NEW YORK - The NBC NHL "Game of the Week" drops the puck on Jan. 20, 2008 with either the Boston Bruins at New York Rangers or the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks at the Dallas Stars as NBC enters its third season as the network broadcast partner of the NHL.

This season features a new innovation: The NHL will offer flexible scheduling for NBC's nine regular-season dates (see below schedule).

NBC will be able to select from up to four games on Sunday afternoons. Thirteen days before the scheduled games, NBC, in conjunction with the NHL, will select one of those games as the "Game of the Week" to be broadcast during the NBC window. The other games will remain available to the teams' regional carrier but will not be televised during NBC's broadcast window.

All NBC regular-season games will be broadcast on Sundays for the first time and all games will be presented in high definition. NBC will broadcast postseason games on select Saturdays and Sundays, and Games 3-7 of the Stanley Cup finals in primetime.

Potential schedule highlights include: the NBC "NHL Game of the Week" making its first regular season visit north of the border as the Montreal Canadiens host the New York Rangers on Feb. 3; the Ducks traveling to "Hockeytown" to meet the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 10; and Sidney Crosby (the NHL's youngest MVP since Wayne Gretzky) and the Pittsburgh Penguins dueling conference rivals the Rangers, who added Scott Gomez and Chris Drury (both former Stanley Cup champions) in the off season, on March 30. Teams are permitted up to four appearances in the NBC NHL "Game of the Week."

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