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The National Hockey League (French: Ligue nationale de hockey - LNH) is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams located throughout North America. It is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American major professional sports leagues. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league champion at the end of each season.

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List of teams
Season Structure
Trophies and awards
National Hockey League Links
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List of teams

Division	Team	City/area	Arena	Head coach
-Eastern Conference- -Back to the top of the page-
Atlantic	New Jersey Devils	Newark, NJ	Prudential Center	Jacques Lemaire
	New York Islanders	Uniondale, NY	Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum	Scott Gordon
	New York Rangers	New York City,NY	Madison Square Garden	John Tortorella
	Philadelphia Flyers	Philadelphia, PA	Wachovia Center	John Stevens
	Pittsburgh Penguins	Pittsburgh, PA	Mellon Arena	Dan Bylsma
Northeast	Boston Bruins	Boston, MA	TD Banknorth Garden	Claude Julien
	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo, NY	HSBC Arena	Lindy Ruff
	Montreal Canadiens	Montreal, QC	Bell Centre	Jacques Martin
	Ottawa Senators	Ottawa, ON	Scotiabank Place	Cory Clouston
	Toronto Maple Leafs	Toronto, ON	Air Canada Centre	Ron Wilson
Southeast	Atlanta Thrashers	Atlanta, GA	Philips Arena	John Anderson
	Carolina Hurricanes	Raleigh, NC	RBC Center	Paul Maurice
	Florida Panthers	Sunrise, FL	BankAtlantic Center	Peter DeBoer
	Tampa Bay Lightning	Tampa, FL	St. Pete Times Forum	Rick Tocchet
	Washington Capitals	Washington, DC	Verizon Center	Bruce Boudreau
-Western Conference- -Back to the top of the page-
Central	Chicago Blackhawks	Chicago, IL	United Center	Joel Quenneville
	Columbus Blue Jackets	Columbus, OH	Nationwide Arena	Ken Hitchcock
	Detroit Red Wings	Detroit, MI	Joe Louis Arena	Mike Babcock
	Nashville Predators	Nashville, TN	Sommet Center	Barry Trotz
	St. Louis Blues	St. Louis, MO	Scottrade Center	Andy Murray
Northwest	Calgary Flames	Calgary, AB	Pengrowth Saddledome	Brent Sutter
	Colorado Avalanche	Denver, CO	Pepsi Center	Joe Sacco
	Edmonton Oilers	Edmonton, AB	Rexall Place	Pat Quinn
	Minnesota Wild	St. Paul, MN	Xcel Energy Center	Todd Richards
	Vancouver Canucks	Vancouver, BC	General Motors Place	Alain Vigneault
Pacific	Anaheim Ducks	Anaheim, CA	Honda Center	Randy Carlyle
	Dallas Stars	Dallas, TX	American Airlines Center	Marc Crawford
	Los Angeles Kings	Los Angeles, CA	Staples Center	Terry Murray
	Phoenix Coyotes	Glendale, AZ	Jobing.com Arena	Wayne Gretzky
	San Jose Sharks	San Jose, CA	HP Pavilion at San Jose	Todd McLellan

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Season Structure

The National Hockey League season is divided into an exhibition season (September), a regular season (from the first week in October through early to mid April) and a postseason (the Stanley Cup playoffs). During the regular season, clubs play each other in a predefined schedule. The Stanley Cup playoffs, which goes from April to the beginning of June, is an elimination tournament where two teams play against each other to win a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. The final remaining team is crowned the Stanley Cup champion. Beginning in 2007, the National Hockey League regular season has begun in Europe while teams not involved complete their exhibition schedule. The 2008–2009 season began with the Pittsburgh Penguins facing off against the Ottawa Senators in Stockholm, Sweden and the New York Rangers taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning in Prague, Czech Republic.

In the regular season, each team plays 82 games; 41 games at home and 41 on the road. Each team plays 24 games in its division (6 against each divisional opponent), and 40 games against non-divisional intra-conference opponents. That is, 4 games against each team in its conference, but not in its own division. Each team plays every team in the other conference at least once (one game each against 12 teams and two games against the remaining 3 teams). Prior to the 2008-2009 season, teams played 32 games within their division (8 games against each team in the division) and 10 inter-conference games (1 game against each team in two of the three divisions in the opposite conference). The two divisions from the opposite conference which each team plays against were rotated every year, much like interleague play in Major League Baseball. As with the current system, each team played 4 games against the other 10 teams in its conference, but not in its own division.

At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the division champion. The league's overall leader is awarded the Presidents' Trophy. The three division champions along with the five other teams in each conference with the next highest number of points, for a total of 8 teams in each conference, qualify for the playoffs. The division winners are seeded one through three (even if a non-division winner has a higher point total), and the next five teams with the best records in the conference are seeded four through eight. The Stanley Cup playoffs is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle to win a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. The first round of the playoffs, or conference quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. In the second round, or conference semifinals, the NHL re-seeds the teams, with the top remaining conference seed playing against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pairing off. In the third round, the conference finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-ice advantage. Four of the seven games are played at this team's home venue — the first and second, and, when necessary, the fifth and seventh games — with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue. In the Stanley Cup Finals, the team with the most points during the regular season is given home-ice advantage, regardless of where each team ranks in their own conference.

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Trophies and awards

The National Hockey League presents a number of trophies each year. The most prestigious team award is the Stanley Cup, which is awarded to the league champion at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The team that has the most points in the regular season is awarded the Presidents' Trophy. There are also numerous trophies that are awarded to players based on their statistics during the regular season; they include, among others, the Art Ross Trophy for the league scoring champion (goals and assists), the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy for the goal-scoring leader, and the William M. Jennings Trophy for the goalkeeper(s) for the team with the fewest goals against them.

The most prestigious individual award is the Hart Memorial Trophy which is awarded annually to the Most Valuable Player. The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the person deemed the best goalkeeper as voted on by the general managers of the teams in the National Hockey League. The James Norris Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's top defenceman, the Calder Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the top rookie, and the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is awarded to the player deemed to combine the highest degree of skill and sportsmanship; all three of these awards are voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

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National Hockey League Links

National Hockey League page
Official website of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League News page
Official News page of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Scores
Official Scores of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Standings
Official Standings of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Team page
Official Teams page of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Schedule page
Official schedule of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Players page
Official players page of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Pictures
Official pictures from the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Video
Official Video from the National Hockey League

National Hockey League Players Association
Website of the National Hockey League Players Association

National Hockey League page
Wikipedia's National Hockey league page

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