The NHL released its regular-season schedule on Thursday with an announcement on Sportscenter, a fitting venue as the league shifts to new platforms this season, most notably those of ESPN and Turner Sports.
After a truncated 56-game schedule of all intra-divisional play last season, the league returns to an 82-game schedule where each team will face every other team at least once before a traditional 16-team playoff bracket for the Stanley Cup.
What is not business as usual is the Olympic break. Two versions of the schedule were released to teams, one with a pause in play from Feb. 7-22 in order to accommodate the Winter Olympics in China and another with no break. The public schedule included the pause.
Though the NHL and NHLPA came to an agreement that would allow players to potentially participate in the Olympics after foregoing the tournament in 2018, there are still…
