NHL: KINGS OPEN AGAINST DUCKS.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

The 2006-07 NHL season will begin the 14th year of crosstown rivalry between the Kings and Ducks, and for the first time, the teams will start a season against each other.

Next season's schedule, released Wednesday, includes a Kings-Ducks opener Oct. 6 at the Pond, the first of eight regular-season meetings. The teams' first Staples Center meeting comes on Oct. 22

As part of the interconference schedule, the Kings and Ducks both will host teams from the Atlantic Division: New Jersey, the New York Islanders and Rangers, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The schedule isn't particularly kind to either team in April. The Ducks finish the regular season with six of their last seven games on the road while the Kings play seven of their last 10 on the road.

The Carolina Hurricanes will kick off their defense of the Stanley Cup title Oct. 4, when the NHL begins the season with three games.

The Hurricanes will play the Buffalo Sabres -- the team they beat in the Eastern Conference finals -- at home in Raleigh, N.C., on Opening Night, the league announced Wednesday.

The 1,230-game regular season will run until April 8, and the playoffs are slated to begin three nights later. The Stanley Cup finals will conclude by June 11, eight days earlier than Carolina's Game 7 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Edmonton will host the Hurricanes on Dec. 6 in the only rematch between this year's finalists.

For the second consecutive season, following the NHL lockout, each team will play four home games and four road games against divisional opponents -- totaling 32 contests. The clubs will also face the other 10 non-divisional teams in its conference four times, two at home and two away.

The final 10 games of the 82-game schedule will be comprised of interconference matchups. Teams will face one division in the opposite conference at home and another on the road. Like last season, there will be one out-of-conference division that won't be on the schedule for each club.

Other schedule highlights include the NHL's first All-Star Game since 2004, to be played Jan. 23 in Dallas. The 2004-05 lockout forced the cancellation of that season's game, and the event was skipped this past winter because the league took time off to allow its players to participate in the Turin Olympics.

The All-Star break will run from Jan. 21-25 and will include the SuperSkills competition and YoungStars contest the night before the All-Star games. For the first time since 1989, the midseason festivities will take place midweek instead of over a weekend.