Which Teams Are In The NHL Playoffs?
It’s that time of year again! The NHL playoffs are upon us and we want to know – which teams are in?
NHL Basics
The NHL is a professional ice hockey league which is made up of 30 teams. 23 of these teams are based in the United States and the other 7 are based in Canada. The NHL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament which is held after the NHL regular season. 16 teams make the playoffs, 8 from each conference.
What is the NHL?
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. Headquartered in New York City, 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.
What are the NHL playoffs?
The NHL playoffs are a tournament held every year to determine the Stanley Cup champion. The playoffs begin in April and end in June, with the Stanley Cup Finals being held in June. 16 teams from the NHL’s two conferences (the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference) qualify for the playoffs. 8 teams from each conference are seeded based on their regular season records. The higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (meaning they get to play more games at home) in each playoff series. Each series is a best-of-seven games format, meaning the first team to win four games advances to the next round.
In the first round of the playoffs (the Conference Quarterfinals), the 8th seed plays the 1st seed, the 7th seed plays the 2nd seed, and so on. In the second round (the Conference Semifinals), the remaining teams from each conference play each other, with the winners advancing to their respective conference’s finals. The conference champions then face each other in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The playoffs are single elimination, meaning that once a team loses a game, they are out of contention for the Stanley Cup. This makes every game extremely important and exciting!
How do teams qualify for the playoffs?
In order to make the playoffs, a team must first earn a spot. For the 2019-2020 season, the top three teams in each division will earn automatic playoff berths. The two remaining spots in each conference will go to the next two highest-ranked teams in the conference, regardless of division. These are known as wild card spots.
Once the playoffs begin, the field is whittled down until only two teams are left standing. Those two teams will face off in the Stanley Cup Final.
The NHL Playoffs
The NHL playoffs are upon us! This is the most exciting time of the year for hockey fans. All 16 teams in the league have a chance to win the Stanley Cup. We take a look at the teams that have the best chance to win it all.
Who are the teams in the 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 championship 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 a league champion.
The NHL playoff system has changed over the years. Prior to 1982, playoff spots were determined by regular season points totals. In 1982, new divisional alignment was brought in and four teams per division qualified for the playoffs regardless of points totals. This led to some seasons where weak teams with poor records qualified for post-season play while better teams with more wins missed out. The current system was introduced in 1993 where division winners and non-division winners qualifying for a playoff spot in each conference regardless of points totals (although if two division winners have more points than two non-division winners, they will “cross over” and play each other in the first round). The Conference Quarterfinals consists entirely of best-of-seven series while all subsequent rounds are best-of-seven except for the Conference Finals which is best-of-seven.
What is the playoff format?
The current playoff format was introduced in 2013. The format is a set bracket that is largely division-based with wild cards. The top three teams in each division make the playoffs, and then the two remaining teams are wild cards.
The first two rounds are divisional and you are guaranteed to have one team from each division in the conference finals. The Stanley Cup Final features the winner of the Western Conference vs. the Eastern Conference.
How long do the playoffs last?
The Stanley Cup playoffs are a best-of-seven series played between the 16 Stanley Cup qualifying teams, eight from each conference. The first two rounds of the playoffs are played within the conference, with the top four seeds receiving home-ice advantage. The conference finals and Stanley Cup Final are played between the conference champions, with the team with the better regular season record receiving home-ice advantage.
The NHL Finals
The National Hockey League playoff system is a playoff format used to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, the annual championship of the National Hockey League (NHL). The playoffs begin in April after the conclusion of the regular season.
Who are the teams in the finals?
The NHL Finals are the last two rounds of the playoffs. The first round is the best-of-seven series between the first and eighth seeds in each conference. The second round is the best-of-seven series between the conference champions, who are determined by the first two rounds. The Stanley Cup Final is the best-of-seven series between the champions of the Eastern and Western conferences.
What is the playoff format?
The National Hockey League (NHL) playoff system is a four-round tournament held after the conclusion of the NHL regular season. its annual championship since 1927, the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup playoffs, commonly referred to as “the playoffs”, are an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the regular season. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs. The final round of the playoffs, dubbed the Stanley Cup Finals, is a best-of-seven series to determine which team will hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.
How long does the finals last?
The NHL Finals is a best-of-seven game series between the two conference champions. The Eastern Conference champion plays the Western Conference champion in the Stanley Cup Finals.
