Preseason Starts Saturday: The First Games After Camp Open the 2026-27 Clock

By Kyle Lindstrom

The NHL preseason starts Saturday, Sept. 19. That is the first posted date after camp. The league's own August release called it an eight-day, 65-game slate across 36 NHL and neutral-site venues. It runs through Saturday, Sept. 26. The regular season opens Tuesday, Sept. 29. Broadway Sports Network is filing the Saturday open, 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 starts to move.

Sports Unfiltered does not need a camp myth to start a year. Camps have been open. Saturday is the first night the league has posted a full preseason board. Seven games are listed. The first clock is 7 p.m. ET. The last clocks are 9 p.m. ET.

Saturday's Seven Games Are the Open

Dallas visits St. Louis at 7 p.m. ET. Montreal and Toronto play a split-squad pair at 7 p.m. ET, one game in each city. Winnipeg visits Edmonton at 8 p.m. Chicago visits Minnesota at 8 p.m. Vancouver visits Seattle at 9 p.m. Los Angeles plays Vegas at 9 p.m. at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

That last one is not an NHL building. It is a neutral site. The Kings posted it as the Empire Classic. Their local listing is 6 p.m. local. The league listing is 9 p.m. ET. Hold both clocks. The game does not move. The reader does.

Split-squad nights are the preseason tell. Montreal at Toronto and Toronto 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. It is not a regular-season shape. It is a camp shape with official boxes.

The Week After Saturday Is Already Posted

Sunday, Sept. 20, adds seven more games. The New York Islanders visit New Jersey at 1 p.m. ET. San Jose visits Anaheim at 4 p.m. Nashville visits Tampa Bay at 5 p.m. Washington visits Boston at 5 p.m. Carolina visits Florida at 7 p.m. Utah visits Colorado at 7 p.m. Seattle visits Calgary at 8 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 21, is the Kraft Hockeyville date. Montreal plays Ottawa at the Colisee Videotron in Trois-Rivieres at 7 p.m. ET. The winning community was Saint-Boniface, Quebec. The game is 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. It is not a slogan.

Monday also puts Philadelphia and Washington in Hershey at the Giant Center at 7 p.m. ET. Buffalo visits Pittsburgh. Detroit visits Columbus. The Rangers visit New Jersey. Colorado visits Winnipeg. Minnesota visits Chicago. St. Louis visits Dallas. The league is already stacking the middle of the short week.

Neutral Sites Are Part of the Clock, Not Extra Credit

Ontario, California, on Saturday is one neutral site. Hershey on Monday is another. Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday, Sept. 24, is a third. Carolina plays Nashville at First Horizon Coliseum that night. Trois-Rivieres is the fourth name on the league's own list.

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 will miss Saturday night in Ontario and Monday night in Hershey.

This desk will not invent attendance figures for games that have not been played. It will not invent camp winners. It will not invent who makes an opening-night roster. Saturday is the first chance to see the names in a real box. That is the whole point of a first preseason date.

The Regular Season Is Still Ten Days Away

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 matchups if the August preseason release did not list them as Saturday's job. The job here is the preseason clock.

Ten days from Saturday's first 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 it starts to tick in public.

Do not treat a preseason final as a standings fact. There are no standings on Sept. 19. 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 games.

What Camp Was For, and What Saturday Is For

Camp is closed rooms and practice ice. Saturday is a posted start time and a visiting bench. The league waited until Sept. 19 to put that difference on the board. Clubs that have been on the ice in September finally have an opponent in another sweater for a game that counts in the preseason table even if it does not count in the regular-season table.

Broadway Sports Network is not going to pretend a 7 p.m. split-squad game in Toronto 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 early. If you came here for the first games after camp, you are on time. Seven games on Saturday. More on Sunday. Hockeyville on Monday. A 14-game close on Saturday, Sept. 26. Then Sept. 29.

Tuesday Through Friday Already Have Names

Tuesday, Sept. 22, puts Columbus at Buffalo at 7 p.m. ET. Detroit visits Pittsburgh. Florida visits Carolina. The Islanders visit the Rangers. Philadelphia visits Boston. Edmonton visits Winnipeg. Tampa Bay visits Nashville. Vancouver visits Calgary. Utah visits Los Angeles. Vegas visits San Jose. That is a 10-game Tuesday on the league release.

Wednesday is thinner. Ottawa and Toronto play a split-squad pair at 7 p.m. ET. Minnesota visits Dallas at 8 p.m. Los Angeles visits Anaheim at 10 p.m. Thursday stacks again. Boston at Philadelphia. Buffalo at Detroit. Florida at Tampa Bay. Carolina against Nashville in Greensboro. New Jersey at the Rangers. Pittsburgh at Columbus. Chicago at St. Louis. Edmonton at Vancouver. Calgary at Seattle at 9:40 p.m. ET. Anaheim at San Jose. Utah at Vegas.

Friday, Sept. 25, has four games. Boston at Washington at 7 p.m. ET. The Rangers at the Islanders at 7:30. Dallas at Minnesota at 8 p.m. Winnipeg at Colorado at 8:30. Then the 14-game Saturday close. The short preseason is not an empty week. It is a packed week with a hard stop.

The Last Saturday of Preseason Is Already the Busiest

Sept. 26 has 14 games on the league release. That is the last preseason date. It is also the heaviest date. Carolina at Nashville at 3 p.m. ET starts that day. San Jose at Vegas at 10 p.m. ET ends it. In between are home-and-home leftovers. Another Montreal-Ottawa split sits on that same Saturday. Afternoon starts sit there too.

That last Saturday is a week from the first Saturday. The whole preseason is one week plus a day. Miss Saturday the 19th and you have already missed the open. Miss Saturday the 26th and you have missed the close. The middle days are for the clubs that need more ice.

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

The Open, Without the Noise

Preseason starts Saturday. The first games after camp open the 2026-27 clock. Dallas at St. Louis at 7 p.m. ET is the first listed start. Los Angeles and Vegas in Ontario at 9 p.m. ET is the last listed start. Toronto and Montreal play twice at once. Winnipeg goes to Edmonton. Chicago goes to Minnesota. Vancouver goes to Seattle.

The regular season is still Sept. 29. The last preseason date is still Sept. 26. The Hockeyville game is 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.

The Kings' own June release listed four preseason games. Saturday in Ontario against Vegas is the first. Tuesday, Sept. 22, against Utah at Crypto.com Arena is the second. Wednesday at Anaheim is the third. Saturday, Sept. 26, against Anaheim at home is the fourth. That club calendar matches the league Saturday open. It does not replace it.

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. That is the first night the 2026-27 NHL year has a public scoreboard. Broadway Sports Network will meet it there.