With hopes of returning to a normal 82-game schedule for the 2021-22 season, the NHL will play an abbreviated schedule consisting of 56 regular season games this year. The regular season begins on January 13 and will end on May 8, 2021. The structure of the league has changed dramatically as the Eastern and Western Conference setup has been eliminated for the 2021 season. In its place, the league is setup with four divisions based largely on the teams geographic locations.
The eight teams in the East, Central and West divisions will play each other eight times during the regular season.