30 teams, 15 games in 15 cities -- One night

Thursday, 10.23.2008 / 11:09 AM
Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins play the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in their first meeting since last season's Conference Semifinal playoff series; San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle faces his former teammates for the first time when the Sharks visit the Tampa Bay Lightning; NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin makes his first appearance in Dallas since his rookie season of 2005-06 when the Stars entertain the Washington Capitals; Atlantic Division rivals Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils meet in Philadelphia for the second of back-to-back games and the NHL's most historic rivalry resumes at United Center when the Chicago Blackhawks host the Detroit Red Wings in the 698th all-time meeting of those clubs.

And there will be much more where that came from when more than 275,000
fans will flock to arenas throughout North America Saturday to watch 600 players
compete in 15 games on the busiest day of the National Hockey League schedule. For
only the second time in the League's history, 30 teams will be in action on the same day.

From the first puck drop (4:08 p.m. ET) at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia to
the final buzzer (approximately 12:45 a.m. ET) at Vancouver's General Motors Place and
Phoenix’s Jobing.com Arena, nine continuous hours of hockey, televised through more
than 50 hours of coverage, will showcase the fastest game on earth. The following facts
and figures highlight the 15 matchups on Saturday, Oct. 25 -- the first time since opening
night of the 2005-06 season that all 30 teams will have played on the same day.

NHL Broadcast Schedule for Saturday, October 25:

Hockey Night in Canada on CBC will broadcast a doubleheader, providing regional
coverage of Ottawa at Toronto and Anaheim at Montreal at 7 p.m., ET, followed by
Edmonton at Vancouver coast-to-coast at 10 p.m., ET. French-language viewers will see
the Anaheim-Montreal game on RDS. NHL Network will simulcast the Hockey Night in
Canada doubleheader to a national U.S. audience. Subscribers to the League's Center
Ice and GameCenter Live packages will see all 15 games (subject to local blackout
restrictions).


Longest time between meetings of Oct. 25 matchups:
1. San Jose vs. Tampa Bay: 10/29/06
2. Washington vs. Dallas: 11/30/06
3. Buffalo vs. Colorado: 3/7/07
4. Florida vs. St. Louis: 12/13/07
5. Anaheim vs. Montreal: 3/9/08

Longest time between meetings in Oct. 25 venue:
1. Buffalo at Colorado: 12/4/05
2. Anaheim at Montreal: 12/10/05
3. Washington at Dallas: 1/12/06
4. San Jose at Tampa Bay: 10/29/06
5. Florida at St. Louis: 12/13/07

Set Your Watch: With the drop of the puck at the Pepsi Center in Colorado at 9:08 PM
ET, 12 NHL games will be in progress simultaneously.

Going the Distance: The Calgary Flames will have travelled more than 1,600 miles
from Nashville to Glendale, Arizona for their Saturday night match-up against the
Phoenix Coyotes. The New Jersey Devils will travel fewer than 100 miles for their
second game of a home-and-home with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Behind the Bench: The coaches will bring a total of over 180 seasons of NHL head
coaching experience to the 30 benches. Calgary's Mike Keenan, in his 20th season as
an NHL head coach, leads the way. Minnesota's Jacques Lemaire and Toronto's Ron
Wilson are each in their 15th NHL seasons. At the other end of the experience
spectrum, John Anderson (ATL), Peter DeBoer (FLA), Scott Gordon (NYI) and Todd
McLellan (SJ) are first-year head coaches.

Age Gap: Tampa Bay forward Gary Roberts (42 years, five months, two days old) is
the oldest player and Atlanta Thrashers defenseman Zach Bogosian (18 years, three
months, 10 days old) the youngest expected to be in action Saturday night. The
difference in their respective ages: 24 years, 53 days.

Stripes: On average NHL Officials log between five and seven miles on their skates
each game in addition to the 300 miles they usually travel just to drop the puck. Of the
67 officials (33 referees, 34 linesmen) only seven will have the night off: Referees
Stephane Auger, Mike Leggo and Dan O'Halloran along with linesmen Scott Driscoll,
Tim Nowak, Dan O'Halloran, Lyle Seitz and Mark Shewchyk.

Lights, Camera, Action: It will require approximately 800 people, 300 cameras, 150
miles of cable and 150 replay sources to produce the 26 different broadcasts -- including
16 telecasts in HD -- that will comprise the more than 50 hours of game content and
programming. In addition, 600 photographers will aim to capture every second of the
nine hours of hockey in pictures.

By the Numbers: Fans attending Saturday's games are expected to consume more
than 95,000 soft drinks, 37,000 hot dogs, 33,000 slices of pizza and 23,000 orders of
nachos. In addition, they can be expected to purchase approximately 7,500 t-shirts,
3,300 jerseys and 3,000 pucks in the 15 NHL arenas open for business.

A Day Off: There will be no NHL games on Sunday, Oct. 26, marking the first time since
November 26, 2001 that no games will be played in the midst of a season (excluding the
Christmas break, All-Star break, Olympic break, and the days between the season-opening
games in Europe and the start of the North American part of the schedule).

Hockey Fights Cancer: Six teams -- Colorado, Dallas, Montreal, Nashville, St. Louis,
and Tampa Bay -- will host their Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night. Clubs have
teamed with local and national cancer organizations to promote cancer awareness and
raise funds for hockey’s most important fight. Teams will hold on-ice presentations,
50/50 raffles, promotional giveaways, contests and discount ticket offers. Tickets and
arena suites will be donated to Children’s Hospitals and cancer-affiliated programs, and
young patients will be involved with in-game opportunities including rides on the
zamboni, puck-drops, radio booth visits and player meet-and-greets.

International Flavor: More than 20 nations will be represented on the ice as players
born in countries from Brazil (Robyn Regehr, CGY) to Denmark (Mikkel Boedker, PHX;
Jannik Hansen, VAN; and Frans Nielsen, NYI) and Poland (Wojtek Wolski, COL) to
Slovenia (Anze Kopitar, LA) suit up for their NHL Clubs.

Trophy Case: 48 trophy winners are represented on the active rosters for the 2008-09
season, with 16 multiple winners and 13 of the last 15 Calder Trophy winners (and
almost certainly the next one) in action.



Back to top