Updated October 17, 2026: the 2026–27 NHL regular season opened Tuesday, September 29, and the first week through Monday, October 5, is complete. This guide covers the U.S. national telecasts announced by ESPN and TNT during that opening stretch. The table gives each puck drop in Eastern Time, the home arena’s local time with its UTC offset, and the matching UTC date and time. That makes late starts easier to place correctly when the UTC date rolls into the next day.
The nine ESPN and TNT national games were concentrated between September 29 and October 2. The national listings stated their starts in ET; the venue-local column converts those starts for the home city. The UTC column preserves the same instant for viewers planning from another country. Each listed time is the scheduled game start, not the start of pregame coverage.
| Date | Matchup | Home venue local time | Listed start | UTC start | U.S. national coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, September 29 | Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes | Raleigh, EDT (UTC−04:00): 5:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. ET | 21:00 UTC, September 29 | ESPN |
| Tuesday, September 29 | New York Rangers at Boston Bruins | Boston, EDT (UTC−04:00): 8:00 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. ET | 00:00 UTC, September 30 | ESPN |
| Tuesday, September 29 | Chicago Blackhawks at Vegas Golden Knights | Las Vegas, PDT (UTC−07:00): 7:30 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. ET | 02:30 UTC, September 30 | ESPN |
| Wednesday, September 30 | Pittsburgh Penguins at Philadelphia Flyers | Philadelphia, EDT (UTC−04:00): 7:30 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. ET | 23:30 UTC, September 30 | TNT |
| Wednesday, September 30 | Los Angeles Kings at Colorado Avalanche | Denver, MDT (UTC−06:00): 8:00 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. ET | 02:00 UTC, October 1 | TNT |
| Thursday, October 1 | Philadelphia Flyers at New Jersey Devils | Newark, EDT (UTC−04:00): 7:00 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. ET | 23:00 UTC, October 1 | ESPN+, Disney+, Hulu |
| Thursday, October 1 | Chicago Blackhawks at Utah Mammoth | Salt Lake City, MDT (UTC−06:00): 7:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. ET | 01:30 UTC, October 2 | ESPN+, Disney+, Hulu |
| Friday, October 2 | New York Rangers at Detroit Red Wings | Detroit, EDT (UTC−04:00): 6:30 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. ET | 22:30 UTC, October 2 | TNT |
| Friday, October 2 | St. Louis Blues at Dallas Stars | Dallas, CDT (UTC−05:00): 8:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. ET | 01:00 UTC, October 3 | TNT |
ESPN’s schedule placed three games on its September 29 opening-night broadcast, then two streaming games on October 1. TNT opened its season with two games on September 30 and returned with a Friday doubleheader on October 2. The announced ESPN/TNT national-exclusive schedules show no additional game between October 3 and October 5; teams still played games that weekend, with coverage determined by their local and out-of-market arrangements.
ET means Eastern Time, but its UTC offset changes with the season. These opening-week games took place while daylight saving time was in effect: Eastern Daylight Time was UTC−04:00, Central Daylight Time UTC−05:00, Mountain Daylight Time UTC−06:00, and Pacific Daylight Time UTC−07:00. NIST lists the 2026 U.S. daylight-saving period as March 8 through November 1. Those offsets apply to the dates in this table; do not reuse them automatically for games later in the season.
For example, the Chicago–Vegas game began at 10:30 p.m. ET on September 29. T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was on PDT, so the local puck drop was 7:30 p.m. PDT. The same instant was 02:30 UTC on September 30. The clock moved to the next date in UTC, even though the game remained a Tuesday-night event in Las Vegas.
The arena city is the reference point for venue-local time, not the visitor’s home city. A viewer elsewhere should convert from the event’s scheduled instant using the viewer’s own location and the game date. This matters for cities that do not observe daylight saving time as well as for international viewers whose converted start may fall on a different calendar date.
One opening-week listing did change after the first schedule release. The NHL’s August 26 update moved Chicago at Utah on October 1 from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. local time in Salt Lake City. The final listing is 7:30 p.m. MDT, 9:30 p.m. ET, or 01:30 UTC on October 2. It is a useful example of why an older graphic or calendar should not override the league’s current schedule.
The three September 29 games were listed for the ESPN television channel. The NHL’s U.S. watch guide says ESPN telecasts are available on ESPN and through the ESPN app. The October 1 Philadelphia–New Jersey and Chicago–Utah games were listed by ESPN for ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu. Because app access and subscription entitlements can vary, search for the exact matchup in the service before puck drop instead of assuming every ESPN-branded game uses the same platform.
The September 30 and October 2 doubleheaders were listed on TNT. The NHL’s current U.S. viewing guide maps TNT telecasts to the TNT channel and the Watch TNT and HBO Max apps. A TV listing and a streaming entitlement are different ways to access the same game; check your provider or app’s current game page if the matchup is not visible.
This table focuses on the ESPN and TNT national windows. It is not a complete list of every opening-week game or every channel that may carry a game. A matchup outside those windows may still be on a team’s local TV or streaming partner. In the United States, the NHL points in-market viewers to each club’s local broadcast information and out-of-market viewers to NHL Center Ice or ESPN+. The league also notes that some NHL Network regional games are not available on ESPN+.
Broadcast rights are country-specific. The NHL announced a separate Sportsnet doubleheader in Canada for opening night, and fans elsewhere should use the league’s country-by-country viewing guide. A U.S. ESPN or TNT listing does not establish access in Canada or another territory, and a subscription may still be affected by local-market restrictions.
The opening week is now in the books, but the same checks apply to any later matchup: verify the latest game time, convert for the arena and viewing location, and confirm the service carrying that specific game.
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