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Full Schedule at:NEW YORK ? The National Hockey League honors its past and celebrates the pressure-packed playoff races of its present with a 2003-04 regular-season schedule that features an outdoor game in Edmonton Nov. 22, a nostalgic Vintage Hockey program, and 960 contests (78% of the 1,230 games) between Conference rivals.
The Oilers will host the Montreal Canadiens in the ?Heritage Classic? at 50,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium, marking the first outdoor regular-season contest in the history of the League. The game, one of the highlights of the Oilers? 25th NHL season, will be played on the 86th anniversary of the League?s inception ? which occurred in Montreal on Nov. 22, 1917 with the Canadiens being named an original League member.
The Canadiens, one of six teams participating in the Vintage Hockey program, will wear throwback jerseys in selected contests, such as the ?Heritage Classic.? The Oilers also will wear a vintage jersey from the 1979-80 season for the outdoor game, which will follow a game between alumni from Edmonton, led by Wayne Gretzky and Kevin Lowe, and a team from Montreal, led by Guy Lafleur.
The Buffalo Sabres will host the other ?off-site? game during in the NHL regular season. On Nov. 12, at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y., the home of their American Hockey League affiliate, the Sabres will host the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.
The quest for berths in the Stanley Cup Playoffs begins Oct. 8. This season, each club will play six games (24 total) against each of its Division rivals, four more than last season, while playing four games against all non-Division clubs in the Conference (40 total), one against each club from the other Conference (15) and three other games against non-Conference opponents. As playoff races head down to the wire, every game on the final six dates of the schedule, which concludes April 4, is intra-Conference.
Where Canadian teams are concerned, the Montreal Canadiens open their regular season on Oct. 9 against the Ottawa Senators at the Corel Centre, while the Toronto Maple Leafs begin the campaign the following evening against the Habs at the Air Canada Centre. Montreal's home opener is Oct. 14 against Washington.
The Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks begin their season Oct. 9 at GM Place, while the Edmonton Oilers' first game is at home against the San Jose Sharks on the same night.
Additionally, there will be 36 ?home-and-home? series, in which teams play consecutive games against each other, exchanging visits to the other?s arena with two days or fewer separating the contests. Last season, there were 21 such sequences.
The regular-season conclusion is the earliest since the 1990-91 season ended March 31, 1991. The Stanley Cup playoffs will begin April 7 and will conclude no later than June 7.
In other games of note, the Opening Night schedule features the Devils at Boston, the Western Conference champion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim at Dallas, and the Minnesota Wild at Chicago.
The Devils will raise their Stanley Cup banner to the ceiling of Continental Airlines Arena Oct. 16, prior to a game against Toronto.
The Maple Leafs host Philadelphia in the Hall of Fame Game on Saturday, Nov. 1, two days before the inductions of goaltender Grant Fuhr, center Pat LaFontaine, Detroit owner Mike Ilitch and veteran Junior coach Brian Kilrea.
The Phoenix Coyotes expect to open their new arena in Glendale, Ariz., Dec. 27 against the Nashville Predators.
All-Star Weekend will take place in St. Paul, Minn., on Feb. 7-8, 2004, with Xcel Energy Center hosting the events.
The Hockey Day In Canada triple-header will occur Feb. 21, with the Calgary Flames visiting the Ottawa Senators at 2 p.m., ET, Montreal at Toronto at 7 p.m., ET, and Vancouver at Edmonton at 10 p.m.
As part of the Vintage Hockey program, the Canadiens will wear a white jersey modeled after the one they wore in 1945-46 and a red jersey matching the style they wore in 1958-59. The other clubs participating will be the Boston Bruins (1967-68 version jersey), Los Angeles Kings (1980-81), New York Rangers (1976-77), St. Louis Blues (1979-80) and Vancouver Canucks (1972-73). The Blues and Kings meet in Los Angeles Nov. 15 in the first of the Vintage Hockey program games, which will feature other ?turn back the clock? activities.
In other scheduled Vintage program games, the Canucks host the Canadiens Nov. 18, then visit Montreal one week later; the Kings visit St. Louis on Dec. 2, then the Bruins and Rangers trade visits, Dec. 22 at New York and Jan. 19 in Boston.
Also, for the first time since 1969-70, home teams will wear their dark-colored jerseys throughout the season.
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