Hockey is coming back everyone! According to several reports, the NHL is adopting a conference-based 24-team playoff format that will feature a play-in round before delving into the actual playoffs. The date and sites for these games which will of course exclude fans due to the pandemic have not been decided as of yet, though the NHL will be moving their draft from June to early September if that’s any indication.
Here’s how the playoffs will work:
•Top 4 teams in each conference based on “Points percentage (With your percentage accumulating to something similar to winning %, taking how many points you earn based on how many games you play into effect to make it fair since not all teams played the same amount of games when the season was suspended), being -Boston,Tampa Bay, Washington, and Philadelphia in the East, and ST Louis, Colorado, Vegas, and Dallas in the West- get a first round bye and are excluded from the play-in rounds. However, while those rounds take place (In neutral locations of course), these teams will take part in a round-robin tournament that will finalize the order of top 4 seeds in each conference.
•As for the rest of the field, the 5 seed in the conference will take on the 12, 6 will play 11, 7vs 10 and 8 vs 9. These matchups will be “bracketed” meaning no reseeding after the play-in round, as the 5 vs 12 winner will face the conference 4 seed, 6 vs 11 will face the 3 seed, 7 vs 10 will face the 2 seed, and 8 vs 9 winner will face the No 1 seed.
•The play-in rounds will be a best of 5 series, with the rounds to follow being a normal Stanley Cup Playoff format and best-of-7 series.
What are the matchups? Well let’s take a look.
East:
Bruins, Lightning, Caps , Flyers would battle in a round-robin tournament to determine the order of the top 4 seeds in round 2.
Best of 5 matchups:
5 Pittsburgh Penguins vs 12 Montreal Canadians
6 Carolina Hurricanes vs 11 New York Rangers
7 New York Islanders vs 10 Florida Panthers
8 Toronto Maple Leafs vs 9 Columbus Jackets
WEST:
Blues, Avalanche , Vegas Golden Knights, and the Stars would battle In round-robin tournament.
Best of 5 matchups:
5 Edmonton Oilers vs 12 Chicago Blackhawks
6 Nashville Predators vs 11 Arizona Coyotes
7 Vancouver Canucks vs 10 Minnesota Wild
8 Calgary Flames vs 9 Winnipeg Jets
TAKEAWAYS:
RANGERS ARE IN!:
The amazing late run proved dividends, as the Rangers are headed to the playoffs! Igor Shesterkin is likely to start game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes, with Henrik Lunquist as the back-up. As we get closer to the playoff date, I hope to be releasing a “Preview series” giving you my thoughts and predictions on how each series will go. The Blueshirts will battle the Hurricanes who they went 4-0 against this season, outscoring them 17-9.
CANADIENS SOMEHOW GET IN:
Despite having a .500 points percentage, the Canadiens are in the playoffs and they may have a shot to make a deep run in this year’s playoffs, with the Penguins as their opponent in round 1. Should Cary Price go “Playoff mode” Pittsburgh May be in trouble. The Penguins will have to “buckle down” and be ready for a Habs-fest of shots from Montreal, but like I said I’ll go deeper into it in another article.
MCDAVID VS KANE:
These two superstars in Conner Mcdavid and Patrick Kane will battle it out as the Oilers square off against the BlackHawks.
ISLANDERS LOOK TO RIGHT SHIP:
The Islanders were on a slide of epic proportions before the shutdown hit, having lost 11 of their last 13 games, but the hot start from earlier in the season one that had a 10 game win-streak is enough to net them a higher seed and a spot in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
BATTLE OF ALBERTA:
Flames vs Jets in a “Battle Of Canada” is going to be epic!
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