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Game On!

The 2005-6 NHL Schedule is now available on NHL.com, and here are a few of the highlights:

Sid Crosby's first home game with the Penguins: October 8th, vs. Boston
Dominik Hasek leads the Senators into Buffalo: November 2nd
Brett Hull returns to Detroit as a Phoenix Coyote: November 5th

The Hockey Day in Canada tripleheader (Ottawa @ Montreal, Toronto @ Edmonton, Calgary @ Vancouver) will be January 7, 2006. There will be also break for the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, covering February 13-27, with no All-Star Game as a result.

The bad part here is that the NHL wants to beef up divisional rivalries by scheduling more regular season intra-division games, so you'll see less of cross-confernence matchups like having Original Six teams face each other (Boston/NY Rangers/Montreal/Toronto vs. Detroit/Chicago). Heck, the most recent Cup Finalists (Calgary and Tampa Bay) don't even play each other this year! If they really wanted to stoke division rivalries, they could go back to the good ole' days when the first two rounds of playoffs crowned the division champions, who met in the conference final before advancing to the Cup Finals. Bring back the Norris, Smythe, Adams and Wales, I say. And you could add a Howe and Richard division while you're at it, too!

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