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.
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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 the 2008–09 season, the NHL regular season reverted to the format used before the 2004–05 Lockout, where each team plays six games (three at home, three away) against the other teams in its division (a total of 24 games). Teams play all ten non-divisional teams in their own conference four times (twice at home, twice 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 plays 12 teams from the other conference once and plays the other three non-conference teams both home and away.[1] If a non-conference team is played only once, next year's schedule will include at least one game between the same two teams at the opposite venue. The schedule is structured so that every NHL team plays in every arena at least once every two years.
For the six Canadian teams in the league prior to 2011-2012, the extra three inter-conference games were always against the three Canadian teams in the other conference. This ensured that all Canadian teams played home and away against their Canadian non-conference opponents each season, and each of the non-conference U.S. teams once per year. For the American teams, the extra three games are rotated each season between the twelve non-conference U.S. opponents in a way designed to ensure each U.S. team will play five regular season games against each U.S. team in the other conference over a four season cycle (two games in one of the seasons and one game in each of the other three seasons). Following the 2011 relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, the league decided not to alter the season structure for the following season, meaning that the new Winnipeg Jets are still being treated as a U.S. Eastern Conference team for the purposes of the 2011-12 schedule. The league is expected to significantly alter the divisional alignment for the 2012-13 season.
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 (with one situational exception) in overtime or shootout, and no points for a loss in regulation time. If, however, a team pulls their goaltender for an extra attacker during overtime and gives up an empty net goal, the point normally awarded for losing in overtime is forfeited.[2]Pulling a goaltender in overtime was occasionally attempted in certain situations prior to the 2004-05 NHL lockout near the end of a season where earning a single point in overtime would have been worthless for playoff qualification purposes, but with the introduction of the shootout it has not been attempted since.
| Division | Schedule | Total Games |
|---|---|---|
| Intra-Division | 6 games × 4 opponents | 24 |
| Non-divisional, in conference | 4 games × 10 opponents | 40 |
| Inter-conference | 1 game × 12 opponents + 2 games × 3 opponents | 18 |
At the end of the regular season, 16 teams, eight from each conference, qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, an elimination tournament consisting of three rounds of best-of-seven series to determine which team from each conference will advance to the final round, dubbed the Stanley Cup Final.
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 standings, the highest ranking team is determined using the following tiebreaking procedures:[3]
The first round of the playoffs, or Conference Quarterfinals, consists of four match-ups in each conference, based on the seedings (# 1 vs. # 8, # 2 vs. # 7, # 3 vs. # 6, and # 4 vs. # 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 Final.
For the first three rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (regardless of point record). In the Stanley Cup Final, 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").
On December 5, 2011, an NHL Board of Governors meeting, partially about realignment for the League, took place in Pebble Beach, California. This potential realignment was discussed there and a new structure of the entire League was announced, consisting of 4 conferences based on geography, and 2 of those conferences have 7 teams, the others have 8 teams. The re-alignment is mostly due to the moving of the former Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg to become the Winnipeg Jets, but also travel concerns by Western Conference teams that should be in the East such as the Detroit Red Wings and the Columbus Blue Jackets, as well as the Dallas Stars who belong in the Central Division instead of the Pacific Division, both of the Western Conference. Below is a table of the un-named new conferences.
| Conference A | Conference B | Conference C | Conference D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anaheim | Chicago | Boston | Carolina |
| Calgary | Columbus | Buffalo | New Jersey |
| Colorado | Dallas | Florida | NY Islanders |
| Edmonton | Detroit | Montreal | NY Rangers |
| Los Angeles | Minnesota | Ottawa | Philadelphia |
| Phoenix | Nashville | Tampa Bay | Pittsburgh |
| San Jose | St. Louis | Toronto | Washington |
| Vancouver | Winnipeg | NONE | NONE |
It is interesting to note that both Conferences B and D require very little travel, especially for Conference D, which is squashed in within one very large metropolitan region. Also, Conference C is just the current Northeast Division with Florida and Tampa Bay added. The setup of rounds 1, 3, and 4 have been announced. The top four teams in each Conference will qualify for the playoffs. The first-place team in each conference would play the fourth-place team in the same conference; the second-place team would play the third-place team. The four respective Conference champions would meet in the third round, with the survivors playing for the Stanley Cup. Also, a decision on how the League will seed the remaining teams for round 2 (semifinals) will likely not come until the general managers meet in March 2012. This new structure should be in place for the 2012-13 season[4], provided a lockout does not occur, as the current 2011-12 season is the last under the current CBA.
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