NHL
Hockey

Hockey is played on an ice rink between two teams of six players each — one goaltender and five skaters. The goal is simple: shoot the puck into the opposing net more times than the other team over sixty minutes (three 20-minute periods). Regulation time features five-on-five play, with penalties temporarily reducing teams to four or even three skaters, creating power plays and short-handed situations that dramatically shift momentum.

The National Hockey League has 32 teams split into two conferences — Eastern and Western — each divided into two divisions. The regular season runs from October through April, with each team playing 82 games. The top three teams from each of the four divisions plus the next two best records in each conference (wild cards) qualify for the playoffs — 16 teams in total, eight from each conference.

In the regular season, ties after regulation lead to a five-minute three-on-three overtime period followed by a shootout if still level. In the playoffs, all that changes. Playoff overtime is full five-on-five hockey, 20-minute periods, sudden death — the first team to score wins immediately. Games can go to double, triple, even quadruple overtime. The longest playoff game in NHL history lasted six overtime periods. This raw, unscripted tension is part of what makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs so captivating.

First awarded in 1893, the Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy in major North American professional sports. Unlike other major championships, the Cup itself travels with the winning team — each player and staff member gets to spend a day with it during the off-season. Winners have eaten cereal out of it, taken it swimming, brought it to their hometowns. The Cup has a life and legend that no other trophy in sport can match. Every player's name who won it is engraved directly on the trophy.

To win the Stanley Cup, a team must win four series of best-of-seven games — 16 wins in total, more than any other major professional sports championship. That grueling road can take up to two months, with games typically every other day or two. Depth, goaltending, and the ability to perform under extreme pressure across a large sample are all tested.

The higher seed in each series hosts games 1, 2, 5, and 7 (the decisive games if needed), while the lower seed hosts games 3, 4, and 6. This 2-2-1-1-1 format gives the favored team control of the opening two games at home and the potential to clinch on home ice — a significant competitive and atmospheric advantage.

Once regulation ends tied, the playoff overtime periods are full 20-minute periods at five-on-five. There is no shootout, no shorter sudden-death period — just hockey until someone scores. This can create legendary moments: triple-overtime thrillers, exhausted players skating on instinct, and crowd atmospheres that are among the loudest in all of sport.

Playoff hockey produces an atmosphere that is genuinely singular among North American sports. The speed and physical intensity of the game, combined with the packed arena noise and the knowledge that every shift could end a team's season, creates something between sport and theater. White-out crowds, playoff beards on players who haven't shaved since the regular season ended, and the thunderous noise of a series-clinching goal are all part of the experience.

The NHL uses a set bracket — seedings are locked once the playoffs begin and do not reseed after each round. This means the path to the Stanley Cup Final is determined on day one: a team knows exactly who they would face if they advance. Within each conference, the bracket keeps conference rivals on a collision course, preserving storied rivalries for later rounds.

One of hockey's most enduring traditions: after every playoff series, both teams line up at center ice and shake hands — a show of mutual respect after what was often a physically brutal series. The handshake happens even when bad blood has run high during the series. It is genuinely unique in professional sports and represents something of hockey's culture at its best.