2005–06 NHL season

A mid-season break in February occurred to allow participation of NHL players in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

The 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs began on April 21, 2006, and concluded on June 19, with the Carolina Hurricanes defeating the Edmonton Oilers to win their first Stanley Cup, after which the Oilers would miss the postseason ten consecutive times and 12 of their next 13, while the Hurricanes would miss 11 of their next 12.

On July 13, 2005, the NHL, and NHLPA jointly announced that they had tentatively agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement which would allow the resumption of hockey for the 2005–06 season.

It was originally scheduled to be held at the Corel Centre, but the Ottawa Senators' home arena could not be used on such short notice after the lockout ended.

[6] The NHL season began on October 5, which marked the first time ever that all 30 teams in the league played a game on the same day.

[9] In the first period of each game, all teams wore a jersey with a special patch; the league and players association then auctioned off the jerseys for the benefit of the Red Cross in both the United States and Canada, earmarking the proceeds for Hurricane Katrina victims (the Islanders' ECHL affiliate in Biloxi, Mississippi suspended operations for the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons because of this disaster, and the NHL toured ECHL cities with the Stanley Cup to raise additional funds for relief efforts).

It was only the second time that two rookies had over 100 points in a season (Teemu Selanne and Joe Juneau performed the feat in 1992–93).

Crosby surpassed teammate Mario Lemieux's 100-point rookie season, finishing with 102 points, currently fifth best all-time.

[11] It was rescheduled to January 23, 2006, with the game starting 1–0 for Nashville as Greg Johnson's goal from the original date was allowed to stand, but all other statistics were expunged.

[12][13] On January 12, the New York Rangers retired the number 11 of long-time captain Mark Messier to the rafters of Madison Square Garden.

The season was rocked with scandal in early February when it came to light that Phoenix Coyotes Assistant coach Rick Tocchet was found to be involved in a $1.6 million illegal sports gambling ring with Mafia ties.

If two or more clubs are tied in points during the regular season, the standing of the clubs is determined in the following order: [1][permanent dead link‍] In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series following a 2–2–1–1–1 format (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series).

The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, where home ice advantage was awarded to the team that had the better regular season record.

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes Source: NHL.

In the U.S., NBC began its first season as the league's over-the-air partner after initially signing its contract prior to the lockout.

In August 2005, Comcast (who owns the Philadelphia Flyers) signed a three-year deal to put games on its Outdoor Life Network (OLN).

Due to the abbreviated off-season, the 2005–06 regular season schedule did not offer OLN exclusivity, which they received in 2006–07.