The National Hockey League playoffs come after an 82-game regular season.
Click Here to Buy NHL Playoffs Hockey TicketsEach of the teams in the league play 41 home games and 41 on the road. There are two conferences, and the top eight teams in each are entered into an elimination tournament to determine who will go on to win the Stanley Cup, the highest honor in the sport. During the season, teams play 10 inter-conference games. Each team plays one game against every team in one of the two of three divisions in the opposite conference.
At the end of the season, the team that has the most points for their division becomes the division champion. There are three divisions in each conference, so each of the three division champions in each conference and five more teams become the playoff contenders for each conference. There are a total of eight from each conference, meaning 16 teams will go on to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. When a tie takes place, if two teams have the same amount of points, who ever played fewer games will win, or whoever won more games. Also, games between the two tied teams are evaluated, the team that won the most games against the other team would win.