What a season it’s been! With postponements, behind-closed-doors fixtures, no Winter Olympic break, not to mention some puck-dropping, show-stopping hockey, the 2021-22 regular season has been a hell of a ride. The strongest 16 teams – 8 from the Western Conference and 8 from the Eastern Conference – have secured their ticket to get one step closer to raising North America’s oldest sports trophy, the Stanley Cup.
In Round 1 of the NHL playoffs, the teams are split into 2 brackets by division with each bracket consisting of the top 3 divisional qualifiers and 1 of the wildcards. The lower seeded wildcard plays against the division winner with the best record while the other wildcard plays against the other division winner. The other 2 series consist of the second-place and third-place teams from the divisions. The winners of each Round 1 best-of-7 series advance to Round 2. In all rounds of the playoffs, the higher-ranked team is awarded home-ice advantage, with 4 of the 7 games played at this team's home venue (if 6 to 7 games are required to determine a winner).
In the Western Conference, Colorado Avalanche were overall point leaders and only just missed out on retaining the Presidents’ Trophy – the annual award for the team finishing the regular season with the most points across the whole league and therefore best record – after a frustrating end to their regular season. The first match-up to be announced was the Minnesota Wild against the St. Louis Blues which will be a rematch of the incredibly chilly 2022 NHL Winter Classic where the Blues turned up the heat to beat their hosts 6-4. The first team to secure a match-up with home-ice advantage was the Edmonton Oilers who will face the Los Angeles Kings.
The Round 1 draws in the Western Conference side of the playoffs are as follows with the team with home-ice advantage listed first:
- Calgary Flames v Nashville Predators
- Edmonton Oilers v Los Angeles Kings
- Minnesota Wild v St. Louis Blues
- Colorado Avalanche v Dallas Stars
The Western Conference team that proves resilient enough to get to the Stanley Cup Finals will have a real fight on their hands against their Eastern counterpart. Last week, NHL history was made when the Washington Capitals became the eighth team in the same conference to reach 100 points in the same season. Each of these 8 teams snatched themselves a playoff berth. The Florida Panthers secured the top spot in the Eastern Conference helped by their franchise-record season-opening winning streak of 8 wins with no points dropped. They also clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time in their history.
The Round 1 draws in the Eastern Conference side of the playoffs are as follows with the team with home-ice advantage listed first:
- Florida Panthers v Washington Capitals
- Carolina Hurricanes v Boston Bruins
- Toronto Maple Leafs v Tampa Bay Lightning
- New York Rangers v Pittsburgh Penguins
The first Round 1 face-offs are tonight (Monday 2 May) and should run until Sunday 15 May depending on the need for all fixtures in a best-of-7 series to be played. Tickets are already on sale with both official and secondary seller options available. Secure your place just as the 16 playoff teams have and find out who will reach the second round, then the conference championship, and then the big one: the Stanley Cup Finals. As leaders of their respective conferences, the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers are favourites, but they’ll need ice in their veins to get there.
The puck stops with you: don’t miss out on the 2021-22 NHL playoffs!