What is the Intricate NHL Playoff scheduling?

Question

I need to buy tix for playoff games and the tix go on sale on 4/6. I would naturally buy whatever but I cannot since I go to school 300 miles from my fav. team. So i need to know when each game will fall because i can only go if it is a weekend game. I figure if my team is a top seed they will get games 1,2,5,7 @ home. So the season ends April 8th. I think in the past the first playoff game is 3 days after the season ends with 8 teams playing and then the other 8 start the next day. So that makes it a Wednesday and thursday start dates. Can anyone confirm this? Also, it appears that games have intervals of 1 day between them except for a few games at the end of the series, which i cant figure out a pattern to. So I figure if my team is a top seed I can for sure attend game 2(fri/sat). If they are a lower seed, I would have to bet that there would not be a 2 day break in the series and that they would play game 6@home Sat/Sun. Does anyone have superior knowledge to the system?

Answer 1

You got it mostly figured out. Yes, games start Wednesday April 11th. They should schedule a game every second day. The reality though is the biggest unknown is arena availability. They sometimes shift schedules based on the home arenas being booked. This is especially true in arena that also host NBA basketball teams who also start their playoffs. It also seems to me teams in the south or haven't made the playoffs for a couple years, etc. tend to have more scheduling problems. But it can happen to the best of them. If you are doing that much planning I would check the venue to see if they have concerts or other things booked.

So what happens is if the average is a game every second day - they all end in about 14 days. They get a "must finish the series by date" and a date that the next series starts. If you have scheduling problems and stretch out the beginning games, that is when they cram in all those end games with no break and just hope they finish off the opposition by then.


The other factors are US TV. They tend to slip some games to be Saturday and Sunday so the game can be ignored by US TV. If it is 2 US teams matching up, you are more likely to run into this.

Good luck. I live about 5 hours away from Vancouver. I have to take a ferry, so it is an overnight trip. I will try to get tickets, BUT it will be next to impossible. If I get anything I will be happy and fit my schedule to fit theirs.

So my bet is game 2 is Saturday, and game 5 is the following weekend.

But if you are looking for SJ tickets, you do realize they currently DON'T have home ice advantage? That would currently go to Nashville. And you might be thinking SJ has what it takes to move up in the final couple of days, but it might not be a priority for them. I would say 3 teams are racing for the number 4 position so their chances are 1/3.

Answer 2

OK game 1 and then game 2 on following days. Then you get a travel day. Game 3,4 on consecutive days. Travel day. Between each game where you go to the other city there is usually a travel day. That will get you through round one easily. Round 2 though you have to wait until all the teams are done before they can start the next round, still use the same system though.