| 2005-06 Nhl Season |
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, the trophy given to the playoff champion.]] The 2005-06 NHL season is the 88th season (originally the 89th season) of the National Hockey League . This is the season after the 2004-05 season which was cancelled due to a Labour Dispute with the NHL Players Association over the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the league and its players. The 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs began on April 21, 2006. On July 13 , 2005 , the NHL and NHLPA jointly announced that they had tentatively agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement which would allow the resumption of hockey for the 2005-06 season. The agreement was voted on July 21 by NHLPA members, and approved by a nearly 7-to-1 margin. The following day, the NHL's board of governors (owners) voted unanimously to approve the new agreement. A new logo for the NHL was also unveiled, with "NHL" printed in upward-reading letters to project a vibrant, optimistic image, and having silver as the dominant colour to pay homage to the Stanley Cup . Also, new Eastern and Western Conference logos were unveiled before the Olympic break, with red as the dominant East color, and blue as the dominant West hue. American television also has a new look. OLN (formerly Outdoor Life Network) took over broadcasting rights after ESPN decided not to renew their rights on Cable Television . The network, owned by Comcast , will have Monday and Tuesday night games during the regular season under an exclusivity clause prohibiting local telecasts those nights in the two participating teams' markets. NBC returned as the NHL's over-the-air partner after ABC parted ways following the 2003-04 season. Comcast high-speed cable internet customers can watch at least seven games a week over the internet as part of the new TV deal. RULE CHANGES A number of new rules were introduced for the 2005-06 season:
The purpose of these new rule changes are to create a more exciting game and will create more scoring opportunities, and therefore more Goals . REGULAR SEASON The NHL season began on October 5 , and for the first time in the league's history, all of the league's thirty teams played a game on opening night. In the first period of each game, all teams wore a jersey (or "sweater") with a special patch as the league and players association auctioned off those jerseys for the benefit of the Red Cross in both the USA and Canada earmarking the proceeds for Hurricane Katrina victims. On opening night of this season, Jean-Pierre Dumont of the Buffalo Sabres scored the first goal of the regular season, and Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley , of the Ottawa Senators became the first players to score the winning goals for a shoot out in NHL history, they both scored against Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ed Belfour . Their sticks were subsequently sent to the nearby Hockey Hall Of Fame . The All-Star Game , which would have been in Phoenix this year, did not take place (they will get the 2009 event as a replacement); the league instead took a break in February so that many of its players could participate in the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy . The new schedule features more intra-division games in order to promote division rivalries. Consequently, there are whole divisions in the opposite conference that teams will never play in the season. On November 26 the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals played the longest shootout to date. Marek Malik , a Rangers defenseman, scored the winning goal against Olaf Kolzig in the 15th round to give the Rangers the victory by the final score of 3-2. Four games had to be rescheduled due to various events. Hurricane Wilma had forced the NHL (among other major league sports) to reschedule two Florida Panthers home games. Their game against Ottawa Senators scheduled on October 22 was rescheduled to December 5 , the game against Washington Capitals scheduled for October 29 was moved to December 1 . The suffered a seizure and had to be resuscitated. It was rescheduled to January 23 , 2006 . Thus, the originally scheduled game at Nashville between the two teams was moved to March 30 , 2006 . Also of note, on January 16, 2006, Washington Capitals rookie Alexander Ovechkin scored what has been called by some sports analysts as one of the most amazing goals in NHL history against the Phoenix Coyotes ''(pictured right)''. The play is commonly referred to as "The Goal". The season was rocked with scandal in early February when it came to light that Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach Rick Tocchet was found to be involved in a $1.6 million illegal sports Gambling ring with Mafia ties. Apparently no betting on NHL games was being done, but bets were being placed on college and professional football and college and professional basketball. Although Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky denied any knowledge or involvement in the ring, initial reports stated that Wiretapped phone conversations he had proved that he not only knew about the ring, but was trying to find ways to conceal His Wife's involvement in it. He was later cleared of these accusations, but long-term implications to his reputation are still unknown. For more information, see Operation Slapshot . On , 2006 . The Tampa Bay Lightning narrowly missed being the first team since the New Jersey Devils in the 1995-96 NHL Season to miss the postseason after winning the Stanley Cup the previous season. Interestingly enough, the Lightning finished two points ahead of the Devils for the 8th and final playoff spot that year. Final Regular Season Standings ''Green shaded denotes top eight teams in each conference, advancing to playoffs (seed in parenthesis)'' ''Yellow shaded denotes division champions (automatically seeded 1-3)'' ''Orange shaded denotes conference champions'' ''Red shaded denotes Presidents' Trophy winners'' Eastern Conference Western Conference Tiebreakers
Scoring leaders ''As of , Unofficial Results'' ''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes'' Leading goaltenders ''As of April 18 , 2006 . Minimum 1,000 minutes played.'' ''Note: GP = Games Played; TOI = Time On Ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/Shootout Losses; GA = Goals Against; SO = Shutouts; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against Average'' STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ''']] Main article: 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs Stanley Cup finals NHL AWARDS SEE ALSO
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