What are the Rule Changes in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs vs. Regular Season?

The NHL is a bit of an odd duck as far as professional sports go.

They have a lot of unique rules and regulations in how they determine playoff seeding, as well as how they calculate points in the standings. Unlike most sports, the NHL differentiates between regulation wins and OT wins.

While this can be confusing for some that are new to the NHL, things get really wild when the Stanley Cup Playoffs start. 

Overtime hockey has always been one of the most exciting parts of North American sports. But the league tweaked the OT rules as they pertain to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year in order to make the game itself more exciting,

Let’s first go over how things are handled during the regular season when two teams are tied after three periods. The game goes to a five-minute OT where the first team to score wins. The OT period is played 3-on-3 a side, which was a rule change from the 2015-16 season. If any penalty occurs during 3-on-3 play, the team that goes on the power play gains a player instead of the other team losing one. If the team on the penalty kill commits a second penalty, then the game becomes 5-on-3. If no team scores, the game goes to a shootout with each team alternating players with three rounds to determine a winner. If no winner emerges, the shootout moves to sudden death rounds where the first missed round loses the game. 

However, the NHL amends these rules for Playoff games. For starters, if the game is tied after regulation, teams play another full 20-minute period of 5-on-5; extending the game instead of turning it into a 3-on-3 intramural version of hockey. This period is sudden death, so the first team to score wins. If the “fourth” period ends in a tie, the game continues with another 20-minute period with the same sudden death format until a winner emerges. There's no shootouts and no roster changes.

This was actually the way the NHL originally handled things back in the 1920s before completely changing things before the 1999 season. The shootout was added in 2005 while the 3-of-3 format was adopted in 2015.

How Does Betting the Puck Line Impact the Stanley Cup Playoffs

Once the game goes into overtime, bettors have cashed a winning ticket if they take the underdog on the puck line, given a favorite must win by more than 1.5 goals for that bet to cash.

With no 3-on-3 overtime period and shootout, teams may deplore a slightly different strategy late in the third period compared to the regular season.

Before you bet on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, be sure to check out BetSided's Iain MacMillan's "Stats to Know" so you can wager with confidence!