The Stanley Cup is the grandest prize in the National Hockey League and top honor in professional ice hockey. Throughout each season, teams play an 82-game regular season campaign in an effort to make the Stanley Cup playoffs in which the path to hockey greatness takes full form. Nursing the Cup from four demanding rounds of playoff action is regarded among the most challenging successes in sports; thus, the final round of qualifying is the toughest one in baseball.
The playoffs will be played in a seven-game series, and the first team to win four games will move on. Each round is the same length of time starting with the first round, second round, the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Finals. The team who gets the home ice advantage in the early rounds will be the team with the stronger regular season record, and the Stanley Cup Final will give home ice to the team with the better overall regular season record.
A shootout or shoot-out is not allowed during playoff play-offs. When the game is made up of a series of periodize sets and suddenly tied after regulation, teams shall play full sudden death overtime periods until a goal is scored to win the game. That makes for some of the biggest and longest matches in hockey history, and makes the pursuit of the Cup even more interesting.
It takes talent, consistency, resilience and team working over two grueling months of playoff hockey to win the Stanley Cup. Every win moves a team closer to sweeping up this iconic trophy, and marking their name in some way in hockey history, from the opening faceoff to the final victory and sweeps over the ice.
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