Stanley Cup playoffs

The Stanley Cup playoffs (French: Les séries éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. The final round is commonly known as the Stanley Cup Finals, which sees the two conference champions play for the Stanley Cup.

The NHL has always used a playoff tournament to determine its champion. Its playoff system has changed over the years, from the league's inception in 1917 when ownership of the Stanley Cup was shared between different leagues, to when the NHL took over the Cup in 1926, to the current setup today.

Current format

The Stanley Cup playoffs consists of four rounds of best-of-seven series. Each series is played in a 2–2–1–1–1 format, meaning the team with home-ice advantage hosts games 1, 2, 5, and 7, while their opponent hosts games 3, 4, and 6, with games 5–7 being played if needed.

2010 Stanley Cup playoffs

The 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League (NHL) began on April 14, 2010, after the 2009–10 NHL regular season. The Finals ended on June 9, 2010, with the Chicago Blackhawks defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in six games to win their fourth championship and their first since 1961. Blackhawks center and team captain Jonathan Toews was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player.

This NHL post-season was noted for the unexpected playoff successes of two teams, the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens, who were the seventh and eighth seeds in their conference and were tied for points. The Flyers became the third NHL team to win a seven game series after being down 3–0 (the others being the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders). The Flyers went on to play in the Stanley Cup Final, losing to Chicago. Meanwhile, the Canadiens became the first eighth-seeded team in NHL history to win a series against the first-seeded team after being down 3–1 in a series, when they beat the Washington Capitals in the first round. After upsetting the defending Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, the Canadiens became the first eighth-seeded team to compete in the Eastern Conference Finals since the current playoff format was implemented in 1994.

2015 Stanley Cup playoffs

The 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League (NHL) began on April 15, 2015, and ended on June 15, 2015, with the Chicago Blackhawks defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning four games to two in the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals.

The New York Rangers made the playoffs as the Presidents' Trophy winners with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. They also came back from a 3–1 series deficit for the second consecutive year. The Detroit Red Wings increased their consecutive post-season appearance streak to 24 seasons, the longest current streak and tied for the fourth-longest streak in NHL history. The Winnipeg Jets qualified for the playoffs for the first time since the former Atlanta Thrashers franchise relocated to Winnipeg in 2011; the only time that the Thrashers/Jets franchise made the post-season was in 2007, and the last time that the city of Winnipeg hosted a playoff game was in 1996, the season before the previous Winnipeg Jets team relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, to become the Coyotes. The Ottawa Senators became the first team in the NHL's modern era (since 1943–44) to overcome a 14-point deficit in the standings to clinch a playoff spot. Also, the Calgary Flames returned to the playoffs after a six-year absence. In total, five Canadian NHL teams qualified for the post-season, the most since 2004.