 The new schedule eliminates the three-year rotation where teams would only play teams in two of the three divisions of the opposite conference; instead the new schedule guarantees that each team plays every other team at least once.In this new schedule, each team will play their divisional rivals six times for a total of 24 games; they will play all other conference teams four times for a total of 40 games, and will play every team in the opposite conference at least once for a total of 15 games.To obtain a total of 82 games there are an additional three-wild card games; for the Canadian teams, the three-wild card games are composed of playing the three Canadian teams in the opposite conference an additional time.