How Many Games Are Played In The NHL?
The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 member clubs: 23 in the United States and 7 in Canada.
82
As of the 2017-2018 NHL season, each team plays 82 games. 41 of those games are played at home, and 41 are played away.
How this affects the playoffs
During the course of a season, each team plays an unbalanced schedule of games within their conference and division, as well as non-conference games. As of the 2013–14 season, teams play 82 games in an NHL regular season. Since its creation in 1926–27, the NHL has had anywhere from 21 to 31 teams playing anywhere from 60 to 84 regular-season games each. Currently, with 30 teams in the league playing 82 games per season, a total of 1,230 regular-season games are played over the course of 187 days from October through early April.
How this affects the playoffs:
The playoff format has changed several times throughout NHL history. As of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the sixteen teams that qualify (eight from each conference) compete in a best-of-seven tournament bracket with four rounds. The first three rounds consist solely of intra-conference matchups (1 seed vs 8 seed, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5), while the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals match up the conference champions and runner ups regardless of seed. In all series except for the Stanley Cup Finals, home ice advantage is given to whichever team had more points in their regular season standings. If two teams have an equal number of points (and thus were seeded equally), then the team which earned more wins during their respective regular seasons earns home ice advantage.
What if there are ties?
if the score is still tied at the end of overtime, the game goes to a shootout. In a shootout, each team gets three shots. If the score is still tied after that, it goes to sudden death, and the next team to score wins.
