The Pittsburgh Penguins will open the 2008-09 season in Sweden with back-to-back games against the Ottawa Senators on October 4 and 5 at the Globe Arena inStockholm. Both games will start at 2:30 p.m. Pittsburgh time.

It marks the second time in franchise history that the Penguins will open the regular season outside of North America. In 2000-01, the Penguins opened the season with two games against the Nashville Predators in Tokyo, Japan.

Although the Penguins will again play a majority of their games against Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference teams, the NHL instituted a change in the schedule this season to involve more matchups against the Western Conference. The Penguins will play at least one game against each of the 15 teams in the Western Conference, and they will play three of the Western teams twice – Detroit, San Jose and Columbus.

The Penguins will visit the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, Nov. 11 and then host the Wings at Mellon Arena on Sunday, Feb. 8.

The Penguins will play six games each against their Atlantic Division rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders (three home, three road). They will play four games each against the other 10 teams in the Eastern Conference (two home, two road).

They will play 64 games against Eastern Conference teams and 18 against the Western Conference for a total of 82 regular season games.

The Penguins will play their regular season home opener on Saturday, Oct. 11 against the New Jersey Devils at Mellon Arena (7:30 p.m.). They will close out the regular season at Montreal on Saturday, April 11.