• The season kicks off with an Opening Night doubleheader on Oct. 8 on NBCSN, starting with Wednesday Night Rivalry coverage at 7:30 p.m. ET with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Boston Bruins.
• NBCSN’s Opening Night coverage continues with a 2014 Stanley Cup Playoff rematch between the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings from STAPLES Center at 10 p.m. ET in Los Angeles, as the Kings raise their 2014 Stanley Cup Championship banner to the rafters.
• NBC will present the 2015 NHL Winter Classic from Washington, D.C., between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Capitals on January 1 at 1 p.m. ET.
• Making its return for the first time since 2012, NBCSN will present coverage of the NHL All-Star Game from Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets. All-Star weekend will take place Saturday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25 and will include the NHL All-Star Skills Competition™ and the NHL All-Star Game.
• The 2014-15 regular season on NBCSN will feature 24 Wednesday Night Rivalry telecasts, plus 10 Wednesday nightcaps that will showcase Western Conference teams, including the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Colorado Avalanche.
• The Bruins, Flyers, Capitals, Kings and Sharks will each make 12 appearances across NBC and NBCSN, followed by seven teams that will appear 11.
• This year’s regular-season coverage features 31 games spanning 14 of the 15 series from the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including back-to-back rematches of the 2014 Western and Eastern Conference Finals on NBCSN (Blackhawks-Kings on Jan. 28, Canadiens-Rangers on Jan. 29), and a rematch of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final between the Rangers and Kings on March 24.
• Bruins-Red Wings, Blackhawks-Blues, Penguins-Flyers and Kings-Sharks are the most featured matchups, each appearing four times on NBC and NBCSN.
• 56 of NBC and NBCSN’s 103 telecasts feature at least one Western Conference team.

NBCSN will offer most games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights throughout the season. Beginning in January, a Sunday game will be added most weeks. NBCSN drops the puck on its coverage on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. ET with NHL Live, NBCSN’s live pre- and post-game show, leading into coverage of Flyers-Bruins from TD Garden in Boston, Mass. at 7:30 p.m. ET. Coverage shifts to Los Angeles immediately following Flyers-Bruins with the banner-raising ceremony for the 2014 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings, before face off against San Jose Sharks at 10 p.m. ET.

NBC Sports Group’s NHL lead broadcast team will be comprised of two-time Emmy award-winning play-by-play voice Mike “Doc” Emrick, as well as analyst Eddie Olczyk and Emmy-award winning “Inside the Glass” analyst Pierre McGuire.

NHL ON NBC

NHL on NBC coverage begins on Friday, November 28 at 1 p.m. ET, with the NHL Thanksgiving Showdown featuring the New York Rangers at Philadelphia Flyers, marking the first of 14 games that will air on NBC during the regular season. Beginning on January 18, and continuing through the end of the regular season, NBC will present the NHL Game of the Week, generally occurring on Sunday afternoons. NBC will also present the Flyers and Rangers in primetime at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Last year, NBC posted its most-watched NHL regular season since its most-recent agreement with the league in the 2005-06 season, including last year’s NHL Stadium Series game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks, which averaged 2.8 million viewers and was the most-watched NHL regular-season game, excluding Winter Classics and regional coverage, since the advent of People Meters (1987).

NHL WINTER CLASSIC

The annual NHL Winter Classic will take place on January 1, 2015 in Washington, D.C., and will feature the Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Capitals. The 2014 NHLWinter Classic will be broadcast on NBC at 1 p.m. ET.

The 2014 NHL Winter Classic on NBC tied as the highest-rated NHL regular-season game in nearly four decades (2.5 HH rtg), and became the second-most watched such game in 39 years (4.4 million avg. viewers). The five previous NHLWinter Classics have produced the five most-watched NHL regular-season games in the past 39 years (average viewers).

MOST-WATCHED NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAMES SINCE 1975

WEDNESDAY NIGHT RIVALRY

NBCSN’s exclusive Wednesday Night Rivalry coverage will return for a third season and feature some of the biggest rivalries in the NHL, including Philadelphia-New York Rangers, Chicago-St. Louis, and Boston-Detroit. The network will air exclusive coverage on Wednesday nights for 24 weeks, with games usually starting at 8 p.m. ET. WNR begins Wednesday, October 8 with Opening Night coverage between the Flyers and Bruins.

During its inaugural season, Wednesday Night Rivalry was called “the hottest new brand in sports” by Forbes. This past season, Wednesday Night Rivalry’s 23 exclusive telecasts averaged 559,000 viewers, up 26% compared to the exclusive time period average of the last full regular season in 2011-12 (443,000). Since the debut of Wednesday Night Rivalry last season, NBCSN has recorded nine regular-season games with more than 700,000 viewers vs. four over the previous two seasons.

NBCSN 2014-15 NHL Wednesday Night Rivalry schedule (subject to change):

In addition, NBCSN will present 10 games on Wednesday nights that will immediately follow Wednesday Night Rivalry matchups. These nightcaps will showcase one or two Western Conference teams. The first of these games will take place on Opening Night, when San Jose visits Los Angeles following Flyers-Bruins Wednesday Night Rivalry coverage. Following are the 10 Wednesday nightcap games:

NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND – JAN. 24-25 – NATIONWIDE ARENA, COLUMBUS, OHIO

NBCSN will present extensive coverage of the 2015 NHL All-Star Weekend from Nationwide Arena on Columbus, Ohio, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets. All-Star weekend will take place Saturday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25 and will include the NHL All-Star Skills Competition™ and the NHL All-Star Game.

NBC SPORTS GROUP’S STATE-OF-THE ART STUDIOS

NHL studio programming throughout much of the 2014-15 season will originate from NBC Sports Group’s state-of-the-art International Broadcast Center, located in Stamford, Conn.

NHL Live, NBCSN’s live pre- and post-game show with highlights and analysis of NHL matchups, will air before and after most games. A 60-minute edition of NHL Live will air prior to most games, while a 30-minute post-game show will air immediately following the game.

On most days, the NHL Live team will consist of Liam McHugh (host), Mike Milbury (analyst), and Keith Jones (analyst). Coverage will also include host Kathryn Tappen, new to NBC Sports Group’s NHL coverage this season, as well as analysts Jeremy Roenick and Anson Carter.

FLEX SCHEDULING ON NBC

For the eighth consecutive season, the NHL and NBC Sports Group will utilize flex scheduling, which provides the ability to select from up to four games on Sunday afternoons. At least 13 days prior to the scheduled games, the NHL and NBC Sports will announce which game will air.

NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA COVERAGE

NBC Sports Live Extra, NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets, will stream all 2014-15 NHL regular season games televised on NBC and NBCSN. All NBCSN games will be live streamed via “TV Everywhere,” the media industry’s effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

Games airing on:

• NBC will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets through NBC Sports Live Extra;
• NBCSN will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets through NBC Sports Live Extra, and to the digital platforms of participating cable, satellite, and telco services, via “TV Everywhere,” which is available on an authenticated basis to subscribers of participating MVPDs.

NBC Sports Group 2013-14 NHL regular-season schedule (subject to change):

*Denotes NHL Winter Classic