NHL field locked in

All 16 National Hockey League playoff spots are filled, and the last two days of the regular season are now about who opens at home and who draws the hardest first-round matchup. (nhl.com; cbssports.com) The league’s 1,312-game regular season ends Thursday, April 16, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin Saturday, April 18. Pittsburgh versus Philadelphia is already locked in as the Eastern Conference’s Battle of Pennsylvania, with the Penguins holding home-ice advantage after clinching second place in the Metropolitan Division. (nhl.com; nhl.com) In the East, Buffalo has already secured first place in the Atlantic Division with 108 points, while Tampa Bay and Montreal were tied at 106 points in the race for second and third entering the final stretch. Carolina had also clinched the conference’s top seed at 111 points, setting up a first-round series against the second wild card. (cbssports.com; nhl.com) In the West, Colorado had already wrapped up the Presidents’ Trophy with 115 points, and Dallas and Minnesota were lined up behind the Avalanche in the Central Division. The unsettled piece was the Pacific and wild-card mix, where Vegas, Edmonton, Anaheim, Utah and Los Angeles were still sorting out who would avoid Colorado in Round 1. (nhl.com; cbssports.com) The National Hockey League’s playoff format is division-heavy: the top three teams in each division qualify automatically, then each conference adds two wild cards. The division winner with the better record faces the lower wild card, and the other division winner faces the higher wild card. (nhl.com; cbssports.com) That format makes a one-point swing matter. On April 15, Anaheim had 89 points in 79 games, Utah had 90 in 79, and Los Angeles had 87 in 79, so a single win or overtime loss could change whether a team opens against Vegas, Edmonton or Colorado. (nhl.com; cbssports.com) The tiebreakers are narrow and specific: regulation wins come first, then regulation-and-overtime wins. That gives teams an extra reason to push for a 60-minute win instead of settling for overtime late in the season. (cbssports.com) This bracket also carries a few longer arcs. Philadelphia reached the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20, and Pittsburgh returned for the first time since 2021-22, turning a division finish into the first postseason meeting between the rivals since 2018. (nhl.com) By Thursday night, the standings page becomes the bracket. The field is set; the only thing left is to decide who gets home ice, and who gets Colorado. (nhl.com; nhl.com)