2026-27 NHL Home Openers: Dates, Matchups and Times for All 32 Teams

All 32 NHL clubs will play their first 2026-27 home game between Tuesday, September 29 and Saturday, October 10. Five teams open at home on the league's first night, while Florida is the last club scheduled to welcome its home crowd. The table below lists each team's earliest home game in the official 1,344-game schedule snapshot checked on August 13, 2026.

Every 2026-27 NHL Home Opener in One Table

Dates and start times are shown in Eastern Time. “Home opener” means the first regular-season game a club plays in its own arena; it is not necessarily that club's first game of the season. A team may begin with one or more road dates before returning home. Use the complete 2026-27 NHL schedule when you need the games before or after the opener.

Home team	Date	Opponent	Start (ET)
Anaheim Ducks	Sun., Oct. 4	Florida Panthers	8:00 p.m.
Boston Bruins	Tue., Sept. 29	New York Rangers	8:00 p.m.
Buffalo Sabres	Sat., Oct. 3	Chicago Blackhawks	7:00 p.m.
Calgary Flames	Thu., Oct. 1	Seattle Kraken	9:00 p.m.
Carolina Hurricanes	Tue., Sept. 29	Florida Panthers	5:00 p.m.
Chicago Blackhawks	Tue., Oct. 6	St. Louis Blues	8:00 p.m.
Colorado Avalanche	Wed., Sept. 30	Los Angeles Kings	10:00 p.m.
Columbus Blue Jackets	Thu., Oct. 1	Buffalo Sabres	7:00 p.m.
Dallas Stars	Fri., Oct. 2	St. Louis Blues	9:00 p.m.
Detroit Red Wings	Fri., Oct. 2	New York Rangers	6:30 p.m.
Edmonton Oilers	Tue., Sept. 29	Vancouver Canucks	10:00 p.m.
Florida Panthers	Sat., Oct. 10	Minnesota Wild	6:00 p.m.
Los Angeles Kings	Tue., Oct. 6	Florida Panthers	10:30 p.m.
Minnesota Wild	Sat., Oct. 3	Boston Bruins	8:00 p.m.
Montreal Canadiens	Tue., Oct. 6	Carolina Hurricanes	7:00 p.m.
Nashville Predators	Thu., Oct. 1	Minnesota Wild	8:00 p.m.
New Jersey Devils	Thu., Oct. 1	Philadelphia Flyers	7:00 p.m.
New York Islanders	Sat., Oct. 3	New Jersey Devils	7:30 p.m.
New York Rangers	Thu., Oct. 1	Tampa Bay Lightning	7:00 p.m.
Ottawa Senators	Thu., Oct. 8	Philadelphia Flyers	7:00 p.m.
Philadelphia Flyers	Wed., Sept. 30	Pittsburgh Penguins	7:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh Penguins	Sat., Oct. 3	Montreal Canadiens	7:00 p.m.
San Jose Sharks	Thu., Oct. 1	Florida Panthers	10:00 p.m.
Seattle Kraken	Sun., Oct. 4	Calgary Flames	8:00 p.m.
St. Louis Blues	Thu., Oct. 8	San Jose Sharks	8:00 p.m.
Tampa Bay Lightning	Sat., Oct. 3	Washington Capitals	7:00 p.m.
Toronto Maple Leafs	Tue., Sept. 29	Montreal Canadiens	7:00 p.m.
Utah Mammoth	Thu., Oct. 1	Chicago Blackhawks	9:00 p.m.
Vancouver Canucks	Thu., Oct. 1	Edmonton Oilers	10:00 p.m.
Vegas Golden Knights	Tue., Sept. 29	Chicago Blackhawks	10:30 p.m.
Washington Capitals	Wed., Oct. 7	Pittsburgh Penguins	7:30 p.m.
Winnipeg Jets	Fri., Oct. 2	Boston Bruins	8:00 p.m.

The span is short, but the paths are different. Carolina, Boston, Toronto, Edmonton and Vegas begin the season at home. Florida, by contrast, plays its first home date 11 days later. If one opener matters most to you, bookmark that team's live schedule—for example, the Carolina Hurricanes schedule or Florida Panthers schedule—instead of relying on a saved screenshot.

What Makes September 29 NHL Opening Night Different

Opening Night is the start of the league's regular season, not a label for all 32 home openers. The NHL begins 2026-27 on Tuesday, September 29 with five games, and every one happens to be a home opener for the host. The rest of the league's home debuts are spread across the following 11 days.

• 5:00 p.m. ET: Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes
• 7:00 p.m. ET: Montreal Canadiens at Toronto Maple Leafs
• 8:00 p.m. ET: New York Rangers at Boston Bruins
• 10:00 p.m. ET: Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers
• 10:30 p.m. ET: Chicago Blackhawks at Vegas Golden Knights

The official announcement assigns Florida-Carolina, Rangers-Bruins and Chicago-Vegas to an ESPN tripleheader in the United States. Montreal-Toronto and Vancouver-Edmonton form a Sportsnet doubleheader in Canada. Those are confirmed national presentations for this night; local availability, authenticated streaming access and regional restrictions are separate questions and can change by location. This guide therefore does not turn five confirmed games into a season-long TV promise.

Carolina's 5 p.m. game also carries a ceremony that an ordinary opener does not: the NHL said the Hurricanes will raise their championship banner before facing Florida. The timing makes it the first puck drop of the new 84-game season. At the other end of the night, Chicago at Vegas begins at 10:30 p.m. ET, so an Eastern viewer attempting to follow the entire slate is looking at more than five hours between the first and final scheduled starts.

The important planning distinction is simple. If your team appears in the visiting column on September 29, that game may be its season opener but cannot be its home opener. Chicago opens its season in Vegas and does not play at United Center until October 6. Montreal starts in Toronto and returns to Centre Bell on October 6. For the release timeline and the move from 82 to 84 games, read the 2026-27 NHL schedule release guide.

The September 30–October 4 Home-Opening Wave

Most NHL buildings do not have to wait long. Twenty teams hold their home opener from September 30 through October 4, creating a broad first-week wave after the five-game launch. The grouping also explains why “Opening Night” and “opening week” produce different answers in search results: the former is one date, while the latter includes most clubs' first home appearances.

Wednesday, September 30

Philadelphia hosts Pittsburgh at 7:30 p.m. ET, and Colorado hosts Los Angeles at 10 p.m. ET. The NHL announced those games as TNT's first doubleheader of the season. Both visitors are still waiting for their own home opener: Pittsburgh returns home October 3, and Los Angeles does so October 6.

Thursday, October 1

This is the busiest home-opening date, with eight host clubs: Calgary, Columbus, New Jersey, Nashville, the New York Rangers, San Jose, Utah and Vancouver. The staggered starts run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET. Fans comparing games should keep the single-time-zone table in view; a listed 10 p.m. ET start in Vancouver or San Jose is 7 p.m. locally.

Friday through Sunday, October 2–4

Dallas, Detroit and Winnipeg open at home Friday. Buffalo, Minnesota, the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay follow Saturday. Anaheim and Seattle close the weekend Sunday. That distribution matters for travel: a club's first home date can be a weekday, Friday or weekend event, so work and transportation plans should be made from the actual date rather than an assumption that every opener falls on Saturday.

The table in the first section is intentionally limited to the first home game. It does not show a team's road opener, its second home date or other games within the same week. Once the season begins, use the live NHL schedule for this week to see the entire Monday-Sunday slate and any updated start times. That dynamic view is the better tool if you are choosing among multiple games instead of looking up one ceremonial home debut.

The Final Home Openers from October 6–10

Seven clubs wait beyond the first weekend for their home debut. Chicago, Los Angeles and Montreal open their buildings on Tuesday, October 6. Washington follows October 7; Ottawa and St. Louis follow October 8; Florida completes the 32-team list on October 10.

Chicago's path makes the distinction especially clear. The Blackhawks participate in the league opener at Vegas on September 29, visit Buffalo on October 3 and then host St. Louis at 8 p.m. ET on October 6. Los Angeles similarly appears in Colorado's September 30 home opener before welcoming Florida on October 6. A late home date is therefore not evidence that a team has not played; it usually reflects an opening road segment.

Washington's first home game, against Pittsburgh at 7:30 p.m. ET on October 7, was one of the matchups highlighted in the NHL's announcement. Ottawa hosts Philadelphia the next night at 7 p.m. ET, while St. Louis hosts San Jose at 8 p.m. ET. These are separate events even when two teams share the same calendar date.

Florida is the final club scheduled to open at home, hosting Minnesota at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 10. The Panthers are not idle before then: the table shows them as the visiting team in Carolina's, San Jose's, Anaheim's and Los Angeles' home openers. That unusual sequence is useful context, but it should not be converted into assumptions about fatigue, lineup choices or competitive results before games are played.

If Florida's date is your target, check the current Florida Panthers schedule before buying travel or finalizing a calendar. The live team page can reflect a league update more quickly than a preseason article. The October 10 listing here is a verified snapshot, not a guarantee that a future postponement could never alter the order.

How to Read Times, Dates and Schedule Changes

Every time in this guide is Eastern Time, matching the convention used in the NHL's home-opener announcement. During the September 29–October 10 window, Eastern Time is three hours ahead of Pacific Time, two hours ahead of Mountain Time and one hour ahead of Central Time. That makes a 10 p.m. ET game a 7 p.m. PT start, while a 7 p.m. ET game begins at 6 p.m. CT.

Do not subtract hours from the printed date unless the conversion crosses midnight in your location. North American home openers are evening events in their arena cities, so the listed date remains the local game date in the examples here. International viewers should use a timezone-aware calendar because a late ET start can appear on the following calendar day elsewhere.

The schedule snapshot stores a UTC start and a venue timezone for each game, which makes conversion reliable at the time of publication. It does not make the original start immutable. Arena conflicts, weather, travel disruption or a league decision can move a game or alter its start time. A ticket or old screenshot may also have been created before the newest update.

1. Find the team and opener in the table.
2. Open the live team or league schedule and confirm the date, opponent and start time.
3. Add the game through the site's NHL calendar tools, then check the event again close to game day.
4. On the date itself, use today's NHL games for the current slate.

This double-check is most important when a plan involves flights, hotels or a long drive. Calendar conversion solves the timezone problem; it does not replace an official schedule update. The table remains useful for comparing all 32 first-home dates, while the dynamic pages are designed for the final go/no-go decision.

How to Plan a First Home Game Without Guessing

A home opener can include ceremonies, introductions or larger crowds, but those possibilities do not create one league-wide arrival policy. Doors, bags, mobile-ticket procedures, parking and accessibility instructions are controlled by the club and arena. Official team guides show meaningful differences, so copying another venue's rules is a poor shortcut.

1. Confirm the game first. Match the home team, opponent, date and time on the current team schedule. A listing that shows the correct teams but the wrong building may be a road game.
2. Start with an authorized ticket path. Follow the ticket link from the club or arena rather than trusting an advertisement that only uses the matchup name. Inventory and resale availability can change.
3. Read the checkout total. This article does not quote a “typical” opener price because section, demand, fees and seller terms vary. Confirm the exact seat, currency, quantity and final cost before payment.
4. Open the venue's current game-day guide. Check bag dimensions, prohibited items, mobile-ticket requirements, accessibility services and gate information. Do this again shortly before the game because an old policy page or screenshot may be stale.
5. Plan the trip around the local start. Map transit, parking or rideshare options in the arena's city, not ET. Build in extra time for security and an opening ceremony without inventing a universal door-opening time.
6. Save and monitor the event. Add the game through the NHL calendar tools, keep the original purchase confirmation and review team communications on game day.

These steps protect against the two most common planning errors: treating a static date as permanently fixed and assuming every arena works the same way. They also separate facts from marketing. “Home opener” describes a team's first home regular-season game; it does not guarantee a giveaway, a particular ceremony, cheap inventory or a specific gate time. Only a current team or arena announcement can establish those details.

2026-27 NHL Home Opener FAQ

When does the 2026-27 NHL regular season start?

The regular season starts Tuesday, September 29, 2026. The official schedule contains 1,344 games, with 84 games for each of the 32 clubs.

How many NHL games are scheduled for Opening Night?

Five games are scheduled for September 29. Florida visits Carolina, Montreal visits Toronto, the New York Rangers visit Boston, Vancouver visits Edmonton and Chicago visits Vegas. Each host is playing its home opener.

Which team has the last 2026-27 home opener?

Florida is scheduled to be the last club to open at home. The Panthers host the Minnesota Wild at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 10. That answer reflects the schedule checked August 13, 2026 and should be rechecked if a game is moved.

Is a home opener always a team's first game?

No. It is the team's first regular-season game at its home arena. A club can play several road games first. Florida appears as the visitor in four other clubs' home openers before playing its own, while Chicago starts at Vegas before returning home October 6.

Can an NHL home-opener time change?

Yes. A published schedule is authoritative when checked, but later league or arena updates can alter a start. Confirm the live team schedule before travel and again on game day. All times in this article are ET, so convert them for the arena or your viewing location.

Does the new 84-game format add another home opener?

No. Every club still has one first home regular-season game. The expansion from 82 to 84 games adds one home and one road game against divisional opponents; it does not change what “home opener” means. For the broader structure, the site also explains how many games are in the NHL season.