How are the NHL playoffs decided?
538161
There are 8 teams that advance to the quarter finals in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference. Teams play against one another based on their "seed" rank. The #1 team plays the #8 team, #2 against #7, and so forth. A team needs to win 4 out of 7 games to move on. Again the semi finals, teams are paired highest seeded team vs. lowest seeded team. Then the winners of the semi finals in each conference play each other in the conference finals. The winner goes on to face the winner of the other conference for the Stanley Cup Finals.\n\nThey have a great bracket showing the teams seed rank and show how many games were played in each round. http://www.sportsline.com/nhl/playoffrace/bracket
112312
The best ranked teams within Canada are invited to a round-robin tournament where they play each other. The best 3 or 4 teams after the series then play down and the team that wins that play-down is then the nation's team for the Olympics.
715295
correct, you cannot adjust your playoff setting after the league has drafted.\nbut Yahoo! can.\n\nthese are your avail options:\nWeek 15 and 16    4 teams\nWeek 16 and 17    4 teams\nWeek 14, 15 and 16  6 teams \nWeek 15, 16 and 17  6 teams\nWeek 14, 15 and 16  8 teams \nWeek 15, 16 and 17  8 teams\n\nemail Yahoo! which one you want for your league and if you are the league commish then they will make the adjustment...\n-nny
346758
They would just work the schedules - You are also assuming they would all have home court/ice advantage - the games are spread out enough. It's also happened in Boston or Phoenix, I think - I'm sure somewhere else - where they played a hockey game during the day, then they just lay the basketball floor over the ice surface and play a night basketball game. The same scheduling conflicts occur all regular season, you know - the leagues just work together.
869851
It is NHL officiating policy, and mostly it is about protecting the referees and linesmen from injury.\n\nSo when two opposing players are squaring off, or throwing punches, the refs are instructed to wait.\n\nOnce the players tie each other up, or go down to the ice, the officials jump in and separate the players.
189541
It is easy to understand, just like many other tournaments. \n\nThe first place team plays the eigth place team. The second place team plays the seventh place team, and so on. The other thing to note are the three divisions in each conference. The three winners of each division (Northeast, Atlantic, Southeast) for the Eastern Conference are automatically seeds 1, 2, and 3 depending on who has the most points. Seeds 4 - 8 are determined by the five next best teams, even if the fourth place team has more points than the division-leading third place, they are still seeded 4th in the playoffs. \n\nAfter the first round, the highest place team left plays the lowest place, the second highest plays the second lowest. For example if teams 1, 3, 5, and 7 are left...team 1 will play 7, team 3 will play 5
720944
The Stanley Cup finals will take place in the winner of the Western Conference finals against the winner of the Eastern Conference finals.\n\nThe possible 8 teams are, in order of home ice advantage:\nOttawa Senators,\nCarolina Hurricanes\nNew Jersey Devils\nBuffalo Sabres\nSan Jose Sharks\nAnaheim Mighty Ducks (going to be dropping "Mighty" after this season).\nColorado Avalance\nEdmonton Oilers.\n\nThe finals usually take place in June and wouldn't finish any later than around the 19th of June.
13163
I don't think that it's fair that the division leader automatically gets a top seed in the playoffs.  It can, and usually does leave out a team that would have normally made it to the playoffs if it were by record.  Plus, like what was mentioned on an ESPN article that I read about a month or so ago, it works out where the top two teams by record in the conference will never play each other anymore in the conference finals because of the way the divisions are set up now.  So I don't think they are a good idea.
888583
Much of the NHL schedule is based on tradition.  Many teams have set evenings that they play their home games on a regular basis.  For example, most Canadian based teams will have home games on Saturday night...\n\nSchedule makers also have to take into account the availability of arenas.  Most arenas are multi-purpose, meaning they host other events such as concerts, shows, etc.  So of course games cannot be scheduled on those nights...\n\nAlso, the NHL has a formula for the amount of games that teams play within their own division, as well as their own conference...
785056
First Tie Breaker is division head to head then conference head to head then total points scored, then total points scored in common opponent games.  There is a 1 in 4 Billion chance that it would need to go further than that.
554252
okay, i just answered your eastern conference question and was hoping you put this one up too....\nk...well, the oilers beat an over-rated red wings team, impressively none the less; and then a sharks team that i was convinced would be in the cup, possibly winning it all...the ducks played a spirited series vs. the flames, and then absolutely wrecked the avalanche...it seems like a closer battle then one would have guessed at the beginning of these playoffs, but i will get to the point-this ducks team seems vaguely familiar to the ducks team who almost took the cup against the devils a couple of years ago...so i'll give u this- ducks in 6... but a very good six
512586
I personally think the new NHL rules changed the way games are played.  Therefore, it's not necessarily true anymore to rely so much on old, experience veteran players.  The rules today demands younger, faster players/skaters whom are hungry to win!\n\nI personally think the Western Conference Finals will be the Sharks and Oilers.  The winner of this match will take the CUP!!!
346670
Ties are determined in Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball playoffs in the following order:\nIn the event that a playoff game ends in a tie, the deadlock will be broken using the following system:\n   1. Most team points scored.\n   2. Most team rebounds.\n   3. Highest team field goal percentage.\n   4. Highest team free throw percentage.\n   5. Fewest team turnovers.\n   6. Most team 3-point shots made.\n   7. Most team assists.\n   8. Most team steals.\n   9. Most team blocked shots.\n  10. Random "coin flip."
1173470
The qualification procedures for each continental association differs, in Europe they use an initial round-robin league format, where the winners qualify automatically, and the runners up get drawn in a two-leg home and away play-off, in South America the ten teams just play one league, with the top teams qualifying... in other areas they have a seeding system whereby the smaller teams play off against each other and the larger nations come in for the later stages...
282965
for the playoffs, this is how it goes for each of the two confererences (eastern conference and western conference):\n\nthe first three teams are the teams with the best records (win-loss percentage) in their divison.  the rest of the teams from #4 down are ranked according to their record.  this gives an incentive for a team to win their division. each conference has 3 divisions.  \n\nsome divisions contain teams that win a lot and some divisions have teams that don't win a lot.  that's why there's teams who are ranked higher but are division leaders even though they lose more than others teams who win a lot but are not division leaders.
837927
all 3 teams are doing great right now, but you know what there are many other teams that are playing great hockey right now not just them 3, look at Dallas 10-2-2, Anaheim 9-0-4, Minnesota 10-2-0, My Habs 7-2-3, all these teams are playing great hockey and there are a few more, but this are the most consistent teams right now in the NHL. and it doesn't really matter what happened the regular season sure you do need to win to make the playoffs but once your in the playoffs its an all new season, and nobody can tell who will win the cup, it doesn't matter if you went 10-0-0 in the first 2 weeks or went 0-10-0 all that matters is how well you perform in the biggest and best sporting event in the world yes babe the NHL PLAYOFFS THAT'S WERE IT COUNTS THE MOST.\n\nwh-a.t!!>>> read the question correctly and loOK at what room your in before you make your self look like an idiot, this is the hockey room that means hockey questions, this is not the football room ok.\n\nGO HABS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!1
618298
i think it is asked too much. why don't they ask something else instead?  as far as the odds of edmonton, buffalo, carolina and anaheim i'd say were pretty low.  no one predicted early in the season that there would be 2 lower seeds in the west battling in the conference finals.  in the east no one foresaw carolina or buffalo battling it out in the eastern conference finals.  i did some research and found some sites with the odds. the first site(vegas insider) edmonton was predicted to have a 25-1 chance, anaheim a 40-1 chance, buffalo a 75-1 chance, and carolina a 100-1 chance.  the second site (usa today) predicted buffalo odds at 30-1, carolina 45-1, anaheim 50-1, and edmonton 90-1.