The season structure of the National Hockey League (NHL) is divided into the regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the regular season, which generally runs from early October through early April, teams play 82 games which determine their standings. The three highest-placed teams in each division and two wild card teams per conference enter the playoff elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion.
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Regular season
Since the 1995-96 season, each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 each of home and road. In all, 1,230 games are scheduled (448 inter-conference games); next season there will be 1,271 games scheduled (480 of them inter-conference).
Since the 2013–2014 season, the NHL regular season formula was adjusted to account for the new conference alignments. Each team, through the 2016-17 season, plays either four or five games against the other teams in its division (a total of 29 games in the Western Conference, 30 games in the Eastern Conference) as well as playing all non-divisional teams in their own conference three times (21 games in the west, 24 games in the east). The remaining games of the season are inter-conference play (32 in the west, 28, will be 30 next season-in the east), allowing every team in the league to play every other team twice. One Western Conference exception is that one team from each division plays one less game inside Division and one more game inside Conference but outside their Division. Teams rotate every season. The schedule is structured so that every NHL team plays in every arena at least once every year. The San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche played each other 4 times in 2013-14 and 2015-16, but only twice in 2014-15 and 2016-17 in favor of 5 games against all their divisional opponents.
The NHL All-Star Game and its accompanying festivities occur near the midpoint of the season, during which no regular season games take place. Every four years, in lieu of an All-Star break, there is a break for the Winter Olympic Games.
Two points are awarded for a win (including in overtime or shootout), one point for a loss 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. Pulling a goaltender in overtime was occasionally attempted in certain situations prior to the 2004–05 NHL lockout near the end of a season if 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.
Stanley Cup playoffs
At the end of the regular season, 16 teams 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 top three teams in each division earn automatic berths (6 teams per conference) and the next two teams in the conference earn wild-card spots. The First Round pits the top ranked team in the conference against the lower ranked wild-card and the other division winner against the higher ranked wild-card. The second and third place teams in each division play each other. The First Round winners will meet in the Second Round. The Western Conference (Pacific vs. Central) and Eastern Conference (Atlantic vs. Metropolitan) Finals will determine who faces off in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Any ties in the standings are broken using the following protocols:
- The fewer number of games played (only used during the season, as all teams will have played 82 games once the season is over).
- The greater number of games won. Starting in the 2010–11 NHL season, shootout wins are not included in the tie-breaking procedure.
- The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs.
- If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, the points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game are not included.
- If more than two clubs are tied, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, and not including any "odd" games, are used to determine the standing.
- The greater differential between goals for and goals against during the entire regular season.
For the first two rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (regardless of point record). Thereafter, it goes to whoever has the better regular season record (no matter the seeding). 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").