2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs
The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs 2020 is set to premiere in early August. The regular season was primarily suspended in March. Nonetheless, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are finally starting on August 1st, with about 24 out of 31 teams.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs is a well-known elimination tournament in NHL (National Hockey League). The playoffs comprise about four rounds based on the best of 7 series. Just like the NBA bubble in Florida, the NHL playoffs will recommence the play in two metropolitan cities.
Teams qualified for the playoffs
Out of each of the conferences, the best four teams will play the round-robin games. These include Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, the Boston Bruins, and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the East, and Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, and St. Louis Blues in the west.
The above-mentioned teams will play for building seeding for the upcoming playoffs rounds. The rest of the 16 teams, on the other hand, will pair up to play for the best-of-five qualifier series. Note that the last seven frozen standings teams were eliminated from the playoffs and can proceed to play their golf games.
You can follow up on the matchups in the West and East to track the progress of the qualifier series. The best eight best-of-seven series will then pair up with the eight qualifier series winners for the preceding playoffs rounds.
Important dates of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
Every team has to play an exhibition game prior to the onset of the tournaments. As previously stated, the best-of-seven series qualifiers will compete with the best-of-five series qualifiers. Read ahead to know about the important dates that you shouldn’t miss out on.
2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs Schedule
- The exhibition games will commence from July 28th to July 30th.
- The qualifying rounds will begin on August 1st.
- The round-robin will take place on August 2nd.
- The first round begins on August 11th.
- The preceding tentative round begins on August 25th.
- The Tentative conference final series will take place from September 8th.
- The tentative Stanley Cup Final begins on September 22nd.
- The last day of the Stanley Cup Finals is October 4th.
Process of the seeding
Coming to the process of the seeding, it will revolve around the point percentages. The best 12 teams from Western and Eastern conferences account for the 24-team field.
The East’s fourth seed is The Flyers. They will contest with The Bruins, The capitals, and the Lightning. These teams will compete in a round-robin match for analyzing the best four seeds in the initial round. Furthermore, these four teams will compete against one another, and the seeds will be evaluated through the total points.
If any of these teams accomplish the same points in the round-robin tournament, the tie-breaker will be determined by the NHL’s regular-season points.
East’s Qualifying-Round Pairs
- Penguins (No. 5) vs. Canadiens (No. 12)
- Rangers (No. 11) vs. Hurricanes (No. 6)
- Maple Leafs (No. 8) vs. Blue Jackets (No. 9)
- Islanders (No. 7) vs. Panthers (No. 10)
East’s seeds through regular-season points percentages playing as the qualifiers
- Bruins
- Lightning
- Capitals
- Penguins
- Flyers
- Maple Leafs
- Islanders
- Hurricanes
- Panthers
- Canadiens
- Panthers
- Blue Jacket
Which team will play the initial round?
The Flyers will play the first-round tournament. However, they can jump to the East’s No. 1 spot during the round-robin. Nonetheless, they aren’t allowed to slide lower than their respective No. 4 seed that is heading to the 1st round.
Moreover, they also had the chance to view any one of the eight qualifying round teams based on the way the round-robin unfolds and how the series shakes out.
Due to the commendable run before the suspension, The Flyers managed to get an unbeatable edge over the game. Before the round paused, the Flyers Sucre duly won 9 out of 10 games and scored 19-6-1.
Where can I stream the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
US citizens can directly stream the playoffs on national channels- NBC, USA Network, and NBCSN. The NHL Network also aims to announce the seven round-robin and qualifier-round games. Furthermore, the NHL.TV plans on streaming 21 qualifier games live at affordable costs of $3.99 and $4.99 for single team pass and all-access pass, respectively.
RSN (Regional Sports Network) gives users access to view the local games. International users can make use of several other online platforms based on their residential region. A few online streaming platforms that will be streaming the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs include FuboTV, Sling TV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, and AT&T TB Now.
Wrapping it up
Don’t forget to check the above-mentioned sites to stream the Stanley Cup Playoffs 2020. With so many brilliant teams competing against each other, the 2020 NHL playoffs are going to be worth the wait.
