The NHL has gotten through its first week of play in 2021. One downside to the new division alignments and intradivisional play is that it’s easy to miss what’s going on across the league, as we each focus in on our own divisions.
For example, the North Division’s — an all-Canadian Division, to many fans’ delight — scheduling is a little different. Because there’s an odd number of teams (seven, compared to the other divisions’ eight) and the larger geographic differences, teams aren’t strictly playing in two-game series and teams will meet nine or ten times each instead of eight.