A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | April 15–June 12, 2009 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Defending champions | Detroit Red Wings |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Runner-up | Detroit Red Wings |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Scoring leader(s) | Evgeni Malkin (Penguins) (36 points) |
| MVP | Evgeni Malkin (Penguins) |
The 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League began on April 15, 2009, after the 2008–09 regular season. The sixteen teams that qualified, eight from each conference (the winner of each of the three divisions plus the five teams with highest point totals from the teams remaining), played a best-of-seven series for the conference quarterfinals, semifinals, and championships, and then the conference champions played a best-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup. The Columbus Blue Jackets made their first appearance in the playoffs in their nine-year history. Previously they had been the only franchise never to have made the playoffs. Also, home teams set a record by going 13–2 in the openers of all the series combined. There were no playoff games played in the Province of Ontario as this was the first time that the modern Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs both missed the playoffs in the same year. This was the most recent time that the Carolina Hurricanes were in the playoffs until 2019.
The Stanley Cup Finals ended on June 12, 2009, with the Pittsburgh Penguins defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to three to win their 3rd Stanley Cup championship in franchise history. They became just the second team, after the 1970–71 Montreal Canadiens, to win the championship after losing the first two games of the series on the road.[1]
Playoff seeds
The top eight teams in each conference qualified for the playoffs. The top three seeds in each conference were awarded to the division winners; while the five remaining spots were awarded to the highest finishers in their respective conferences.
Eastern Conference
- Boston Bruins, Northeast Division champions, Eastern Conference regular season champions – 116 points
- Washington Capitals, Southeast Division champions – 108 points
- New Jersey Devils, Atlantic Division champions – 106 points
- Pittsburgh Penguins – 99 points (45 wins)
- Philadelphia Flyers – 99 points (44 wins)
- Carolina Hurricanes – 97 points
- New York Rangers – 95 points
- Montreal Canadiens – 93 points
Western Conference
- San Jose Sharks, Pacific Division champions, Western Conference regular season champions, President's Trophy winners – 117 points
- Detroit Red Wings, Central Division champions – 112 points
- Vancouver Canucks, Northwest Division champions – 100 points
- Chicago Blackhawks – 104 points
- Calgary Flames – 98 points
- St. Louis Blues – 92 points (41 wins, 8 points head-to-head vs. Columbus)
- Columbus Blue Jackets – 92 points (41 wins, 2 points head-to-head vs. St. Louis)
- Anaheim Ducks – 91 points
Playoff bracket
In each round, the highest remaining seed in each conference was matched against the lowest remaining seed. The higher-seeded team is awarded home ice advantage, which gave them a possible maximum of four games on their home ice, with the lower-seeded team getting a possible maximum of three. In the Stanley Cup Finals, home ice is determined based on regular season points. Each best-of-seven series followed a 2–2–1–1–1 format. This meant that the higher-seeded team had home ice for games one and two, and if necessary, five and seven, while the lower-seeded team had home ice for games three, four and, if necessary, six.
| Conference quarterfinals | Conference semifinals | Conference finals | Stanley Cup Finals | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Boston | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Montreal | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Boston | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Carolina | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Washington | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | NY Rangers | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Carolina | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | New Jersey | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Carolina | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Washington | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Philadelphia | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| E4 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| W2 | Detroit | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | San Jose | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Anaheim | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Detroit | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Anaheim | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Detroit | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Columbus | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Detroit | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Western Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Chicago | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Vancouver | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 6 | St. Louis | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Vancouver | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Chicago | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Chicago | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Calgary | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
Conference quarterfinals
Eastern Conference quarterfinals
(1) Boston Bruins vs. (8) Montreal Canadiens
For an NHL-record 32nd time, the Bruins and Canadiens faced each other in the playoffs. The Boston Bruins entered the playoffs after finishing the regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference with 116 points. The Montreal Canadiens qualified for the postseason as the eighth seed with 93 points, winning the tiebreaker over the Florida Panthers based on the season series (six points to three).
Boston swept Montreal, four games to none, scoring at least four goals in each win. With the score tied 2–2 entering the third period of game one, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara scored a power play goal at 11:15 and Phil Kessel added an empty net score in the closing seconds to clinch the victory.[2] Boston scored three power play goals, including two from Marc Savard, en route to a 5–1 victory in game two.[3] Game three resembled game one in that both teams fought to a 2–2 tie midway through the game, but like the first contest the Bruins scored the go-ahead winning goal again. This time it was Michael Ryder at 17:21 in the second period.[4] Montreal scored in the first minute of game four off the stick of Andrei Kostitsyn, but Boston went on to dominate the rest of the game, grabbing two goals from Ryder in a 4–1 victory, to win the series.[5]
| April 16 | Montreal Canadiens | 2–4 | Boston Bruins | TD Banknorth Garden | Recap | |||
| Chris Higgins (1) – 16:19 | First period | 13:11 – Phil Kessel (1) 14:41 – David Krejci (1) | ||||||
| Alexei Kovalev (1) – 17:37 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 11:15 – pp – Zdeno Chara (1) 19:46 – en – Phil Kessel (2) | ||||||
| Carey Price 35 saves / 38 shots | Goalie stats | Tim Thomas 26 saves / 28 shots | ||||||
| April 18 | Montreal Canadiens | 1–5 | Boston Bruins | TD Banknorth Garden | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | 09:59 – pp – Marc Savard (1) 15:12 – Chuck Kobasew (1) | ||||||
| Alexei Kovalev (2) – 00:46 | Second period | 05:45 – Shane Hnidy (1) 08:13 – pp – Marc Savard (2) 19:57 – pp – Michael Ryder (1) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Carey Price 21 saves / 26 shots Jaroslav Halak 5 saves / 5 shots |
Goalie stats | Tim Thomas 30 saves / 31 shots | ||||||
| April 20 | Boston Bruins | 4–2 | Montreal Canadiens | Bell Centre | Recap | |||
| Phil Kessel (3) – 18:35 | First period | 11:52 – Chris Higgins (2) | ||||||
| Shawn Thornton (1) – 03:36 Michael Ryder (2) – 17:21 |
Second period | 05:16 – Yannick Weber (1) | ||||||
| Chuck Kobasew (2) – en – 19:23 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Tim Thomas 23 saves / 25 shots | Goalie stats | Carey Price 26 saves / 29 shots | ||||||
| April 22 | Boston Bruins | 4–1 | Montreal Canadiens | Bell Centre | Recap | |||
| Michael Ryder (3) – 17:27 David Krejci (2) – 19:25 |
First period | 00:39 – Andrei Kostitsyn (1) | ||||||
| Phil Kessel (4) – 11:58 Michael Ryder (4) – 12:43 |
Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Tim Thomas 26 saves / 27 shots | Goalie stats | Carey Price 26 saves / 30 shots | ||||||
| Boston won series 4–0 | |
(2) Washington Capitals vs. (7) New York Rangers
The Washington Capitals entered the playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern Conference after winning the Southeast Division with 108 points. The New York Rangers earned the seventh seed with 95 points. The teams met in the playoffs four times previously, with each winning two series. They last met in the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals, which the Rangers won in five games.
The Capitals overcame a three games to one deficit to win the series. The Rangers won the first game by a 4–3 score, with Brandon Dubinsky scoring the game winner at 11:43 in the third period.[6] Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau benched starting goaltender Jose Theodore and replaced him with Semyon Varlamov for game two, after Theodore allowed four goals on just 21 shots.[7] The goaltending change was not immediately effective as New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 35 Washington shots to give the Rangers a 1–0 victory (with Ryan Callahan providing the only tally) in the following game.[7] Varlamov responded in game three by stopping all 33 Ranger shots, and Alexander Semin scored two goals, to lead the Capitals to a 4–0 victory.[8] However, Lundqvist stopped 38 of 39 shots, including 10 of 11 from the stick of Alexander Ovechkin, to give the Rangers a 2–1 victory in game four.[9] The Capitals limited the Rangers to just 20 shots to win 4–0 in Game five. Fourth liner Matt Bradley scored two goals in the game and Lundquist was pulled after allowing four goals on 14 shots.[10] Washington erupted in game six to score five goals, including powerplay markers from Mike Green and Ovechkin, for a 5–3 victory.[11] After game six, the league suspended Capitals forward Donald Brashear for both a pre-game altercation with Rangers forward Colton Orr and what was ruled to be a late hit on Blair Betts, in which the Rangers center suffered an orbital eye socket fracture.[12] Sergei Fedorov scored the game-winning goal 15:01 into the third period in game seven to give the Capitals a 2–1 victory and eliminate the Rangers for their first playoff series victory since reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998.[13]
| April 15 | New York Rangers | 4–3 | Washington Capitals | Verizon Center | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Scott Gomez (1) – 07:49 Nik Antropov (1) – pp – 16:49 Markus Naslund (1) – pp – 18:28 |
Second period | 06:40 – pp – Tomas Fleischmann (1) 19:11 – Viktor Kozlov (1) | ||||||
| Brandon Dubinsky (1) – 11:43 | Third period | 01:42 – pp – Alexander Semin (1) | ||||||
| Henrik Lundqvist 32 saves / 35 shots | Goalie stats | Jose Theodore 17 saves / 21 shots | ||||||
| April 18 | New York Rangers | 1–0 | Washington Capitals | Verizon Center | Recap | |||
| Ryan Callahan (1) – 07:44 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Henrik Lundqvist 35 saves / 35 shots | Goalie stats | Semyon Varlamov 23 saves / 24 shots | ||||||
| April 20 | Washington Capitals | 4–0 | New York Rangers | Madison Square Garden | Recap | |||
| Alexander Semin (2) – 06:57 Alexander Semin (3) – 11:36 |
First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Brooks Laich (1) – pp – 11:29 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| Tom Poti (1) – pp – 18:35 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Semyon Varlamov 33 saves / 33 shots | Goalie stats | Henrik Lundqvist 36 saves / 40 shots | ||||||