The Stanley Cup Playoffs are the culmination of the NHL’s long regular season and the most grueling stretch of the hockey calendar. Sixteen teams enter the postseason with one goal: survive four rounds and be the last team standing.
The NHL playoffs aren’t a single elimination tournament, they are a series of best-of-seven rounds. To remove a team from contention, it takes four wins from the other side. One bad night is not enough to end a championship run. That structure produces the comebacks, the overtime thrillers and the seven-game wars that have helped make the Stanley Cup one of the most recognizable trophies in professional sports.
For those unfamiliar with hockey, it helps to know how the playoffs work to make the postseason much easier to follow. It also explains why a regular season position, home-ice advantage and the ability to thrive under pressure can become so important when the stakes are high.
What Are the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are the NHL’s playoff tournament to decide its champion. Sixteen teams make it, eight from each conference. Under the current system, the top three teams in each division and two wild-card teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The wild cards go to the next two teams with the most points in the regular season regardless of division.
That makes for a field of 16 teams, all vying for the same prize. The postseason then plays out over four rounds: first round, second round, conference finals and Stanley Cup Final. All series are best of seven, so the first team to four wins moves on.
How Does the NHL Playoff Format Work?
The division-based structure is clearest in the first round. In each conference, the team with the best point total that did not win its division is paired with the division winner. The other division winner plays the other wild card team . The teams which finish second and third in each division play each other .
That’s eight first-round series, four in the Eastern Conference and four in the Western Conference. Once the first round is over, the bracket doesn’t just go down a fixed path based on the original seeds. In later rounds, teams are re-seeded based on regular-season record, with the lowest remaining seed playing the highest remaining seed. The team that finished the regular season with the better record gets home-ice advantage.
That system makes the second round especially interesting, since who you play can depend on which teams make it through the opening round.
What Does Best-of-Seven Mean?
The best-of-seven series means the first team to win four games moves on. So a series can be as short as four games, or as long as seven. A quick 4-0 sweep ends the matchup, while a 4-3 series goes to the maximum number of games.
This format rewards consistency and is one of the trademarks of the hockey championships. You can lose Game 1 and still win the series. It can even be down 3-1 and come back to eliminate its opponent.
The longer format also requires much from the players. The injuries mount up, travel comes into play and coaches have to tweak their strategies as the same two teams meet over and over again.
How Does Home-Ice Advantage Work?
The home ice advantage typically goes to the team with the superior regular-season record or point total, depending on the round and the specific seeding rules in effect. In a typical best-of-seven series, the higher seed hosts Games 1 and 2 and then Games 5 and 7 if necessary. The lower-seeded club hosts Games 3 and 4 and Game 6 if necessary.
This 2-2-1-1-1 format could mean a team with home ice advantage could play four of seven games at home. Playing at home doesn’t ensure a series win but, when it comes down to a deciding Game 7, home advantage can help. The atmosphere of home and familiarity of playing at home can add another layer of pressure to an already tense situation.
What Happens in the Conference Finals?
After two rounds, just four teams remain. One finalist from the Eastern Conference and one from the Western Conference. Those two teams then face off in the Stanley Cup Final. The conference finals are still best-of-seven, meaning a team has to win four games to advance to the championship series. The players have now long forgotten the regular season. Teams have already had multiple postseason series under their belts. Matchups become more tactical, depth becomes more critical.
How Does the Stanley Cup Final Work?
The Stanley Cup Final is the final round of the postseason, the fourth round. The Eastern Conference champion and the Western Conference champion meet in the best-of-seven series. The team with the better regular-season point total gets home ice advantage. The first team to win four games is the Stanley Cup champ.
While some sports tournaments have a championship decided in one game, hockey allows both teams to have multiple opportunities to fight back. That’s one of the reasons the Stanley Cup Final has set the stage for so many dramatic comebacks and memorable deciding games. The champion does more than win a series. That makes for a postseason journey that can last four rounds and potentially 28 games.
The History of the Stanley Cup
The history of the Stanley Cup goes back much further than the NHL itself. Lord Stanley of Preston, then Canada’s governor general, donated the original trophy in 1892. Originally it was named the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup but the Stanley Cup soon became the familiar title. The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association were the winners of the trophy in 1893.
Originally the trophy was a symbol of hockey supremacy in Canada, but its role changed as the sport did. Eventually professional teams played for it and the Cup became associated with the best professional hockey leagues. The Stanley Cup has been given to the NHL playoff champion since the 1926–27 season. That gives the Cup a history that goes back decades pre-modern NHL.
Why the Stanley Cup Is Different From Other Trophies
Some of the magic of the Stanley Cup is in its odd connection to the players that win it. The names of the championship players and other members of winning organizations are engraved on the trophy, a physical part of hockey history. The NHL says it includes all the teams that have won the Stanley Cup since 1893.
There is only one real Stanley Cup too. The actual Cup has a place in hockey lore, but a display version is used when the trophy goes on tour for fans to see. So for players, Lifting the Cup is more than just another championship. Their names can go down forever in the history of the trophy.
Some of the Most Memorable Stanley Cup Playoff Moments
The history of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is filled with moments that have become part of hockey culture.
1994: The Rangers End a 54-Year Wait
The New York Rangers entered the 1994 playoffs with a title drought that stretched all the way back to 1940. It was one of the most dramatic playoff runs in NHL history. The New York Rangers were down 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Final but forced a Game 7 on the strength of Mark Messier’s famous Game 6 performance.
Then Stephane Matteau scored a double overtime goal to send the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final in Game 7. New York won its first Stanley Cup in 54 years by beating the Vancouver Canucks in seven games. In the last game, Messier scored the game-winning goal in the third period.
2010: Patrick Kane’s Championship Goal
The 2010 Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Fliers featured one of the strangest championship-winning goals in recent NHL history.
Chicago was down 3-2 in the series, needing one more victory in Game 6. Patrick Kane scored in overtime, but first the puck’s path caused some confusion as the goal was not immediately obvious to everyone on the ice. The goal gave Chicago its first Stanley Cup since 1961 and ended a 49-year drought.
2013: Chicago’s Incredible Late Comeback
The Blackhawks brought us another great moment of championship celebration three years later. Boston led Chicago 2-1 late in Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. With the Bruins appearing to be on their way to forcing a Game 7, Bryan Bickell tied the game with 1:16 to go.
Dave Bolland scored again just 17 seconds later. The Chicago team had come back from a 2-1 deficit in less than a minute-and-a-half and won the Stanley Cup.
2019: St. Louis Finally Gets Its Cup
Another milestone moment was the 2019 St. Louis Blues’ championship. The Blues beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to win the first championship in the franchise’s history. It was the first Stanley Cup Final appearance for St. Louis, which joined the NHL in 1967.
The championship was especially memorable because the Blues had gone thru a lot of adversity in their playoff run, culminating in one of the most important seasons in franchise history.
What Makes Winning the Stanley Cup So Difficult?
The playoff format is meant to test almost every aspect of a team. A club needs enough scoring to score goals, defensive structure to limit opponents, goaltending to stand up to pressure and enough depth to withstand injuries.
Teams also play the same opponent over and over, creating a greater physical demand. Coaches can change things up based on previous games, so players need to be able to adjust on the go. This can lead to a team that is dominant during the regular season to struggle during the playoffs. Or, a team that makes the postseason without the best record in the regular season can have the right mix of form, health and confidence come postseason time. That uncertainty is a big part of the appeal.
What the Stanley Cup Playoffs Mean for Hockey Betting
The NHL postseason is a different animal for sports bettors than the NHL regular season. As teams advance deeper in the tournament, series prices, individual game moneylines, puck lines, totals and futures can all come into play. But the best way to understand those markets is to understand the playoff system first.
A team’s regular-season record offers helpful context, but playoff hockey can be influenced greatly by goaltending, injuries, special teams, rest, travel and matchup dynamics. The best-of-seven format also changes how a series is played. A team that loses Game 1 is not necessarily in dire straits, while a team that goes down 3-0 is in a far different boat.
