Season structure of the NHL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Hockey League (NHL) season describes the playing structure in the National Hockey League. The season is divided into two sections. In the regular season teams play other teams in 82 games which determine their standings. The top eight teams in each conference enter an elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion.
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[edit] Regular season
Each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 games at home and 41 on the road. Teams used to play all other teams in the league at least once, but this will no longer be the case following implementation of post-lockout changes. Teams will now play 10 interconference (that is, not in their own conference) games throughout the entire season, 1 game against each team in two of the three divisions in the opposite conference. On an observational basis, it seems as if these interconference games are being block-scheduled in two different blocks (much like baseball does with interleague play). Teams will also play 40 games against non-divisional, conference opponents (4 games against each), and 32 games within their division (8 games against each). Two points are awarded for wins, one point for losing in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the division champion. Each Conference consists of three divisions, so these three division champions and five more teams fill out each Conference's playoff field. In total, 16 teams (3 division champions and 5 additional teams, for a total of 8 from each Conference) qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The following tiebreaking procedures are used in case two teams have earned the same amount of points: [1]
- The fewer number of games played. This is only relevant during the season.
- The greater number of games won.
- The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs. If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game shall not be included. 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, shall be used to determine the standing.
- The greater differential between goals for and against for the entire regular season.
[edit] Stanley Cup playoffs
The Stanley Cup Playoffs is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle to win a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round and become the NHL champion. The most recent Stanley Cup playoffs were the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The current playoff that was contested in the NHL uses the following format: the division winners are seeded one through three, and then 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 tiebreaking procedure shown above.
The first round of the playoffs, or Conference Quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. In the second round, or Conference Semifinals, the NHL re-seeds (unlike the NBA), with the top remaining Conference seed playing against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pairing off. 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.
The higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-ice advantage. Four of the seven games are played at this team's home venue - the first and second, and, where necessary, the fifth and seventh, with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue.
In the playoffs if the score is tied at the end of the third period a continuous series of sudden-death overtime periods are played until a team scores. Overtime periods are full periods of twenty minutes (of five-on-five hockey), rather than the five minutes (of four-on-four hockey, followed by a shootout) in the regular season. The overtime is played with golden goal rule (sudden death) so the game ends as soon as either team scores a goal.
