How Do NHL Playoffs Work This Year?

The NHL playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament held annually to determine the Stanley Cup champion. The playoffs began on April 11 and will end in June.

How the NHL playoffs work

The NHL playoffs are an elimination tournament held after the end of the NHL regular season to determine the Stanley Cup champions. The playoffs are held in four rounds, with each round consisting of a best-of-seven series. The teams that qualify for the playoffs are seeded according to their regular season records.

The regular season

In a normal year, the NHL regular season begins in early October and runs until early April. During that time, each team plays 82 games — 41 at home and 41 on the road.

The standings are based on a point system, with teams earning two points for a win, one point for overtime losses and zero points for regulation losses. At the end of the regular season, the 16 teams with the most points qualify for the playoffs.

The playoffs are a best-of-seven series played between the 16 qualifying teams. The team that wins four games in a series advances to the next round.

In each round, the matchups are determined by seedings. The team with the most points in the regular season is seeded first overall, while the team with the fewest points is seeded last. The other 14 teams are seeded in between based on their regular-season point totals.

The first two rounds of the playoffs are played within each conference — meaning only teams from the Eastern Conference can play each other, and only teams from the Western Conference can play each other.

The conference finals are then played between the winners of each conference’s playoff bracket. The Stanley Cup Final is played between those two teams.

The Stanley Cup playoffs

The Stanley Cup playoffs (French: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) are an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the league champion and the winner of the Stanley Cup. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. The final round of the playoffs, the Stanley Cup Finals, is played between the conference champions.

How this year’s playoffs will work

This year’s NHL playoffs will be a bit different than in years past. With the Covid-19 pandemic still raging on, the NHL has had to change the way the playoffs will work. There will be no fans in the stands and the playoffs will be played in two “bubbles”, one in Toronto and one in Edmonton. Let’s take a look at how this year’s playoffs will work.

The seeding

To seed the playoffs, the NHL uses a points percentage system. This means that the 16 teams with the highest points percentage at the end of the regular season will make it to the playoffs. The seeding of these teams will be based on their points percentage and divisional standings.

The league has not yet released details on how exactly the playoff seeding will work, but we do know that it will be different from previous years. In the past, divisional winners were guaranteed a top-three seed, regardless of their points percentage. This year, that is no longer the case. The team with the best points percentage in each division will still get a top-three seed, but the other divisional winners will be seeded based on their points percentage, just like the rest of the teams in the playoffs.

This change means that it is possible for a team to finish first in its division and still not get a top-three seed. For example, if two teams have identical records but one team played more games against divisional opponents (who are typically weaker than non-divisional opponents), that team would have a higher points percentage and would thus get a higher seed.

The bracket

The Stanley Cup playoffs will look different than usual this year, with a 24-team bracket instead of the traditional 16. That’s because the NHL had to put things on pause for four months due to the coronavirus pandemic, and when it became clear that it wouldn’t be safe or practical to finish the regular season, the league decided to go straight to the playoffs.

The top 12 teams in each conference (the East and the West) will qualify for the playoffs. The top four teams in each conference will get a bye into the second round, while the remaining eight teams will play each other in best-of-five series in the first round. The playoff format is similar to what was used during the Olympic hockey tournament in 2014.

Here’s a look at how the bracket is shaping up:

In the first round, the following matchups will take place:

West:
5) Edmonton Oilers vs. 12) Chicago Blackhawks
6) Nashville Predators vs. 11) Arizona Coyotes
7) Vancouver Canucks vs. 10) Minnesota Wild
8) Calgary Flames vs. 9) Winnipeg Jets

East:

5) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. 12) Montreal Canadiens
6) Carolina Hurricanes vs. 11) New York Rangers
7) New York Islanders vs. 10) Florida Panthers
8) Toronto Maple Leafs vs. 9 Columbus Blue Jackets

What this means for the Stanley Cup

The favorite

Assuming that the NHL does indeed return this summer, the Tampa Bay Lightning will come in as the strong favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

The Lightning had the best record in the NHL when the season was paused due to COVID-19, and they boast one of the most talented rosters in the league. With offensive superstars like Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, as well as a deep and experienced defensive corps, Tampa Bay will be a tough team to beat.

The other teams that are likely to contend for the Stanley Cup are the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, and Vegas Golden Knights. These teams all have strong rosters and are capable of making a deep run in the playoffs.

The underdog

Just days before the NHL regular season was set to begin, the league announced a revamped playoff format that will see 16 teams qualify for the postseason instead of the usual 12.

The top four teams in each conference will play each other in a best-of-five series in the first round. The Survivors will then advance to the more traditional playoffs, where the field will be reseeded and start anew with best-of-seven series all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Florida Panthers, who finished 12 points behind the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division last season, would have missed the playoffs entirely under the old system. This year, they’ll have a chance to compete for Lord Stanley’s hardware.

Only time will tell if this new format produces more upsets and whether it helps or hurts television ratings (playoff games not involving Canadian teams have struggled in recent years), but one thing is certain: It’s going to create more work for general managers around the league.

In a normal year, about 20 percent of NHL GMs are active at the trade deadline as they jockey for position ahead of the playoffs. This season, that number is expected to be closer to 50 percent as teams try to put themselves in a position to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

How this impacts the fans

The NHL playoffs are a best-of-seven tournament among the 16 teams that qualified for the playoffs. The playoffs begin April 11 and will last until the Stanley Cup is awarded in early June. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the playoffs will be held entirely in Canada this year. This decision impacts the fans in a few ways.

The excitement

Once the NHL regular season is over, the top teams from each conference move on to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The playoffs are a best-of-seven series. The team that wins four games first moves on to the next round.

If a team loses the first two games at home, they have to win four games in a row to win the series. This is called a “comeback.”

The playoffs are exciting because they’re sudden death. If a game is tied after regulation, it goes into overtime. If a team scores in overtime, they win the game and the series. If no one scores in overtime, the game goes into a shootout.

In a shootout, each team gets three chances to score. If one team has more goals after three rounds, they win the game and the series. If it’s still tied after three rounds, it goes into sudden death. The first team to score wins the game and the series.

The disappointment

Many fans are disappointed with how the NHL playoffs are working this year. With so many teams qualifying for the playoffs, they feel like there are too many teams and that the quality of play has suffered as a result.