NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the regular season is over and when play resumes there will be a 24-team tournament to determine a champion.
Each conference is sending 12 teams to the tournament, but how did they decide which 12 teams? Not every team has played the same amount of games so using straight points isn’t fair.
The NHL instead used a points percentage formula for games completed when the season paused.
So that has some tweaks to the NHL standings.
Here are the Western Conference Standings, with points percentage.
1. St. Louis Blues - .662
2. Colorado Avalanche - .657
3. Vegas Golden Knights - .606
4. Dallas Stars - .594
5. Edmonton Oilers - .585
6. Nashville Predators - .565
7. Vancouver Canucks - .565
8. Calgary Flames - .564
9. Winnipeg Jets - .563
10. Minnesota Wild - .558
11. Arizona Coyotes - .529
12. Chicago Blackhawks - .514
And here are the Eastern Conference standings, with points percentage.
NHL
1. Boston Bruins - .714
2. Tampa Bay Lightning - .657
3. Washington Capitals - .652
4. Philadelphia Flyers - .645
5. Pittsburgh Penguins - .623
6. Carolina Hurricanes - .596
7. New York Islanders - .588
8. Toronto Maple Leafs - .579
9. Columbus Blue Jackets - .579
10. Florida Panthers - .565
11. New York Rangers - .564
12. Montreal Canadiens - .500
The top four teams from each conference will play in a round robin tournament to determine seeding. The lower eight teams in each conference will play a best-of-5 qualifying series.
Here are those match ups.
Western Conference – Best-of-5 Qualifying Round
#5 Edmonton Oilers vs. #12 Chicago Blackhawks
#6 Nashville Predators vs. #11 Arizona Coyotes
#7 Vancouver Canucks vs. #10 Minnesota Wild
#8 Calgary Flames vs. #9 Winnipeg Jets
Eastern Conference – Best-of-5 Qualifying Round
#5 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #12 Montreal Canadiens
#6 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #11 New York Rangers
#7 New York Islanders vs. #10 Florida Panthers
#8 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. #9 Columbus Blue Jackets