Preseason Hits the Final Stretch: Last Games Before the 2026-27 Opener

By Kyle Lindstrom

The NHL preseason runs through Saturday, Sept. 26. That is the last posted preseason date. The league's own August release called it an eight-day, 65-game slate across 36 NHL and neutral-site venues. It opened Saturday, Sept. 19. The regular season opens Tuesday, Sept. 29. Broadway Sports Network is filing the last stretch, not a regular-season preview.

This is the first season of a shorter preseason in the new NHL and NHLPA agreement. The regular season grows to 84 games. Two more divisional games sit on each club's regular-season board. The preseason shrank to make room. Saturday is when that shorter clock stops.

Sports Unfiltered does not need a camp myth to close a week. Camps have been open. The first preseason games have already been played. This file will not invent those boxes. Saturday is the last night the league has posted a full preseason board. Fourteen games are listed. The first clock is 3 p.m. ET. The last clock is 10 p.m. ET.

Saturday's Fourteen Games Are the Close

Carolina visits Nashville at 3 p.m. ET. Pittsburgh visits Buffalo at 3 p.m. Anaheim visits Los Angeles at 4 p.m. Colorado visits Utah at 5 p.m. Washington visits Philadelphia at 5 p.m. Tampa Bay visits Florida at 6 p.m. Seattle visits Vancouver at 7 p.m. St. Louis visits Chicago at 7 p.m. Columbus visits Detroit at 7 p.m.

Montreal and Ottawa play a split-squad pair at 7 p.m. ET, one game in each city. New Jersey visits the Islanders at 7:30 p.m. Calgary visits Edmonton at 9 p.m. San Jose visits Vegas at 10 p.m. That last one is the last listed start on the league release.

Split-squad nights are the preseason tell. Montreal at Ottawa and Ottawa at Montreal on the same night means two rosters wearing the same names in two buildings. That is how a short preseason still gets bodies into games on the last day. It is not a regular-season shape. It is a camp shape with official boxes.

The Days Before Saturday Are Already Posted as a Calendar

Monday, Sept. 21, was the Kraft Hockeyville date. Montreal played Ottawa at the Colisee Videotron in Trois-Rivieres at 7 p.m. ET. The winning community was Saint-Boniface, Quebec. The game was in Trois-Rivieres because of logistics. Saint-Boniface's arena still gets the upgrade money and the youth equipment. That is the posted civic fact. This Friday file will not invent the Monday box.

Monday also put Philadelphia and Washington in Hershey at the Giant Center at 7 p.m. ET. Buffalo visited Pittsburgh. Detroit visited Columbus. The Rangers visited New Jersey. Colorado visited Winnipeg. Minnesota visited Chicago. St. Louis visited Dallas. Those are posted Monday names. They are not invented scores.

Tuesday stacked 10 games on the August release. Columbus at Buffalo at 7 p.m. ET. Detroit at Pittsburgh. Florida at Carolina. The Islanders at the Rangers. Philadelphia at Boston. Edmonton at Winnipeg. Tampa Bay at Nashville. Vancouver at Calgary. Utah at Los Angeles. Vegas at San Jose. Wednesday was thinner. Ottawa and Toronto played a split-squad pair at 7 p.m. ET. Minnesota visited Dallas at 8 p.m. Los Angeles visited Anaheim at 10 p.m.

Thursday's Neutral Site Is Part of the Clock

Thursday, Sept. 24, put Carolina against Nashville at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro. Ontario in California was the first named neutral site on opening Saturday. Hershey was the second on Monday. Greensboro is the third. This desk will not invent the Greensboro box. It will mark the address.

Thursday also listed Boston at Philadelphia. Buffalo at Detroit. Florida at Tampa Bay. New Jersey at the Rangers. Pittsburgh at Columbus. Chicago at St. Louis. Edmonton at Vancouver. Calgary at Seattle. Anaheim at San Jose. Utah at Vegas. Those names are the August release. The September games write their own boxes. A Friday file that invents them is a rumor.

Those sites are how a 65-game preseason still leaves home buildings. They are not a world tour. They are four addresses the league already named. A reader who only watches the home arenas missed Saturday night in Ontario and Monday night in Hershey and Thursday night in Greensboro.

Friday Is Four Games. Then the Close.

Friday, Sept. 25, has four games on the league release. Boston visits Washington at 7 p.m. ET. The Rangers visit the Islanders at 7:30. Dallas visits Minnesota at 8 p.m. Winnipeg visits Colorado at 8:30. If you are reading this on Friday afternoon, those clocks are still ahead. If you are reading it on Friday night, some of those boxes may already exist. This file will not invent them either way.

Then the 14-game Saturday close. The short preseason is not an empty week. It is a packed week with a hard stop. Miss Saturday the 19th and you already missed the open. Miss Saturday the 26th and you miss the close. The middle days were for the clubs that needed more ice.

Each club was listed for four preseason games except Montreal and Ottawa, who were listed for five because of Hockeyville. That is the posted count. It is why the last Saturday is heavy. Fourteen games is how a 32-club league finishes a four-game camp on one date.

The Regular Season Is Still Three Days After the Close

Tuesday, Sept. 29, is opening night. The league said that night opens with a tripleheader on ESPN in the United States and a doubleheader on Sportsnet in Canada. This file will not invent the opening-night matchups if the job here is the preseason clock. The job here is the last stretch.

Three days from Saturday's last faceoff to opening night is the new shape. Old preseasons ran longer. This one does not. Eight days of games. Then a pause. Then 84 regular-season games. If you want the 2026-27 clock, Saturday is where the public preseason part of it stops.

Do not treat a preseason final as a standings fact. There are no regular-season standings on Sept. 26. There are boxes. There are minutes for players who need them. There are looks for players who might not be on the Tuesday, Sept. 29 list. That is the honest use of these last games.

What the Open Was For, and What Saturday Is For

The open on Sept. 19 was the first night the league put a full preseason board on the clock. Dallas at St. Louis at 7 p.m. ET was the first listed start. Los Angeles and Vegas in Ontario at 9 p.m. ET was the last listed start that night. Toronto and Montreal played twice at once. This file will not fill those boxes. The August schedule is the source for the times. The September games wrote their own scores.

Saturday is the last chance to see the names in a real box before the regular season. That is the whole point of a last preseason date. Broadway Sports Network is not going to pretend a 3 p.m. start in Nashville is April. It is September. The puck still drops. The clock still runs. The 2026-27 season is no longer only a camp report.

If you came here for a regular-season preview, you are still early. If you came here for the last games after camp, you are on time. Fourteen games on Saturday. Then Sept. 29.

Last Week's File Said the Year Was Starting. This File Says It Is Closing the Exhibition.

Last week's BSN hockey file treated Saturday, Sept. 19, as the open. That open has happened. This week's file treats Saturday, Sept. 26, as the close. Do not reuse the old headline as if camp were still waiting for a first puck. The first puck has been dropped. The last puck of preseason has not.

This desk will not fill the middle days with invented scores. The August schedule is the source for the remaining names. The September games will write their own boxes. Friday's job is to point at Saturday without pretending Saturday has already been played.

The Kings' own June release listed four preseason games. Saturday in Ontario against Vegas was the first. Tuesday against Utah at Crypto.com Arena was the second. Wednesday at Anaheim was the third. Saturday, Sept. 26, against Anaheim at home is the fourth. That club calendar matches the league Saturday close. It does not replace it.

The Close, Without the Noise

Preseason hits the final stretch. The last games before the 2026-27 opener sit on Saturday. Carolina at Nashville at 3 p.m. ET is the first listed start. San Jose at Vegas at 10 p.m. ET is the last listed start. Montreal and Ottawa play twice at once again. The rest of the league finishes the four-game camp on the same date.

The regular season is still Sept. 29. The last preseason date is still Sept. 26. The Hockeyville game was still Sept. 21 in Trois-Rivieres. None of those dates needs a forecast. They need a reader who will treat them as real games on a shorter clock.

This desk will not invent a Saturday score. This desk will not invent a Friday score. This desk will not invent a Thursday score. The only honest hockey sentence on a Friday is the remaining clock. Fourteen games. Then a pause. Then Tuesday.

If you want noise, you can turn camp quotes into a season. If you want the unfiltered version, you can wait for a puck to drop on Saturday and refuse to treat the box as April. That is the last night the 2026-27 NHL year has a public preseason scoreboard. Broadway Sports Network will meet it there.