Sixteen teams, each one needing to win 16 games over four rounds of best-of-seven series to lift the Stanley Cup, has been the way the NHL decides its champion for nearly four decades. That isn’t changing any time soon.
The NHL is the only one of the major four North American professional sports leagues not to expand its playoffs in recent years. It is content with the current format and isn’t looking to add more teams, a play-in round or anything else amid plenty of discussion about doing so.
“We’re not giving any thought to expanding the playoffs,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said in advance of the playoffs, which begin Saturday. “We have no interest in it. What we have is working very well. When you look at how our playoffs play out, the number of six- and seven-game series, the competitiveness of it, nothing in anybody else’s playoffs rivals that.”
Man up for parole more than 2 decades after Dartmouth College professor stabbing deaths
Suki Waterhouse reveals the gender of her new baby while performing on
Rosario and Pinto homer off Snell in his return to Tropicana Field, Rays beat Giants 9
Tantalize your taste buds with Belt and Road cuisines!
Things to know as courts and legislatures act on transgender kids’ rights
Justin Turner gets 3 RBIs, Blue Jays hold Rockies to 2 hits in 5
Cultural industry can better tell China story
Research Center for Archaeology of Yan Culture founded in Beijing
How you CAN go on safari on a budget: From gorillas in Uganda to South African elephants
Defending champion Nuggets finish second in West, beating Grizzlies 126
Man charged in transport of Masters golf tournament memorabilia taken from Augusta National
Pic story of U.S. singer with Chinese songs