NHL Playoff Seeding And Re-Seeding Rules

With the opening round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the books, the list of Stanley Cup suitors has officially been halved from sixteen teams to a remaining eight. The next question is who plays who in the next round, and why.

The NHL relies on reseeding to pair opponents beyond the postseason's preliminary round. This process sets top teams in each of the four divisions against wildcard recipients and matches second and third place finishers in their respective division against each other. The survivorwinner of the these two series will play each other in the second round, with winners from each of the four divisional brackets battle in their respective Conference Final, with victors skating in the Stanley Cup Final.

Home ice advantage in each best-of-seven series belongs to the team with the most regular season points. When teams have the same number of regular season points, tiebreaker rules are employed.

The beauty of reseeding is it rewards regular season strength amongst divisional teams. Underdogs never shed their skin, forced to play through higher finishing teams to advance, whereas top dogs always enjoy an extra game at home.

Unfortunately, the current reseeding system disadvantages divisions with strong teams, forcing them to play each other when weaker teams reside elsewhere in the conference. As an example, the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division finished the regular season 1st, 2nd and 4th overall in the NHL. Yet, the 2nd and 4th regular season finishers (Pittsburgh & Columbus) played in the opening round and the 1st and 2nd overall finishers are meeting in the second round (Washington & Pittsburgh). Meanwhile, the Atlantic Division's second round matchup features the 9th and 12th best regular season teams (New York Rangers & Ottawa).

So yes, the regular season does count for something but the current playoff format doesn't necessarily yield the easiest path for top finishers.

* See also NHL Tiebreaker Rules and Playoff Seeding.