Stanley Cup playoffs


The Stanley Cup playoffs is the annual elimination tournament to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, and the league champion of the National Hockey League. The four-round, best-of-seven tournament is held after the NHL's regular season. Eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. The final round is known as the Stanley Cup Final, which matches the two conference champions.
The NHL is the only one of the big four major leagues in Canada and the United States to refer to its playoffs by the name of its championship trophy, a tradition which has arisen because the Stanley Cup is North America's oldest professional sports trophy, dating back more than two decades before the establishment of the NHL. Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, then–Governor General of Canada, initially as a "challenge trophy" for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. From 1893 when the first Cup was awarded to 1914, the champions held onto the Cup until they either lost their league title to another club, or a champion from another league issued a formal challenge and defeated the reigning Cup champion in a final game to claim their win. Professional teams then first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. Starting in 1915, the Cup was officially contested between the champion of the National Hockey Association and the champion of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. After a series of league mergers and folds, including the 1917 establishment of the NHL as a successor to the NHA, the Stanley Cup became the championship trophy of the NHL prior to the 1926–27 season.
The NHL has always used a playoff tournament to determine its champion. The league's playoff system has changed over the years, from the NHL's inception in 1917, to when the NHL took over the Cup in 1926, to the current setup today.

Current format

Format

The Stanley Cup playoffs consists of four rounds of best-of-seven series. Each series is played in a 2–2–1–1–1 format, meaning the team with home-ice advantage hosts games one, two, five, and seven, while their opponent hosts games three, four, and six. Games five, six, and seven are only played if needed.
Eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. In the playoff series format instituted in 2014, the first, second, and third place teams in each of the four divisions qualify for the playoffs automatically. Two additional teams from each conference, regardless of divisional alignment, also qualify for the playoffs by having the highest point totals out of the remaining teams in the conference. These teams are referred to as the wild cards. Since there is no attention paid to divisional alignment with the wild cards, it is possible for one division in a conference to have five teams in the postseason while the other has just three.
In the First Round, the teams are split into two separate brackets by conference. Each bracket consists of the top three divisional qualifiers and one of the wild cards. The lower seeded wild card plays against the division winner with the best record while the other wild card plays against the other division winner, and both wild cards are de facto No. 4 seeds. The other two series match the second and third place teams from the divisions.
The winners of both First Round series advance to the Second Round. The reseeding in the previous format, which ensured the top seed would play the lowest remaining seed, was discarded, as it is no longer possible. The first round is the only round where the better teams play easier opponents, as every other round is played by the winner of another series, thus leaving no opportunities to reseed. The winners of these series advance to the conference finals and the two conference finals winners move on to the Stanley Cup Final.
In the first two rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage. Thereafter, it goes to the team with the better regular season record ; in the case of a tie, the league's standard tie-breaking procedure is applied. The team with home-ice advantage hosts games one, two, five, and seven, while the opponent hosts games three, four, and six.
Any ties in the standings at the end of the regular season are broken using the following protocols:
  1. The greater number of regulation wins only.
  2. The greater number of regulation and overtime wins, excluding shootouts.
  3. The greater number of total wins, including shootouts.
  4. The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs.
  5. # If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, the points earned and available in the first game played in the city of the club that had the greater number of home games in games between the two are not included.
  6. # If more than two clubs are tied, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, and not including any "odd" games, are used to determine the standing. The "odd" games are identical to those mentioned in the previous paragraph, that is, the first game in the city of the club that has had more home games in games between each club in the tie. Note that, because of this procedure, if two teams in the multi team tie have only played once against each other, the points earned in that game are not included.
  7. The greater differential between goals for and goals against during the entire regular season.
  8. The greater number of goals for.
  9. If two clubs are still tied on regulation wins, regulation and overtime wins, total wins, points earned between the tied clubs, regular season goal differential, and regular season goal scored, a one-game playoff is played under Stanley Cup playoff rules.

    Overtime rules

Unlike the regular season where a contest could eventually be decided in a shootout, overtime in the playoffs is played in multiple sudden-death, 20-minute five-on-five periods until one team scores. Although a playoff game could theoretically last indefinitely, only two contests have reached six overtime periods, and neither of those went beyond six. During playoff overtime periods, the only break is to shovel away the loose ice shavings at the first stoppage after the period is halfway finished.

History

Origins

The Stanley Cup was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and was named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was then awarded in 1893 to Montreal Hockey Club.
During the period from 1893 to 1914, the champions held the Cup until they lost their league title to another club, or a champion from another league issued a formal challenge and subsequently defeated them in a special game or series. The competitive format of each Cup challenge was determined by negotiation between the two clubs. Furthermore, none of the leagues that played for the Cup had a formal playoff system to decide their respective champions; whichever team finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. A playoff would only be played if teams tied for first-place in their leagues at the end of the regular season.
As the prestige of winning the Cup grew, so did the need to attract top players, and thus professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. Then in 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey supremacy. In 1910, the National Hockey Association held its inaugural season and soon emerged as the best professional hockey league in Canada, keeping the Cup for the next four years. In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association challenged the NHA and Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts. One year later, the NHA and the PCHA began an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup, effectively ending the Cup challenge games.
After years of the NHA not having an annual playoff tournament to determine its league champion, the 1916–17 NHA season saw the league split its schedule into two halves with the top team from each half moving on to the league finals, which was a two-game total goals series. The PCHA continued to award their league title to the team that finished in first place after the regular season.

Emergence of the NHL

The National Hockey League was founded in November 1917 as a successor to the NHA. From the NHL's inception until 1920, both NHL and PCHA teams were eligible for the Stanley Cup. The NHL inherited the NHA's regular season system of dividing it into two halves, with the top team from each half moving on to the league finals. The NHL finals was a two-game total goals series in 1918 and a best-of-seven series in 1919. In 1920, the Ottawa Senators were automatically declared the league champion when the team had won both halves of the regular season. The two halves format was abandoned the next year, and the top two teams faced off for the NHL championship in a two-game total goals series.
At the time, the NHL champion would later face the winners of the PCHA and, from 1921, the Western Canada Hockey League in further rounds in order to determine the Stanley Cup champion. During this time, as the rules of the NHL and those of the western leagues differ, the rules for each game in the Stanley Cup Final alternated between those of the NHL and the western leagues. Before the WCHL competed for the Stanley Cup, the Cup championship series was a best-of-five series. Following the involvement of the WCHL, one league champion was given a bye straight to the finals, while the other two competed in a best-of-three semifinal. As travel expenses were high during these times, it was often the case that the NHL champions were sent west to compete. In a dispute between the leagues in 1923 about whether to send one or both western league champions east, the winner of the PCHA/WCHL series would proceed to the Stanley Cup Final, while the loser of the series would face the NHL champion, both series being best-of-three.
In 1924, the NHL playoffs expanded from two to three teams, but because the first-place Hamilton Tigers refused to play under this format, the second and third place teams played for the NHL championship in a two-game total goals affair. The Stanley Cup Final series returned to a best-of-five format the same year.