Prime Video Sets First Wednesday Night Hockey Slate

Prime Video has released the schedule for its first season of Wednesday Night Hockey, a 27-game national package in Canada that opens Sept. 30 with the Toronto Maple Leafs hosting the New York Islanders.

Montreal appears most often among Canadian teams with seven games, followed by Toronto with six and Edmonton with five. Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa each get four dates. Vancouver is featured twice.

Two October nights stand out. Brady Tkachuk returns to Ottawa with the Florida Panthers on Oct. 21, and a week later the Oilers and Flames meet in a Battle of Alberta.

The games stream in English and French, included for Prime subscribers in Canada at no extra cost.

The Wednesday package comes out of a 12-year sub-licensing agreement with Rogers that also hands the streamer two first-round series and one second-round series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs each year. That is the part worth watching over time: a weekly midweek window is one thing, but playoff hockey behind a streaming subscription changes viewing habits faster than any regular-season slate.

For now, the immediate detail is the calendar. Nothing has been played yet. The first puck on Prime's Wednesday night drops at Scotiabank Arena at the end of the month.