How Long Is the NHL Hockey Season?
The NHL hockey season is a long one, running from October through early April. But how long is it exactly? We break down the schedule here.
Introduction
The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently comprising 31 teams: 24 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.
The Length of the NHL Season
The NHL season is 82 games long. This is generally considered to be too long by most fans and players. The main reason for the long season is that the NHL wants to maximize its profits. By having more games, they can sell more tickets and generate more revenue. The players also get paid more because they are playing more games.
Pre-Season
Pre-season is a time for players to report back to their clubs, get back into game-shape and re-familiarize themselves with the systems their team will be playing throughout the upcoming season. Pre-season also provides an opportunity for younger players to prove themselves worthy of a roster spot on the NHL team or farm club, and give coaches a chance to see what line combos and defensive pairings work well together.
The pre-season generally runs from mid-September to early October, with each team playing approximately eight exhibition games. These exhibition games provide coaches with a chance to tinker with their lineups and see how different player combinations work together. Pre-season games are also used as a platform to try out new rules or rule changes that the NHL is considering implementing in the regular season.
Regular Season
The regular season is 82 games long, which is played over a span of about seven months. The season generally starts the first week of October and ends the first week of April.
Playoffs
The National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament among 16 teams in the Western Conference and 16 teams in the Eastern Conference. The Conference quarterfinals are best-of-seven series. The next two rounds, the Conference semifinals and Conference finals, are best-of-seven series played between the division winners and wild card teams. The Stanley Cup Final is also a best-of-seven series.
If Game 7 of a playoff round is necessary, it is played on the home ice of the team that has the better regular season record, unless that team was eliminated in an earlier round, in which case it would be the other team’s home ice. NHL rules restrict the placement of advertising on television broadcasts of playoff games; if a broadcaster has been approved to show advertisements during commercial breaks or stoppages of play during the regular season, those same areas must be left blank during broadcasts of playoff games.
During each playoff round, teams compete for the Stanley Cup, awarded to the team that wins four games in a best-of-seven series (a 2–2–1–1–1 format). Beginning in 2014, home ice advantage for all rounds except for the Stanley Cup Final itself were determined by regular season points; prior to then it was determined by seeding regardless of points (i.e., division winner vs. wild card), but was still based on regular season record. The two conference champions play a best-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup every spring.
Conclusion
The NHL hockey season is typically around eight months long, from October to June. However, the exact length of the season can vary depending on factors such as the number of games played and whether there is a Stanley Cup playoffs.
