It’s been long, hard-fought season for the 32 teams of the National Hockey League (NHL), and for half of them, it will soon come to an end with the conclusion regular season. For the top 16, however, there’s bonus hockey in the cards: the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.
Here’s your guide to catching all of the NHL playoffs action, plus a look at how the field of contenders is shaping up.
Watch NHL with DIRECTV’s New Genre Pack, MySports.
When Do the NHL Playoffs Start?
The 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin on Saturday, April 19, 2025, following the end of the 2024-25 NHL regular season on Thursday, April 17, 2025.
The latest possible day the playoffs will end is June 23, 2025.
How to Watch the 2025 NHL Playoffs
You can catch every post-ringing, glove-slinging, board-crashing moment of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on DIRECTV on the following networks:
- REGIONAL SPORTS LINEUP (Check local listings)
- TNT – Channel 245
- ESPN – Channel 206
- ABC – Find your local ABC affiliate channel here
- NHL Network – Channel 215
- NHL Center Ice (Satellite customers only)
NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Picture (April 15, 2025)
So, which teams are expected to make the playoffs this season? And which team is expected to go all the way to bring the Stanley Cup home?
Here’s what the first-round bracket would look like if the season were to end right now:
Eastern Conference Playoff Bracket
- Toronto Maple Leafs (Atlantic 1, 104 points, clinched) vs. Ottawa Senators (Wild Card 1, 94 points, clinched)
- Tampa Bay Lightning (Atlantic 2, 100 points, clinched) vs. Florida Panthers (Atlantic 3, 98 points Defending Champion, clinched)
- Washington Capitals (Metropolitan 1, 109 points, clinched) vs. Montreal Canadiens (Wild Card 2, 88 points)
- Carolina Hurricanes (Metropolitan 3, 99 points, clinched) vs. New Jersey Devils (Metropolitan 3, 89 points, clinched)
- The Columbus Blue Jackets are also still technically in contention for a Wild Card spot. They must win all of their remaining games to have a chance.
Western Conference Playoff Bracket
- Vegas Golden Knights (Pacific 1, clinched) vs. Minnesota Wild (Wild Card 1)
- LA Kings (Pacific 2, clinched) vs. Edmonton Oilers (Pacific 3, clinched)
- Winnipeg Jets (Central 1, President’s Trophy Winner, clinched) vs. St. Louis Blues (Wild Card 2)
- Dallas Stars (Central 2, clinched) vs. Colorado Avalanche (Central 3, clinched)
- The Calgary Flames also still remain in contention for a Wild Card spot. They’d need to win their final two games, and either the Wild or Blues would need to lose their last regular season matchups on Tuesday for the Flames to sneak in.
2025 NHL Playoffs Schedule
Watch as all these teams take to the ice during the Stanley Cup Finals. Find the full NHL Playoffs schedule by clicking the link below!
Favorites to Win 2025 Stanley Cup (as of April 15, 2025)
Right now, the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers (last year’s Stanley Cup winner) are tied as the favorites to win the Stanley Cup Final, according to most major sports betting sites.
Those two teams are followed closely by the Carolina Hurricanes, the Vegas Golden Knights, the Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers — last year’s Stanley Cup Final runners-up.
Despite clinching the President’s Trophy as the team with the best regular season record in the NHL after an absolutely dominant season, the Winnipeg Jets are a bit further down the odds, as are the Washington Capitals, who were also in the running for the President’s Trophy and have Alex Ovechkin, now the top scorer in NHL history, on their roster.
How do the NHL Playoffs Work?
The Stanley Cup playoffs span three elimination rounds of four to seven games each between qualifying teams, culminating in the Stanley Cup Final between the Western and Eastern Conference champions.
The winner of the Stanley Cup Final earns the honor of hoisting the coveted and massive Stanley Cup.
Seeding & Bracket
In total, 16 teams will make it to the playoffs. The top three teams from each of the Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central and Pacific divisions automatically qualify, and the four other playoff spots are awarded to the next two highest-ranking teams by regular season record in each conference, no matter which division they’re drawn from. Those teams are known as “wild cards.”
Playoff teams are then seeded based on their regular season point totals. Teams earn the following points during the regular season:
- 2 points for a regulation win
- 1 point for an overtime loss/tie
- 0 points for a regulation loss
If there’s a tie, there’s a series of tiebreaking statistics that are examined to determine which has the right to the higher seed.
If that still doesn’t break the tie, the two teams are pitted against each other in a game, and the winner gets home-ice advantage.
Series
The rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs are played as best-of-seven series between the two teams. The higher seeded team gets home-ice advantage for the first two games, then visits their opponent for the next two. After that, they alternate locations if more games are necessary with the higher seed hosting games 5 and 7.
In the first round, the top seeded team from each conference plays the lowest seeded wild card team in their conference, and the other wild card team plays the winner of the other division in the conference. The second- and third-seeded teams in each division play each other.
First-round winners move on to play the other divisional winners in their conference, and the winners of those series go to the Conference Finals. Then, conference champions play each other for the Cup.
Overtime Rules
In the regular season, games that end after three periods in a tie go into three-on-three overtime. If no winner emerges from the overtime round, a shootout is held to determine the winner.
The same can’t be said for the NHL playoffs: if a game goes to overtime, additional 20-minute periods are added until one team scores. This means playoffs games could get very, very long. The longest playoff game ever occurred in 1934 between the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens, going to six overtimes. Yep: the overtime for that game was longer than the regulation play itself.
In recent years, a game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Columbus Blue Jackets went to five overtimes in 2020, and a game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers in 2023 went to four overtimes.
History of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
The Stanley Cup is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, who was the Governor General of Canada at the time it was commissioned in 1892. Preston gave it to Canada’s top-ranked amateur ice hockey team. The trophy was passed to the team with the best record at the end of each season.
In subsequent years, the Cup was passed between the emergent National Hockey League and its rivals in the Western Canada Hockey until 1926, when the NHL took sole possession of the trophy.
Today, the Stanley Cup is the ultimate prize for a professional hockey player. Teams who win the cup have their member’s names engraved on the bands that run around it, which are periodically removed and enshrined to make room for new engravings. It’s the oldest sports trophy in North American sports.
Stanley Cup Winners by Year (2000 – Present)
Wondering the last time your team took home the Cup? Here are the Stanley Cup winners from 2000 to today.
2024: Florida Panthers
2023: Vegas Golden Knights
2022: Colorado Avalanche
2021: Tampa Bay Lightning
2020: Tampa Bay Lightning
2019: St. Louis Blues
2018: Washington Capitals
2017: Pittsburgh Penguins
2016: Pittsburgh Penguins
2015: Chicago Blackhawks
2014: Los Angeles Kings
2013: Chicago Blackhawks
2012: Los Angeles Kings
2011: Boston Bruins
2010: Chicago Blackhawks
2009: Pittsburgh Penguins
2008: Detroit Red Wings
2007: Anaheim Ducks
2006: Carolina Hurricanes
2005: No season played
2004: Tampa Bay Lightning
2003: New Jersey Devils
2002: Detroit Red Wings
2001: Colorado Avalanche
2000: New Jersey Devils
Most Stanley Cup Wins & Appearances by Team
- Montreal Canadiens – 24 wins in 33 appearances
- Toronto Maple Leafs – 13 wins in 21 appearances
- Detroit Red Wings – 11 wins in 24 appearances
- Boston Bruins – 6 wins in 20 appearances
- Chicago Blackhawks – 6 wins in 13 appearances
What is the President’s Trophy?
The President’s Trophy is the trophy awarded to the team that finishes the regular season with the highest total points. Last year, the New York Rangers won the President’s Trophy. This year, they failed to make the playoffs.
Has the President’s Trophy Winner Ever Won the Stanley Cup?
Only eight teams have won the President’s Trophy and gone on to dominate the playoffs, too: the 1986-87 Edmonton Oilers led by NHL legend Wayne Gretzky were the first, followed by the 88-89 Calgary Flames, the 93-94 New York Rangers, the 98-99 Dallas Stars, 00-01 Colorado Avalanche, the 01-02 Detroit Red Wings, the 07-08 Detroit Red Wings and 12-13 Chicago Blackhawks.
Watch NHL Hockey on DIRECTV
Don’t miss a moment of the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Sign up for DIRECTV today.
DIRECTV Insider brings you our views on what’s happening in streaming, t.v., movies and sports. Companies and persons mentioned are not necessarily associated with and do not necessarily endorse DIRECTV. We will disclose sponsored content on our site when we show it to you, and some of the links on the site may be ads or affiliate links which means DIRECTV may earn compensation from your purchases.
