The NHL season resumes Saturday after months of uncertainty with a unique 24-team playoff that will take place over the next several weeks in two hub cities in Canada.
The season was suspended on March 12 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. With 187 regular season games left to be played, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had to come up with a plan that was competitive enough that the players would be on board with.
The result was a 24-team playoff that would see the top four teams in each conference compete in a round robin tournament for seeding while the remaining 8 teams compete in a best-of-five qualifier round to determine who will move on to the first round. The seeding for these rounds were made based off of points percentage when the season was paused.
The Eastern Conference teams will play at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto while the Western Conference will play at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
For the teams that drop after the qualifiers, they will have the chance to win the first overall draft pick.
The usual playoff format will resume after the first round, the only difference being that there is no bracket. The teams will be reseeded each round.
