On Thursday, the NHL announced that the 2022-2023 regular season will begin overseas with the league’s Global Series. The San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets will play in the 2022 NHL Global Series.

The NHL public relations team tweeted out the teams and dates.

There will apparently be some preseason games played in Bern, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany at the beginning of October later this year. Then the regular season will begin in the capital of the Czech Republic, the gorgeous city of Prague. The San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators will square off October 7th and 8th.

A few nights later, the Colorado Avalanche will play the Columbus Blue Jackets in Tampere, Finland. Those games will take place a month later on November 4th and 5th.

It will be the first time the NHL played international games since 2019. Much of that has to do with the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The international playing of NHL games though goes back over a decade.

The National Hockey League has played numerous games at the O2 Arena in Prague over the last 14 years. However, this will be the first time the NHL has played games in Tampere, Finland.

NHL teams have long since been playing games overseas. However, from the 1930’s through 1992, they were exhibition games between an NHL club and an international team. Then in 1992, Wembley Arena in London hosted the first international game between two NHL teams, with the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks playing twice. That happened for two years but not again until the 2007 season.