The structure of the National Hockey League (NHL) season is divided into the regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the regular season, teams play 82 games which determine their standings. The eight top-seeded teams in each conference enter the playoff elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion.

Contents 1 Regular season 2 Stanley Cup playoffs 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Regular season

For current information on this topic, see 2009–10 NHL season.

Each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 games at home and 41 on the road. In all, 1230 games are played in one regular season.

Beginning in the 2008–09 season, the NHL regular season reverts to the format used before the 2004–05 Lockout, where each team plays 6 games (3 home, 3 away) against the other teams in its division (a total of 24 games). Teams will play all other non-divisional teams in their own conference 4 times (2 home, 2 away, 40 total games). The remaining 18 games of the season are inter-conference play, allowing every team in the league to play every other team at least once. Each team will play 12 teams from the other conference once and will play the other 3 non-conference teams both home and away.^[1]

The season is typically divided approximately in half by the NHL All-Star Game and its accompanying festivities, during which no regular season games take place.

Two points are awarded for a win (including in overtime or shootout), one point for a loss in overtime or shootout, and no points for a loss in regulation time.

At the end of the regular season, 16 teams, eight from each conference, qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. The teams are seeded one through eight in each conference. The teams that finish with the most points in each division are crowned the division champions, and are seeded one through three based on their point records. The next five teams with the best records in the conference are seeded four through eight. In the event of a tie in points in the standings, ties are broken using the following tiebreaking procedures:^[2] The higher ranked team is the one with:

1. The fewer number of games played. (Only used during the season, as all teams will have played 82 games once the season is over.)
2. The greater number of games won.
3. The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs.
4. The greater differential between goals for and against for the entire regular season.

[edit] Stanley Cup playoffs

For current information on this topic, see 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Stanley Cup playoffs is an elimination tournament consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series. The first three rounds determine which team from each conference will advance to the final round, dubbed the Stanley Cup Finals. The winner of that series becomes the NHL and Stanley Cup champion. The current Stanley Cup Champions are the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The first round of the playoffs, or Conference Quarterfinals, consists of four matchups in each conference, based on the seedings (1–8, 2–7, 3–6, and 4–5). In the second round, or Conference Semifinals, the top remaining conference seed plays against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pair off (unlike the NBA, for example, where the 1–8 winner always plays the 4–5 winner, regardless of who wins). In the third round, the Conference Finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Finals.

For the first three rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (regardless of point record). In the Stanley Cup Finals, it goes to the team with the better regular season record. The team with home-ice advantage hosts Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, while the opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 6 (Games 5–7 are played "if necessary").

Before the 1993–94 season, the format was completely different. The league was divided into four divisions, and the top four teams in each of the divisions advanced to the playoffs. Also, instead of the top team playing the eighth place team in the conference, the first place team played the fourth place team in each division, and the second place team played the third place team. In the second round, the two winning teams in each division would face each other for the divisional championship. The divisional champions in each conference would play one another in the third round for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. This structure is still used for determining the teams in the playoffs in the American Hockey League.

[edit] See also

• List of the most frequent NHL playoff series
• National Hockey League rivalries
• List of NHL franchise post-season appearance streaks
• List of NHL franchise post-season droughts

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• – Stanley Cup Playoff Formats

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