Three Conference Playoff Format Example 1
Each conference has a specific number of automatically clinched playoff positions, and a specific number of potential wild card playoff spots available to the teams in it. Five Wild Card teams make the playoffs, determined in order of record as long as the maximum number of teams in each group is not exceeded. Wild Card teams are indicated by orange numbers, and league-wide positions are shown to the right of each team:
Once the 11 Conference playoff spots and 5 wild card spots have been determined, the matchups are decided according to a crossover scenario, which depends on which Conferences have an even or odd number of teams in the playoffs. In the Central Conference, teams in blue text automatically cross over with the Eastern Conference, and teams in green cross over with the Western Conference, unless the only teams left are all blue or green:
Since each of the three Conferences have an even number of teams in the first round of the playoffs, there are no crossovers in the first round, just matchups between successive best and worst remaining records:
It is possible that a Conference can become fully bracketed by only having 4 teams left and not being involved in any crossovers, which the Western Conference is in this example. This can lead to unfair matchups (11 vs. 14, while #5 faces #6), but the alternative would be high time zone travel (by having Western teams match up with teams outside their Conference):
With a 4/6/6 split of teams in each Conference in the 1st Round, there is a 2/3/3 split for the 2nd Round, meaning a guaranteed crossover between the groups with 3 teams (since they are from the Central and Eastern Conferences). The fairest matchup between the Eastern time zone teams in the Central Conference, and the Eastern Conference teams is #4 Detroit vs. #13 Montreal:
In the third round, since the Eastern Conference has 2 teams left, they match up automatically, while the single team from each of the Western and Central Conferences automatically draw each other as a crossover matchup:
The 2 remaining teams meet in the Stanley Cup Finals:
All logos © National Hockey League or respective owners, used for purpose of graphic aid only
Ice background © Artsfon wallpapers
