The Buffalo Bandits will host their first game of the 2021-22 NLL season on December 4, 2021 when the Calgary Roughnecks visit KeyBank Center.

Wednesday afternoon, the NLL announced opening weekend plans for the league’s 35th season, which will feature 14 teams aligned into two conferences.

Buffalo will be part of the East Conference, which will also include the Albany FireWolves, Georgia Swarm, Halifax Thunderbirds, New York Riptide, Philadelphia Wings, Rochester Knighthawks, and Toronto Rock.

The new alignment means a revised playoff format, with the top four teams in the East and top three in the West advancing to the playoffs. The eighth playoff slot will go to the team with the better record between the fifth place East and fourth place West teams, per NLL tiebreaker rules. The first round will be single elimination, while the second round and Finals will each be a best-of-three series.

The Bandits last played on March 8, 2020 against Halifax before the NLL season was halted due to the pandemic. Plans for an abbreviated 2020-21 season were canceled in February.

The entire NLL schedule and game times, as well as national broadcast showings, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Each team will have nine home games during the regular season, followed by the playoffs and the league championship series.