When Did the NHL Playoffs Start?

The NHL playoffs are underway and we’re already seeing some great hockey! So when did they start?

NHL history

The National Hockey League (NHL) 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.

Original Six teams

In the NHL’s first quarter-century, the league changed dramatically. In 1942, the NHL absorbed four of the seven teams of the defunct National Hockey League, adding the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers to the Original Six. The Original Six era lasted for 25 years, until 1967, when the NHL doubled in size by adding six new expansion teams.

Expansion teams

The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently comprising 31 teams: 24 in the United States and seven 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 in the United States and Canada.

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 National Hockey League was established in 1917 as a response to the demise of its predecessor, the National Hockey Association (NHA). After unsuccessfully attempting to resolve financial issues with Edward J. CISCO), who owned and operated three of its teams, the NHL was established as a temporary measure to ensure that professional hockey would continue while negotiations sorted out which group would operate the NHA’s successor league. At its inception, the NHL had four teams—all in Canada, thus accounting for itsthen-unofficial nickname of “the Canadian League”—and has since expanded throughout North America.

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.

Format

The National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs are a best-of-seven elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the NHL’s regular season. The Stanley Cup playoffs, which were first held in 1917, are currently played between sixteen teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences.

In the early years of the NHL, playoffs were instituted when it was realized that the regular season schedule was not long enough to crown a legitimate champion. The first official Stanley Cup playoff game was played on March 14, 1917 between Montreal and Ottawa. The Ottawa Senators would go on to win the series 3–0 and claim the Stanley Cup.

Over the years, the format of the Stanley Cup playoffs has changed several times. Currently, each conference is split into two divisions (East and West), with each division holding eight teams. The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs automatically, while the remaining two spots are filled by wild card teams (the two next-best teams in each conference).

In the first round of the playoffs, the division winner with the best record is matched against the wild card team with the worst record, while the other division winner is matched against the other wild card team. In each subsequent round, teams are reseeded so that always face in a best-of-seven series. The Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final are also best-of-seven series.

Since 1994, home ice advantage in has been awarded to team with a better regular season record; prior to this change home ice advantage alternated from year to year between conferences). Regardless of regular season records, all playoff matchups are stillociatesd according conference seedings (regardless of whether those seeds are earned by winning a division or via a wild card berth).

First round

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is a best-of-seven series played between the eight teams that qualified for the playoffs. The four winners advance to the second round.

In the first round, the higher-seeded team has home ice advantage. The schedule is as follows:

-Game 1: Higher-seeded team at lower-seeded team
-Game 2: Higher-seeded team at lower-seeded team
-Game 3: Lower-seeded team at higher-seeded team
-Game 4: Lower-seeded team at higher-seeded team (if necessary)
-Game 5: Higher-seeded team at lower-seeded team (if necessary)
-Game 6: Lower-seeded team at higher-seeded team (if necessary)
Game 7: Higher – seededteam at lower – seededteam (if necessary)

Conference Finals

The Conference Finals are the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Conference Finals are played following the completion of the first three rounds of the playoffs, which are the Qualifying Round, Round One, and Round Two. The Conference Finals are a best-of-seven series. The first team to win four games in the series advances to the Stanley Cup Final.

Stanley Cup Final

The Stanley Cup Final is the championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL), a professional ice hockey league. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America,[1] is awarded to the NHL playoff champion at the end of each season.[2] The final round of the playoffs is a best-of-seven series played between the champions of the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, analogous to baseball’s World Series. Before 1979, there were no set number of games for a Stanley Cup final series; rather, it was set by mutual agreement between both competing teams.[3] Since between three and five games were usually played, depending on whether a team won its division or qualified as awild card, it was possible for one side to have home-ice advantage (by having more wins or winning its division), while not having played more total games than their opponent.

In 1980, it was agreed that the final should be played as a best-of-seven series; however, no provision was made to ensure that both conference champions would have equal time to rest between their conference finals and the start of the Stanley Cup final.[4][5] This led to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final being held two days after Detroit’s win in Game 7 of The Suzuki Stan Mikita Derby (as it was infamously called) over Toronto on April 28, 1963,[6][7] and before Montreal’s win in Game 7 of its semifinal against Chicago on April 30. It also resulted in Quebec winning its semifinal against Buffalo on May 1 and having to wait nine days before starting its own Stanley Cup final series against Montreal on May 10—although Quebec did receive home ice advantage because it had more regular season points than any other team.

Because of this scheduling quirk, as well as several prior instances where one team had an unfair rest disadvantage,[8][9] it was decided that thereafter the conference champions would not automatically receive home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Final; rather, it would go to whichever team had earned more regular season points. This procedure continued until 1994 when the San Jose Sharks were relegated to second place in their conference behind both Detroit and Chicago despite having more points than either team;[10][11] since then home-ice advantage has been assigned based on regular season record regardless of whether a team won its division or not.