The National Hockey League‘s road map to the resumption of play became nearly crystal clear Tuesday afternoon. Commissioner Gary Bettman announced several key items, including the confirmation of the league’s 24-team playoff format.
It will see the top four teams in both conferences play in separate round-robin tournaments to determine seeding for the playoffs while the other eight teams will meet in a best-of-five “play-in” qualifying series to determine the final eight teams in both the East and West.
Bettman says the first- and second-round playoff matchups could be either best-of-five or best-of-seven series, but adds the conference finals and Stanley Cup final will be best-of-seven.