- The NHL moved the start times of 109 games on the 2026-27 regular-season schedule
- Washington leads every team with 14 changes, and Calgary and Vancouver have none
- Read below for the biggest swings, including a Capitals game that jumps four and a half hours
The NHL just rearranged 109 puck drops.
That list of start time changes landed Wednesday, hours after the national TV schedule dropped. Washington accounts for 14 of them, more than any other club. Detroit has 13, Buffalo has 12 and Philadelphia has 11.
Two teams escaped completely. Calgary and Vancouver are the only clubs with nothing on the list, and they are the same two that ended up with zero national TV games in the United States.
Washington owns the biggest single swing. Their Jan. 10 game in Anaheim slides from 5 p.m. local all the way up to 12:30 p.m., turning a Sunday evening trip into a lunchtime matinee.
A pair of games move a full three hours. Montreal’s Jan. 2 visit to Florida drops from 4 p.m. to 1 p.m., while Buffalo’s Presidents’ Day trip to the Rangers on Feb. 15 pushes from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Mondays keep showing up. When the league released the full 84-game slate, it flagged a run of Monday afternoon starts aimed at European viewers, and several of Wednesday’s edits land on that day. Washington at Toronto on Dec. 21 goes from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Tampa Bay at Washington on Mar. 15 jumps from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Here are the six largest moves on the list:
- Jan. 10: Capitals at Ducks, 5:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- Jan. 2: Canadiens at Panthers, 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
- Feb. 15: Sabres at Rangers, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
- Jan. 2: Oilers at Red Wings, 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Feb. 21: Devils at Blackhawks, 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Mar. 7: Blues at Flyers, 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
April 6 gets the strangest treatment of the bunch. Six games that night were shuffled into staggered slots at 7:00, 7:15, 7:30 and 7:45 local, spaced out so a broadcast can bounce between playoff races in the final week.
Plenty of fans already bought tickets to games that no longer start when they thought. The 84-game season opens Sept. 29 and wraps April 10.
