Twenty-six days to the first regular-season puck. The NHL calendar is compressed on purpose. Rookie camps open from 11 September: Boston and Philadelphia have already named Friday as day one. Main camps are 16–17 September, the same day the new CBA takes effect. Preseason is packed into eight days, 19–26 September: 65 games, a maximum of four per club. There used to be more exhibitions. The league is saving legs for an 84-game season — the first since 2003–04.
29 September: McKenna in Toronto
Tuesday 29 September. Five games on opening night, ESPN on the U.S. picture. The lead slot is Maple Leafs versus Canadiens at 7pm Eastern. For Toronto this is not just a rivalry. It is the presumed debut of No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna. The league sold the home opener that way: the kid, that building, Montreal across the ice. The rest of the opening pairs were locked in July; the point for viewers is not the full list, it is that the season starts in September for the first time in years. Philadelphia’s home night is the 30th against Pittsburgh — also September, also earlier than habit.
Vancouver takes main camp to Penticton from the 17th to the 20th. Winnipeg opens camp on the 17th and is in preseason against Edmonton two days later. The Flyers play rookie games against the Rangers in Allentown on 12 and 13 September. This is not “still summer”. It is already a working grid.
What the short CBA changes
Four preseason games instead of the old ribbon is a bet on freshness by the 29th. Eighty-four games instead of 82 means two extra division dates. A Heritage Classic in October, Global Series in Helsinki and Düsseldorf, a Winter Classic in Salt Lake City at year-end. All of it sits on a shorter ice-free August. Anyone not ready for camp on the 16th will not be ready for McKenna in Toronto. The NHL this season does not start “when the snow comes”. It starts when the KHL has only three weeks on the board.
