Dates April 8–May 24, 1980 | Teams 16 | |
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Semifinalists Buffalo SabresMinnesota North Stars | ||
The 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs, the championship of the National Hockey League (NHL) began on April 8, after the conclusion of the 1979–80 NHL season. The playoffs concluded on May 24 when the New York Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5–4 to win the Final series four games to two and win the Stanley Cup. It was the Islanders' first Stanley Cup win and was the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup wins.
Contents
Changes
With the league expansion from 17 to 21 teams, the playoffs were also expanded, from a 12-team tournament to a 16-team tournament. The sixteen teams were composed of the four divisional champions plus the top 12 finishers of the remaining 17 teams. The 16 qualifying teams were then seeded based on regular season points, with divisional rankings ignored. Division leaders no longer received first round byes. The teams were seeded 1 through 16, with the top team playing the 16th team in the first round, and so on. In subsequent rounds, matchups were similarly arranged, with the top remaining seed against the lowest remaining seed, and so on. The Preliminary Round was a best-of-five set. The Atlanta Flames played their final playoff games in this postseason, and moved to Calgary soon after, the playoffs returned to Atlanta in 2007.
Playoff seeds
The sixteen teams that qualified for the playoffs are ranked 1–16 based on regular season points.
- Philadelphia Flyers, Patrick Division champions, Clarence Campbell Conference regular season champions – 116 points
- Buffalo Sabres, Adams Division champions, Prince of Wales Conference regular season champions – 110 points
- Montreal Canadiens, Norris Division champions – 107 points
- Boston Bruins – 105 points
- New York Islanders – 91 points
- Minnesota North Stars – 88 points
- Chicago Black Hawks, Smythe Division champions – 87 points
- New York Rangers – 86 points
- Atlanta Flames – 83 points
- St. Louis Blues – 80 points
- Toronto Maple Leafs – 75 points
- Los Angeles Kings – 74 points
- Pittsburgh Penguins – 73 points (30 wins)
- Hartford Whalers – 73 points (27 wins)
- Vancouver Canucks – 70 points
- Edmonton Oilers – 69 points
(7) Chicago Black Hawks vs. (10) St. Louis Blues
With their victory in Game one, Chicago snapped a record 16-game losing streak in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Stanley Cup Finals
Ken Morrow became the first player in history to win an Olympic Gold Medal and the Stanley Cup in the same season. Game six was the last NHL game to air on American network television for nearly ten years.