How do the NHL playoffs work?

So how do the NHL playoffs work?

To understand what it takes to make it to the playoffs, first I need to answer how do the NHL playoffs work and who gets to play in them.

When do the playoffs start?

The tentative dates for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs are the middle of April to the second to the third week of June. The regular season is expected to end on April 14^th.

How many are taking place?

The playoffs are made up of 4 rounds, each consisting of best-of-seven games. Each team must win 4 games to move on to the next round. Each round has a minimum of 4 games, and a maximum of 7 games that take place.

Therefore, the Stanley Cup-winning team must win a minimum of 16 games (the maximum being 28).

The playoffs consist of 16 teams, the breakdown of the following rounds is as follows:

Round 1: Conference Quarterfinals, 16 teams

Round 2: Conference Semifinals, 8 teams

Round 3: Conference Finals, 4 teams

Round 4: Stanley Cup Finals, 2 teams

Playoff Format

To know which of the 16 teams out of 32 are selected for the playoffs, you need to be familiar with how the teams are structured into conferences and divisions.

Conferences, Divisions, Wild Cards

Conferences: The 32 teams are divided into two conferences: Eastern and Western.

Divisions: Each conference has two divisions:

     Eastern: Atlantic and Metropolitan

    Western: Central and Pacific

At the end of the regular season the top 3 teams in each division, based on points, make it to the playoffs.

That leaves 4 more teams that can make it to the playoffs, which is where the wild card teams come into play.

Wild Card: Each conference will have two additional teams who are able to make a playoff run as well. These teams are determined by teams that place 7^th and 8^th in their respective conferences. They can be from the same division or one from each division.

Onto the playoff format

The first two rounds are based on divisions with the wild card teams.

In the first round of playoffs:

            The division will play a wild card team

            The 2^nd and 3^rd place teams will play each other

In the second round of playoffs:

            The winners of the first round divisional round will play each other

In the third round of playoffs (Conference Finals):

            The winner of each division will play against the other winner in their conference

In the fourth round of the playoffs (Cup Finals):

            The winner of each conference will play each other

Here’s an example based on the current standings on February 26, 2023, for the Eastern Conference. 

If the playoffs were to start on this day, then this is how we would determine the matchups:

Carolina would be the winner of the Metro division and Boston would be the winner of the Atlantic division

Given that Boston has the most points in the conference, they would play the wild card team with the lowest number of points and Carolina would play the wild card team with the most points

The 2^nd and 3^rd place teams in the Metro would then play each other, New Jersey and New York Rangers

The 2^nd and 3^rd place teams in the Atlantic would then play each other, Toronto and Tampa Bay

The teams that wouldn’t qualify would be Buffalo and Detroit since they don’t have enough points to beat out New York Islanders and Pittsburgh in the wild card spots.

This scenario would play out to be:

Round 1 Atlantic:

            Boston vs Pittsburgh

            Toronto vs Tampa Bay

Round 1 Metro:

            Carolina vs New York Islanders

            New Jersey vs New York Rangers

The winners of those rounds would move on to round 2           

The winners of round 2 would meet for the Eastern Conference Finals

The winner of round 3 would move on to meet the winner of the Western Conference to play for Lord Stanley’s Cup in the finals.

Here’s a picture of the 2022 Playoff Bracket to give a visual of how this all works

Overtime in Playoffs

Overtime in the playoffs works differently than overtime in the regular season.

Overtime in the regular season consists of a sudden death 5-minute, 3-on-3 followed by a shootout if no one scored.

None of that happens in the playoffs. If a team is still tied at the end of regulation, there will be an additional 20-minute period. The game is over once a team scores. This could mean the game could go into more than just one additional period.

Most games end in just one or two overtime periods, but every once in a while, they can go on for much longer. Most recently in 2020, a game went into 5 overtime periods meaning onto of the usual 3, 20-minute periods, there were 5 more! That game lasted about 6 hours!

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