With the NHL playoffs getting closer, it's a good time for a refresher on how the system will work this year, the first under the league's new post-season format.
First, a brief recap of realignment: instead of 15 teams in each conference, there are now 16 teams in the East and 14 in the West. They're grouped into four divisions: Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central and Pacific.
Just like under the old system, eight teams from each conference make the playoffs, but it's no longer a simple matter of the top eight teams in the conference qualifying.
The top three teams in each division automatically get in, accounting for 12 of the league's 16 playoff berths. The final four spots, two per conference, go to the teams with the highest point totals who finish outside of their division's top three. These are the wild cards.
This format allows for the possibility that any given division could send as few as three teams to the playoffs, and as many as five.
Once the playoffs start, the two division winners in each conference match up against the two wild-card entries (the division winner with the most points faces the wild-card team with the fewest points, regardless of which division they play in). The other matchups are intradivisional: the second- and third-ranked teams in each division square off against each other.
The winners of these series move on to the second round to play for a spot in the conference finals. In each conference, the highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seeds, and the other two teams meet.
To help visualize a potential first round, here's an example of how the playoffs would look in the Eastern Conference if the regular season had ended on March 17:
Division winners:
Atlantic: Boston (awarded East's top seed as division winner with most points).
Metropolitan: Pittsburgh.
Division No. 2 and No. 3 teams:
Atlantic: (2) Tampa Bay, (3) Montreal.
Metropolitan: (2) Philadelphia, (3) Columbus.
Wild cards:
Wild card No. 1: Toronto (most points among the two wild-card teams).
Wild card No. 2: New York Rangers.
1st-round matchups:
Boston (best division winner) vs. N.Y. Rangers (worst wild card).
Pittsburgh (second-best division winner) vs. Toronto (best wild card).
Tampa Bay (Atlantic No. 2 seed) vs. Montreal (Atlantic No. 3 seed).
Philadelphia (Metropolitan No. 2 seed) vs. Columbus (Metropolitan No. 3 seed).
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