With the new NHL schedule released this week, the first thing I happened to notice was 8 games between Montreal and Toronto. I also noticed that Montreal did not play Detroit, St.Louis, Nashville, Columbus or Chicago.
Why? I had a chance to ask a member of the Blue Jackets office.
The teams are grouped by division and conference, we as a western team play the other teams in our division 8 times each, 4 home, 4 away, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis and Nashville.(32 games) The other western teams we play them 2 home 2 away(.40 games). The 15 Eastern teams are grouped by division, we play one division at home and one division away and the other 5 teams we do not play this season. We play on the road Florida Panthers, Tampa, Atlanta, Carolina & Washington. (5 Games) Here we play New Jersey, NYR, NYI, Philly & Pittsburgh. (5 Games). Total 82.