The 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2020–21 season. The playoffs began on May 15, 2021, and concluded on July 7, 2021, with the Tampa Bay Lightning winning their second consecutive and third overall Stanley Cup in franchise history, defeating the Montreal Canadiens four games to one in the Stanley Cup Finals. The playoffs were originally scheduled to begin a few days after the regular season concluded, but they began four days prior to the end of the regular season after the Vancouver Canucks had eleven games postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak.[1]
The league returned to the traditional 16-team playoff format with all series being best-of-seven, after using a 24-team format in 2020 due to the regular season being cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] Due to cross-border travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Canada, the league temporarily realigned this season into four divisions with no conferences. Consequently, the first two rounds of the playoffs featured intra-divisional matchups, with the higher seeded teams receiving home-ice advantage in those rounds. In the Stanley Cup semifinals, the four remaining teams (one from each division) were reseeded based on their regular season records. Both semifinal winners advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals. After initially stating that the Campbell and Wales trophies would not be awarded this season,[3] the league decided in June 2021 that the Montreal Canadiens and Vegas Golden Knights would play for the Campbell Bowl and the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning would play for the Wales Trophy.[4]
Although it was initially unknown whether the Canadian teams that qualified for the playoffs would be able to play in their home arenas after the second round, on June 6, it was announced that those teams would be allowed to play in their home arenas for the remainder of the playoffs.[5] In order to complete the playoffs in Canada, the League applied for a cross-border travel exemption with the Public Health Agency of Canada.[5] Prior to the announcement, there were some ideas of the Canadian team playing in a neutral NHL city in the US after the second round.[5][6]
The Colorado Avalanche made the playoffs as the Presidents' Trophy winners with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. The Pittsburgh Penguins increased their postseason appearance streak to 15 seasons. This became the longest active streak in the four major North American professional sports after the NBA's San Antonio Spurs missed the playoffs for the first time in 22 years.[7] For the second year in a row and third time overall since 1996, all California-based teams, the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks, missed the playoffs. For the first time since 1966, every team that qualified for the playoffs was also in the previous year's postseason. With all of the Canadian-based NHL teams in one division, the format for this season ensured that there would be a second round series between two Canadian-based teams for the first time since 2002.
For the first time since 1992, three of the previous year's semifinalists, the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights, returned to the round for a second consecutive season.
^"Canucks-Leafs games pushed back as NHL makes schedule changes". TSN.ca. Bell Media. April 16, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
^"NHL, NHLPA formally approve 56-game season". TSN.ca. Bell Media. December 20, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
^Cotsonika, Nicholas (May 14, 2021). "Stanley Cup Playoffs: Key questions, answers". NHL.com. NHL Enterprises, L. P. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
^"#NHLStats: Live Updates – June 10, 2021". media.nhl.com. June 10, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021. In addition to a spot in the Stanley Cup Final, the winner of the Golden Knights-Canadiens series will claim the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, while the Islanders-Lightning will battle for the Prince of Wales Trophy.
^ abc"Federal government grants NHL playoffs travel exemption". TSN.ca. Bell Media. June 6, 2021. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
^"Hope remains for NHL playoffs in Canadian cities, but U.S. bubble a possibility". Sportsnet.ca. Rogers Media. April 17, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
^Deffenbaugh, Gregory; WPXI.com (April 30, 2021). "Penguins continue playoff streak, longest in North American professional sports". WPXI. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
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