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Preview: NHL set to restart on August 1st

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After four months without any hockey, the news that every fan has been waiting for came through recently when the NHL announced the restart of the season.

Saturday 1st August will see a resumption of the best league in the world with a 24-team play-off format announced.

Twelve teams from each conference will participate, with qualifiers and round robins starting at the weekend. The first round of the Stanley Cup will commence on the 11th August, with the second round estimated to start on the 25th August.

The Conference Finals are scheduled to commence on the 8th September with the best of seven final of the Stanley Cup starting around the 22nd September.

The first games of the play-offs which will feature a best of five series qualifiers will commence with Calgary Flames vs Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks vs Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers vs New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes vs Montreal Canadiens.

    

The round robin section of the post season will start 24 hours later with Philadelphia Flyers vs Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets vs Toronto Maple Leafs, Arizona Coyotes vs Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild vs Vancouver Canucks.

The top four seeds in each conference will receive a bye from the qualifiers, leaving the fifth through to 12th seeds in each conference to face off against each other.

Whilst that is going on, the top four seeds will play a round robin tournament to determine their seeding for the first round of the play-offs.

Games will be played in two Canadian hub cities, Toronto for the Eastern Conference games and Edmonton for the Western Conference games with the Stanley Cup Final taking place in Edmonton.

It will certainly seem so very different to what we have watched in the past, but the good news is hockey is back and one team will have the honour of being crowned Stanley Cup champions, some time in October.

    

Teams have already been warming up for the battle ahead of them with training camps starting from the 13th July.

At least now we will be able to see the best hockey players in the world back on the ice, something that never looked possible a few months ago.

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