Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to hockey season.
Sort of.
Though the Stanley Cup may still be dented and soaked from the Tampa Bay Lightning's second straight boat parade celebration to close 2020-21, the business of the NHL rolls on.
Not only do the expansion Seattle Kraken now have a coach, a rink and some players on the roster, the league—as of Thursday evening—has an official schedule of games for the 2021-22 season.
Things will return to something approaching their pre-pandemic normal, with the Canadian teams once again mixing with their American counterparts in the Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central and Pacific Divisions.