Your next hockey fix is only a matter of months away.

The Maple Leafs will open the NHL calendar on Oct. 6 against the Montreal Canadiens in one of three games that evening designed to kick off the NHL season that now includes a team in Winnipeg.

The Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins will also open the season that night, taking on the Philadelphia Flyers. And the Stanley Cup runners-up, the Vancouver Canucks, will open that night at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Leafs begin the season with a rather odd five-game home stand. They play Oct. 6 and 8 (against Ottawa), then get a week off until Calgary comes to town Oct. 15. Colorado is in on Oct. 17 while Winnipeg comes to town for the first time in 15 seasons on Oct. 19.

The Leafs then embark on a four-game road trip, which is part of seven road tilts in eight games. The Leafs longest road trip is a five-gamer, March 11-19.

The Leafs don’t visit Los Angeles, San Jose, Phoenix, Detroit or Minnesota. Those teams all visit the Air Canada Centre once this year

Around the league, there are some notable games:

• On Oct. 9, Winnipeg will welcome Montreal in its first NHL home opener in the Manitoba capital since 1995.

• Winnipeg and Phoenix will play twice in the 2011-12 season, and the Coyotes will return to Manitoba on Dec. 1.

• On Oct. 15, Boston visits Chicago in a meeting of the past two Stanley Cup champions.

• The Hall of Fame Game is Nov. 5 with Boston at Toronto.

• Opening overseas for games in Helsinki, Stockholm and Berlin are the Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers. It’s Sabres-Kings on Oct. 8 in Berlin, the NHL’s first game in Germany.

• It’s not officially announced but the Winter Classic will be played on Jan. 2 this year (not New Year’s Day) with the Rangers visiting Philadelphia.

• Two teams have nine-game road trips during the season. Chicago vacates United Center Jan. 31-Feb. 18 for a circus, while San Jose will be on the road from Feb. 12-26 while HP Pavilion is home to the SAP Open, a stop on the ATP World Tour.

• The Rangers will play their first seven games on the road — including two in Europe — because of renovations at Madison Square Garden.

• The league’s 1,230-game schedule will pause from Jan. 26 to 30 for the all-star break in Ottawa.

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All 30 teams play April 7 — the last day of the season — including Toronto at Montreal.

Under the NHL scheduling matrix, each team plays six games against each team in its division (24 games), four games against the non-division teams within its conference (40 games), plus 18 non-conference games — including at least one game against each club in the other conference (15 games) and three other games against select teams.

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