The NHL and Players’ Association on Sunday released their plan for the 2021 season set to start Jan. 13 — and several things stand out that affect the Chicago Blackhawks.

• The season will be limited to 56 games instead of the usual 82-game slate after Commissioner Gary Bettman dialed back his stated plans in September for a full regular season. However, the playoffs will be a traditional 16-team, seven-game series format. Still, the Hawks have a shorter runway to adjust to life without goaltender Corey Crawford and get an influx of young skaters up to speed.

• The seven teams that didn’t make the cut for the return-to-play postseason can open training camp Dec. 31. Because the Hawks did, their camp is set to begin Jan. 3, giving them and the other bubble teams 10 days to train before the start of the season.

• The plan lets teams play in their home arenas but leaves flexibility for games to take place at neutral sites pending regional pandemic conditions. Most teams likely won’t allow fans, at least at the beginning of the season with COVID-19 cases spiking across the U.S. The Hawks had not addressed fan attendance at the United Center as of Sunday.

• To cut down on travel and abide by U.S.-Canadian border restrictions, the league realigned the divisions to keep Canadians teams in one seven-team North Division. For all teams, all games will be played within the division.

• The Hawks stay “home” in the Central Division, which will include seven other teams this season instead of six. Heading to the West are the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche (so much for that Nikita Zadorov revenge game), while the Winnipeg Jets head to the North. The Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning come to the Central from the Eastern Conference.

Here’s what you need to know about the Hawks’ new divisional opponents.

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2019-20: Finished 43-21-6 (.657), second in the Atlantic

The Blackhawks don’t have to be worried about getting swept by the Blues this season because one of the teams replacing them is … oh, just the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Yikes.

So, instead of four games against the Blues, the Blackhawks get eight against the Bolts.

Not exactly getting a break, are they?

The Hawks don’t have a great recent track record against the Lightning. They won their last meeting in February but lost the previous eight in regulation or overtime dating back to 2015-16, the season after the Blackhawks beat the Lightning to lift the Stanley Cup.

Obviously, the Lightning are stacked. Winger Nikita Kucherov led the playoffs in points (34) and finished seventh (85) in the regular season. Brayden Point was second in points (33) in the playoffs.

On the bright side, if you check out the Lightning radio call, you may get to hear from a couple of familiar names in commentators Hall of Famer Phil Esposito and Caley Chelios, daughter of Hawks great Chris Chelios.

2019-20: Finished 38-25-5 (.596), fourth in the Metropolitan

The Hurricanes are a dark-horse contender for the Cup — and truth be told, they were a trendy pick heading into the summer tournament.

The Canes took the third-most shots per game (33.3), and their potent offense is led by Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and a familiar face: former Hawk Teuvo Teravainen, who led the team’s forwards in plus-minus (plus-20).

Last season the Hawks lost both games against them.

Fun fact: Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin made history by scoring the first NHL goal in August on Teravainen’s assist.

2019-20: Finished 37-24-8 (.594), third in the Central

Here comes another eight games against the other Cup finalist, who took the Lightning to six games. The Blackhawks went 1-1-1 against the Stars last season.

Like the Hawks, the Stars have their own questions at goalie. Ben Bishop had knee surgery in October, so Dallas will have to lean on Anton Khudobin to be the everyday netminder.

However, Khudobin finished the postseason second in save percentage (.917), though he had a 2.69 goals-against average in 25 games (24 starts).

2019-20: Finished 33-22-15 (.579), sixth in the Metropolitan

Happy 20th season, Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets traded for Max Domi — then signed him to a two-year, $10.6 million contract — with plans to play him at center.

Columbus finished sixth in the Metropolitan Division but they had a better winning percentage (.579) than all but three of their new Central rivals. They had the third-best goals-against average (2.61) in the regular season, as well as the fourth-best penalty kill (84%).

The Hawks beat them in both meetings last season but needed overtime and a shootout to decide those contests.

2019-20: Finished 35-26-8 (.565), fifth in the Central

The Predators, flush with cap space, were busy in October signing a number of free agents, including Nick Cousins and Matt Benning, and trading for promising forward Luke Kunin. However, they shipped forward Austin Watson to the Ottawa Senators for a 2021 fourth-round pick.

The Blackhawks may have finished last in the Central last season, but they stayed competitive with their rivals to the south. They split four games, with the Hawks winning the last meeting 2-1 in overtime on Feb. 21.

Perhaps now is a good time for the Predators to resurrect the “Keep the Red Out” campaign: COVID-19 restrictions give them their best chance yet to keep Hawks fans out of Bridgestone Arena.

2019-20: 35-26-8 (.565), fourth in the Atlantic

Joel Quenneville’s bunch were about as mediocre on defense as the Blackhawks, so they traded for Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara and signed Radko Gudas from the Washington Capitals to a three-year deal.

It should be another fun reunion with Coach Q — only this time with actual division games on the line.

The Hawks split two games last season, and Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each scored in a shootout to key a 3-2 win in late February.

2019-20: 17-49-5 (.275), eighth in the Atlantic

The last time the archrival Red Wings and Blackhawks shared a division, the Hawks hoisted the Stanley Cup at the end of the 2012-13 season.

Yeah, don’t count on that happening this season.

For all the Hawks’ issues, they at least appear to have their rebuild pointed in the right direction. Who knows with Detroit, the NHL’s worst team by far. They’ve been loading up on draft picks and hope to catch fire with some of them down the road (though they haven’t been able to draft higher than fourth overall the last four years).

“I can’t tell you it’s two years, three years, five years,” said general manager Steve Yzerman according to Crain’s.

Last season, the Red Wings scored a league-worst two goals per game. They also had the worst penalty kill (74.3%).

So if ever there was a candidate to be a punching bag for the Hawks, it would be this team, right?

Somehow the Hawks split a two-game series last year, dropping the third-to-last game 2-1 before the pandemic shutdown play in mid-March.