If you’ve taken a closer look at the Montreal Canadiens schedule for this season, you might have noticed that two of the 84 games will be played on a Monday afternoon. One is on January 18 against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center, and the other is on February 22 against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. There is also a Thursday afternoon game, played on New Year’s Eve at 2:00 PM against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The game against the Sabres falls on Martin Luther King Day, which is a bank holiday in the USA but not in Canada, but the ones against the Flyers and the Bolts are not bank holidays in North America.
So why would the NHL schedule afternoon games then? NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly explained the reasoning behind it in the latest edition of The Eye Test Podcast hosted by Pierre McGuire and Jimmy Murphy. Essentially, the league has decided to design a package of weekday games to air at prime time in Europe without competition from European football, particularly on Monday nights.
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If you’re not keen about missing a couple of your favorite team’s games, you might have to get used to it, as Daly also stated that he thinks it’s inevitable that at some point, the NHL will expand to Europe. If that’s the case, there will be more weekday games for every team. Daly does acknowledge that there are still obstacles to making that happen in an 84-game season, but it’s interesting to hear that the League is studying the possibility.
Of course, should that happen, it would mean that every team has to travel to Europe during the season, and it’s hard to imagine them doing that to play a single game against one team. From a financial standpoint, it would make more sense to have at least a couple of teams overseas. However, for those teams, they would have to be on the road for months at a time to visit the league’s other franchises. It’s hard to imagine any player being keen on leaving their family behind for months…that’s no doubt one of the obstacles Daly was referring to. If players are reluctant to come to cities like Montreal because of the language, the weather and the taxes, I can’t imagine life on the road for months being a big selling point.
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Of course, the impact could be diminished if the league were to create a whole division in Europe, but would that be a viable idea? What would it do to the quality of the on-ice product? An expansion with that many teams at once could really have a negative impact; the PWHL is doing a four-team expansion this season, and that’s a real concern. Hopefully the NHL takes notes.
For now, though, it may be time to look at your team’s schedule closely and start booking some days off if you don’t want to miss anything. On Monday, October 12, the Sabres and the Florida Panthers are playing at 1:00 PM in Buffalo. On Thursday, November 12 at 12:00 PM, the Carolina Hurricanes are playing the Seattle Kraken as part of the 2026 NHL Global Series. On Monday, November 30, the Ottawa Senators are visiting the Nashville Predators at 1:00 PM. On Monday, December 7, the Colorado Avalanche are visiting the New York Islanders at 1:00 PM. On Monday, December 14, the Sabres are visiting the Senators at 2:00 PM. On Monday, December 21, the Washington Capitals visit the Toronto Maple Leafs at 1:00 PM. On Monday, December 28, the Vegas Golden Knights are visiting the Minnesota Wild at 2:00 PM. On Thursday, December 31, there are five afternoon games featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Senators, the Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings, the Canadiens and the Lightning, the Capitals and the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the St. Louis Blues and the Golden Knights. It may be New Year’s Eve, but it’s not an official Bank Holiday in North America, and the list goes on in the New Year. Whichever team you support, be sure to plan ahead.
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