A much better way to do it (and one the NHL should bring back permanently).In Elliotte Friedman’s Tweet above, he also mentions that only the play-in round will be a best-of-5 series. Each of the teams involved play each other an equal number of times. His Vegas Golden Knights and other top teams in the East and West face a similar challenge in this most unusual expanded NHL playoffs, which begin Saturday. The NHL shared the “competitive format” for the 24-team playoff setup for how the 2020 NHL playoffs will work. All of the top four teams will be equally rusty when the chaos kicks off, and while it’d be great to be the #1 overall seed, it’s important to remember that home-ice advantage doesn’t exist this year.With every game being a neutral-site game, a lot of the benefits of being a top seed a moot.

That requires some big gambles that COVID-19 cases won’t spike to the point that the NHL needs to go on “pause” once more.The "integrity" of the playoffs was prioritized with this decision. It was meant to build rivalries, but it just gets old seeing the same few teams year after year after year.This year, the re-seeding takes away a lot of the potential “unfairness” of the whole thing.If the league stuck with the bracketed format, they could have ended up with a situation where, for example, the top seed playing the #8 seed in the first round, and the #4 seed played the #12 seed.Again, teams are going to be in the same boat when it comes to rust, weirdness, etc. Including their exhibition game, Dallas has scored six goals total in their five games in the bubble. but the bracket format sure had a bunch of chances to go sideways.This way, after the play-in round, the top seed will play the lowest remaining seed, and so on and so on. Maybe you didn’t understand it even then. It was important to the players. Maybe you haven’t heard the term round robin since your youth sports days. Round robin bets are an excellent way to minimize your losses without hurting your potential payout too much. Brind’Amour challenged the play hoping to get the call overturned arguing that Bruins defense Then, with just a few seconds remaining in regulation, Hamilton made what could have been a costly decision when he went for the empty net in the and was instead whistled for icing, giving the Bruins a late offensive zone face off. This is the goal of the day to help the Blue Jackets put the game away against Tampa Bay.Smith gives the Golden Knights the 2-0 series lead with this overtime goal.The Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames wrapped up an exciting Thursday of playoff hockey with what was probably the wildest game of the day.Even though they let a two-goal lead slip away with less than 10 minutes to play, the Stars were able to escape with a 5-4 win to even their series at one game each.It was probably not the type of game you would have expected from these two teams given their offensive struggles throughout the season.Perry also scored a goal of his own earlier in the game.Oleksiak’s goal is a massive one because it helped the Stars avoid what would have been a devastating collapse that would have put them in a two-game hole in the series. That tournament starts with round-robin play before the knockout round. With Heiskanen on the ice during 5-on-5 play (nearly 20 minutes), the Stars held a 19-10 shot attempt advantage, a 14-5 shots on goal advantage, and a 3-0 goals edge with Heiskanen himself scoring This game also featured a little bit of controversy thanks to a disallowed goal early in the third period.With the Flames trailing by two, they appeared to get back to within one when That play was especially damaging for the Flames because it also resulted in an injury to Just before the Mangiapane sequence, Tkachuk was sandwiched between When healthy, he is a difference-maker on the ice and his return to the lineup for the Stanley Cup Playoffs is a massive addition for a Hurricanes team that looks capable of going on another deep postseason run.His goal midway through the third period on Thursday night was the game-winner in a 3-2 Hurricanes win as they evened their First Round series with the Boston Bruins at one game each.Along with Hamilton’s third period tally, the Hurricanes also received a pair of quick goals from Overall this probably wasn’t the Hurricanes’ best performance, but they were able to do enough to get the win out while also overcoming a few things along the way.In the third period, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour was unsuccessful on another coach’s challenge as a potential Hurricanes goal had been waived off due to goaltender interference. September 1?At some point, things may get pushed back far enough that the league has to reconsider, but for now, this is a good thing.In a seven-game series, it’s a little bit harder for a hot team or a hot goalie to steal a series from a better team. Over a long period of time, the term was corrupted and idiomized to robin. Usually, over the course of 7 games, the better team wins out. Dallas, who ended the regular season on a six-game losing streak, has now lost three of their four playoff games since entering the bubble.During the regular season, the Stars averaged just 2.58 goals/game. This means the Bruins, leading the NHL in points by a quite a bit, could finish fourth. Saturday, Aug. 1.

But what if the games don’t start until August 15? Qualifying will be best-of-five.