How Does the NHL Playoffs Work This Year?

The NHL playoffs have been announced and we have all the details on how it’s going to work this year.

Introduction

Since the National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917, the Stanley Cup playoffs have been held annually to determine the league champion.

The playoffs typically begin in mid-April and conclude in early June, with each series contested between two teams. The format has changed several times over the years, but since 2010, the playoffs have consisted of four rounds of best-of-seven series.

The first two rounds (the Conference Quarterfinals and Conference Semifinals) are contested within each conference (the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference). The winners of each conference face off in the Conference Finals, with the eventual winner moving on to the Stanley Cup Final to take on the champion of the other conference.

The Stanley Cup Final is a best-of-seven series that is played until one team has won four games. If necessary, additional “golden goal” overtime periods are played until a winner is decided.

The team that wins the Stanley Cup Final is awarded the Stanley Cup, which is symbolic of hockey supremacy and one of professional sports’ most coveted trophies.

How the NHL Playoffs Work

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League (NHL) consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series to determine the Stanley Cup champion. The playoffs began on April 11, 2019, after the 2018–19 NHL season, and will conclude in June 2019.

The Regular Season

The NHL regular season is an elimination tournament where the bottom teams are eliminated from playoff contention and the top teams advance to the playoffs. The Stanley Cup playoffs is a best-of-seven series that is played between the top four teams in each conference. The conference champions will then face off in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Stanley Cup Playoffs (French: Les Séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is 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, pits the conference champions against each other to determine the Cup winner.

The Stanley Cup, originally donated by Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892 and named after him, is awarded to the playoff champion at the end of each round. If a team wins in all four rounds, it is considered a “clean sweep” and they are awarded the trophy immediately. The day that the winning team receives possession of the Stanley Cup is referred to as “Stanley Cup Day”.[1][2]

The NHL debuted a revised playoff system in 2013 that featured two “play-in” rounds prior to the start of the traditional four rounds featured since 1994 (and through 2012), with effective from 2014.

The Stanley Cup Final

The Stanley Cup Final is the championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion and the winner of the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup Final is commonly referred to as the “Stanley Cup Finals”, “Stanley Cup Final series”, or simply “the Finals”. It is also occasionally known as the “Fight for the Cup”, or simply the “Cup Final”.

The Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893, when it was known as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup. Originally a challenge trophy for Canada’s top hockey club, it became the championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The tradition of having teams from different parts of Canada compete for the Stanley Cup started in 1894, when the Montreal Hockey Club won it. In 1914, when Toronto won their first Stanley Cup, they became the first team from outside Montreal to win hockey’s most coveted prize.

The Stanley Cup Final has been played every year since 1926, with only two exceptions. In 2005, no final was played because of a lockout that cancelled the entire season. In 1919, an outbreak of Spanish influenza forced postponement of the series; it eventually was cancelled outright with no champion crowned. To this day, no champion has been declared for that year.

The Stanley cup final is always a best-of-seven series. The home team for each game is determined by a rotation: 2-2-1-1-1, meaning that one team will have home ice advantage for games one, two, five and seven (if necessary), while the other team will have home ice advantage for games three, four and six (if necessary).

The higher seeded team will have home ice advantage unless they are playing a divisional opponent in which case each divisional playoff winner will be assured home ice advantage at least once in every best-of-seven series they play from that point on.

Conclusion

So, how does the NHL playoffs work this year? The top three teams in each division will qualify for the playoffs, with the two wild card spots going to the next two best teams in the conference, regardless of division. The first round of the playoffs will be a best-of-seven series between the divisional opponents. The second and third rounds will be best-of-seven series between the conference opponents, with seeded matchups based on regular season points. The Stanley Cup Finals will be a best-of-seven series between the conference champions.