2009-10 NHL season

The 2009–10 NHL season was the 92nd season of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the 100th season since the founding of the predecessor National Hockey Association (NHA). It ran from October 1, 2009 with four games in Europe, until April 12, 2010, with the Stanley Cup playoffs to follow, all the way up to early June 2010. A mid-season break from February 15 to February 28 occured to allow participation of NHL players in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Because of the Winter Olympics break, there was no NHL All Star Game for 2010.

Events
The 2009 NHL Entry Draft was held June 26-27, 2009 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec.

The Colorado Avalanche retired the #19 of Joe Sakic at their home opener on October 1.

New uniforms
Several teams (Florida, Calgary, Minnesota, Nashville and Colorado) debuted third uniforms this season, while Buffalo and Philadelphia made their third uniforms their primary home jerseys, and Chicago made the jersey they wore for last season's Winter Classic their new alternate. In addition, NHL officials had new uniforms, which debuted at last season's All-Star Game.

Preseason
The 2009–10 preseason for most teams started on September 14, 2009.

2009 Kraft Hockeyville
Since 2006, Kraft Foods has sponsored a sweepstakes called Kraft Hockeyville, in which various small cities across Canada compete against eachother with the hopes of winning the privilege of having an NHL preseason game played in a local sports complex or arena, along with a hockey festival named the Stanley Cup Jamboree. The 2009 winner was the city of Terrace, British Columbia. The preseason matchup was between the hometown favorite Vancouver Canucks and the New York Islanders.

Salary cap
The salary cap was just a minor increase for 2009–10 season. It was set at $56.8 million, which is $100,000 higher than in 2008–09 season. The salary floor was at $40.8 million.

Premiere in Europe
The NHL started the season with the NHL Premiere series; four teams (Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues) each playing two regular-season games in Europe. Detroit played St. Louis in Stockholm, Sweden at Ericsson Globe and Chicago and Florida played in Helsinki, Finland at Hartwall Areena on October 2 and October 3. This is the second-straight season that the NHL played in Sweden, and the third year for the Premiere series beginning the NHL season in Europe.

Victoria Cup
The IIHF has announced that the Zürich ZSC Lions will be the challenger to the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks in the 2009 Victoria Cup game to be held in Zürich, Switzerland on September 29, 2009, just prior to the regular-season games. The Blackhawks will also play an exhibition game against HC Davos while in Zürich.

Winter Classic
On July 15, 2009, the NHL announced that the third installment of the Winter Classic will take place on January 1, 2010, at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts with the Boston Bruins hosting the Philadelphia Flyers. Because the NHL will not host an All-Star Game in the 2009-10 season, this will become the league's showcase event.

Olympics
The NHL will not hold an All-Star Game this season. Instead, many of the league's players will participate in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Olympic ice hockey tournament is scheduled to be played from February 16 to February 28, 2010. This will mark the first time since the NHL allowed its players to compete in an Olympics that a Winter Olympics will be held in an NHL market, as well as the first to use an NHL-sized ice rink (as opposed to the bigger one normally used for international play). General Motors Place, the Vancouver Canucks' home arena, will be known as "Canada Hockey Place," for being the primary ice hockey venue. The temporary arena name change reflects the fact that the International Olympic Committee does not sell or promote naming rights for its competition venues.

The Olympics will also affect the Canucks, as they will be faced with the longest road trip in NHL history, having to play 14 straight road games from January 27 to March 13, 2010 so that GM Place could be prepared for the Olympics. One example of this is that the ice surface and dasher boards will need to be redone to reflect said banning of selling or promoting said naming rights.

Playoff seeds
After the regular season, the standard of 16 teams qualified for the playoffs. The Washington Capitals won the Presidents' Trophy for having the best record in the league, at 121 points. Division champions maintain their relative ranking during the entire playoffs while the remaining teams get reseeded below them after each round.

Eastern Conference

 * 1) Washington Capitals – Southeast Division and Eastern Conference regular season champions; President's Trophy winners, 121 points
 * 2) New Jersey Devils – Atlantic Division champions, 103 points
 * 3) Buffalo Sabres – Northeast Division champions, 100 points
 * 4) Pittsburgh Penguins – 101 points (47 wins)
 * 5) Ottawa Senators – 94 points (44 wins)
 * 6) Boston Bruins – 91 points (39 wins)
 * 7) Philadelphia Flyers – 88 points (41 wins)
 * 8) Montreal Canadiens – 88 points (39 wins)

Western Conference

 * 1) San Jose Sharks – Pacific Division champions and Western Conference regular season champions, 113 points
 * 2) Chicago Blackhawks – Central Division champions, 112 points
 * 3) Vancouver Canucks – Northwest Division champions, 103 points
 * 4) Phoenix Coyotes – 107 points (50 wins)
 * 5) Detroit Red Wings – 102 points (44 wins)
 * 6) Los Angeles Kings – 101 points (46 wins)
 * 7) Nashville Predators – 100 points (47 wins)
 * 8) Colorado Avalanche – 95 points (43 wins)

Playoff bracket
In each round, the highest remaining seed in each conference is matched against the lowest remaining seed. The higher-seeded team is awarded home ice advantage. In the Stanley Cup Finals, home ice was determined based on regular season points. Each best-of-seven series follows a 2–2–1–1–1 format: the higher-seeded team played at home for games one and two (plus five and seven if necessary), and the lower-seeded team was at home for games three and four (and if necessary, game six). This was determined on April 11.

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These playoffs featured what has frequently been referred to as the greatest comeback in American professional sport, as the Flyers emerged from trailing 3 games to 0 against the Boston Bruins, and then trailing 3 goals to 0 in game 7, only to win game 7 and the series 4-3.