoff MVP Jordan Staal as he did with the Ottawa Senators at the start of the playoffs? Plus, Tkachuk gets his return to Ottawa out of the way early with an Oct. 21 game.

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, left, and Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin shake hands after a puck drop ceremony.

Geoff Burke, Imagn Images

Losers

Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks weren’t going to be a playoff team and even less so with Connor Bedard out for all of October and into November after shoulder surgery. But the schedule makers did them no favors. They face 12 playoff teams through the first week of November, including two meetings with the Hurricanes. Among the non-playoffs teams are two meetings with the recent champion Panthers.

Winter Classic timing

The Colorado Avalanche visiting the Utah Mammoth, good. Beautiful setting, good. New Year’s Eve, meh. At least the game starts at 4 p.m. local time, so the Wasatch mountains will be visible before the 5:09 p.m. sunset.

Calgary Flames fans

Remember the symmetry for Capitals fans? NHL schedule makers didn’t do that in Calgary. This is the final season for the Saddledome. The final regular season opponent is the Vancouver Canucks, not the archrival Edmonton Oilers.

NHL shares the spotlight

There wasn’t much time to digest the NHL schedule before Major League Baseball said its 2027 season would start on March 24. That assuming, of course, that they get a collective bargaining agreement done in time.

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