2023-2024 KHL season’s calendar: a record with 165 playing days

KHL.ru presents the calendar for the 2022-2023 regular season. The league’s teams will play 68 games, with a record-breaking 165 playing days. From the first day of action to the first pause, 98 straight playing days will occour.

The regular season of the 2023-2024 KHL championship will begin on Sep 1, 2023, in Moscow at the CSKA Arena with the Opening Cup match between the current Gagarin Cup holder, CSKA, and the finalist of the previous season, Ak Bars. The following day, home games will be played by Barys, Avtomobilist, Neftekhimik, Lada, Severstal, Vityaz, Spartak, and Dynamo Moscow. Also, on Sep 2, there will be an always-popular Siberian derby between Avangard and Sibir.

The regular season will run until Feb 26, 2024, spanning a record-breaking 165 game days and 782 matches. Just like in the 2022-2023 season, each club will play 68 games.

The playoffs will take place from Feb 29 to Ap 29, 2024. The first round will follow the standard format within each Conference, and starting from the second round, teams will be divided into two groups.

In the first group, the best remaining team from the West will face the fourth team from the East, while the second-best remaining team from the East will play against the third team from the West. In the semifinals, the winners of these matchups will compete against each other.

The pairings in the second group will be as follows: the first team from the East will face the fourth team from the West, and the second team from the West will play against the third team from the East. The winners of these matchups will also face each other in the next round. There will be no reseeding of teams in the semifinals.

The match structure for each team in the regular season is as follows:

For teams in the West:

• 44 games against each team (22 home games, 22 away games)
• 20 games against each team in the conference (10 home games, 10 away games)
• 4 games as part of the additional selection (2 home games, 2 away games)

For teams in the East:

• 44 games against each team (22 home games, 22 away games)
• 22 games against each team in the conference (11 home games, 11 away games)
• 2 games as part of the additional selection (1 home game, 1 away game)

Until the only major break of the season for the All-Star Week and the Channel One Cup, teams will play for 98 consecutive days. The break will take place from Dec 8^th to Dec 18^th, and the New Year break will be only three days, from Dec 31^st to Jan 2^nd.

The schedule has been designed to evenly distribute the games across the days. On average, there will be five games per day in the regular season. Additionally, there has been an even distribution of games across the months.

Regular season’s significant dates