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 12–June 11, 2017 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Defending champions | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Runner-up | Nashville Predators |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Scoring leader(s) | Evgeni Malkin (Penguins) (28 points) |
| MVP | Sidney Crosby (Penguins) |
The 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2016–17 regular season. They began on April 12, 2017, after the regular season, and they concluded on June 11, 2017, with the Pittsburgh Penguins defeating the Nashville Predators four games to two in the Finals to win the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year.
The Washington Capitals qualified for the playoffs as the Presidents' Trophy winners for the second consecutive year with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. The Detroit Red Wings failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 1989–90 season, ending the NHL's and the Major North American Sports longest active playoff streak at 25 consecutive seasons; the streak was also tied for the third-longest streak in NHL history. The San Antonio Spurs of the NBA now owned the longest playoffs streak at 20 years in Major North American Sports.[1] The longest active playoff streak was assumed by the Penguins with eleven consecutive appearances.[2] The Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs for the first time since 2006, ending a then-record-tying playoff drought for a team with ten years missed (the Florida Panthers also missed the playoffs between 2001 and 2011 inclusively. Buffalo set the record in 2022 missing eleven consecutive postseasons).[3] For the first time since 2006, both Alberta teams, the Oilers and the Calgary Flames, qualified for the postseason in the same year. For the first time since 2013, and the fourth time since 2002, all three Eastern Canadian teams (Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Maple Leafs) qualified for the playoffs. In all, five Canadian-based teams made the playoffs, matching 2004 and 2015, after a season in which none of the seven teams in Canada contended. Five Original Six teams made the playoffs, with only the previously mentioned Red Wings failing to make it.
The first round saw eighteen overtime games, eclipsing the previous record of seventeen overtime games in the first round set in 2013.[4][5] There were 27 total overtime games in these playoffs, one short of the record set in 1993. It was also the first time since 2001 that no first round series went the full seven games.
For the eighth season in a row (and the twelfth time in the last fourteen seasons), a California-based team was advanced to the Western Conference final.[6]
Playoff seeds
This was the fourth year in which the top three teams in each division make the playoffs, along with two wild cards in each conference (for a total of eight playoff teams from each conference).
The following teams qualified for the playoffs:[7]
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
- Montreal Canadiens, Atlantic Division champions – 103 points
- Ottawa Senators – 98 points
- Boston Bruins – 95 points (42 ROWs)
Metropolitan Division
- Washington Capitals, Metropolitan Division champions, Eastern Conference regular season champions, Presidents' Trophy winners – 118 points
- Pittsburgh Penguins – 111 points
- Columbus Blue Jackets – 108 points
Wild cards
- New York Rangers – 102 points
- Toronto Maple Leafs – 95 points (39 ROWs)
Western Conference
Central Division
- Chicago Blackhawks, Central Division champions, Western Conference regular season champions – 109 points
- Minnesota Wild – 106 points
- St. Louis Blues – 99 points
Pacific Division
- Anaheim Ducks, Pacific Division champions – 105 points
- Edmonton Oilers – 103 points
- San Jose Sharks – 99 points
Wild cards
- Calgary Flames – 94 points (41 ROWs)
- Nashville Predators – 94 points (39 ROWs)
Playoff bracket
In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series following a 2–2–1–1–1 format (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series). The team with home ice advantage played at home for games one and two (and games five and seven, if necessary), and the other team was at home for games three and four (and game six, if necessary). The top three teams in each division made the playoffs, along with two wild cards in each conference, for a total of eight teams from each conference.
In the first round, the lower seeded wild card in the conference played against the division winner with the best record while the other wild card played against the other division winner, and both wild cards were de facto #4 seeds. The other series matched the second and third place teams from the divisions. In the first two rounds, home ice advantage was awarded to the team with the better seed; in the last two rounds, it was awarded to the team that had the better regular season record.
| First round | Second round | Conference finals | Stanley Cup Finals | ||||||||||||||||
| A1 | Montreal | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | NY Rangers | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | NY Rangers | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| A2 | Ottawa | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| A2 | Ottawa | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| A3 | Boston | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| A2 | Ottawa | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| M2 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| M1 | Washington | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Toronto | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| M1 | Washington | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| M2 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| M2 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| M3 | Columbus | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| M2 | Pittsburgh | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Nashville | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| C1 | Chicago | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Nashville | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Nashville | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| C3 | St. Louis | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | Minnesota | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| C3 | St. Louis | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Nashville | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Western Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Anaheim | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Anaheim | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Calgary | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Anaheim | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| P2 | Edmonton | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| P2 | Edmonton | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| P3 | San Jose | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
- Legend
- A1, A2, A3 – The first, second, and third place teams from the Atlantic Division, respectively
- M1, M2, M3 – The first, second, and third place teams from the Metropolitan Division, respectively
- C1, C2, C3 – The first, second, and third place teams from the Central Division, respectively
- P1, P2, P3 – The first, second, and third place teams from the Pacific Division, respectively
- WC – Wild Card teams
First round
Eastern Conference first round
(A1) Montreal Canadiens vs. (WC1) New York Rangers
The Montreal Canadiens finished first in the Atlantic Division earning 103 points. The New York Rangers finished as the Eastern Conference's first wild-card, earning 102 points. This was the sixteenth playoff meeting between these two teams with New York winning eight of the fifteen previous series. They last met in the 2014 Eastern Conference final, which New York won in six games. Montreal won all three games in this year's regular-season series.
The Rangers eliminated the Canadiens in six games. In the first game of the series, Tanner Glass and Michael Grabner scored the only goals of the games as the Rangers won the game 2–0 on Henrik Lundqvist's 31-save shutout.[8] In game two, the Canadiens tied the game with 18 seconds left, then in overtime, Alexander Radulov pushed it past the Rangers' goaltender to give Montreal a 4–3 victory.[9] Radulov continued his scoring into game three, getting a goal and an assist to help the Canadiens achieve a 3–1 victory.[10] The Rangers ended a six-game home-losing streak after game four, winning 2–1 over the Canadiens to tie the series 2–2.[11] Mika Zibanejad got the overtime-winner for the Rangers in game five after Chris Kreider deflected a pass off of Canadiens defenceman Alexei Emelin, landing towards the forward who put it past goaltender Carey Price in a 3–2 win.[12] Mats Zuccarello scored twice in game six as the Rangers eliminated the Canadiens in a 3–1 victory to advance to the second round.
| April 12 | New York Rangers | 2–0 | Montreal Canadiens | Bell Centre | Recap | |||
| Tanner Glass (1) – 09:50 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| Michael Grabner (1) – en'’ – 18:50 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Henrik Lundqvist 31 saves / 31 shots | Goalie stats | Carey Price 29 saves / 30 shots | ||||||
| April 14 | New York Rangers | 3–4 | OT | Montreal Canadiens | Bell Centre | Recap | ||
| Michael Grabner (2) – 13:48 | First period | 04:05 – Jeff Petry (1) 15:42 – Paul Byron (1) | ||||||
| Rick Nash (1) – 09:58 Mats Zuccarello (1) – 14:47 |
Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 19:42 – Tomas Plekanec (1) | ||||||
| No scoring | First overtime period | 18:34 – Alexander Radulov (1) | ||||||
| Henrik Lundqvist 54 saves / 58 shots | Goalie stats | Carey Price 35 saves / 38 shots | ||||||
| April 16 | Montreal Canadiens | 3–1 | New York Rangers | Madison Square Garden | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Artturi Lehkonen (1) – pp – 17:37 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| Shea Weber (1) – pp – 07:42 Alexander Radulov (2) – 15:35 |
Third period | 17:04 – Brady Skjei (1) | ||||||
| Carey Price 20 saves / 21 shots | Goalie stats | Henrik Lundqvist 26 saves / 29 shots | ||||||
| April 18 | Montreal Canadiens | 1–2 | New York Rangers | Madison Square Garden | Recap | |||
| Torrey Mitchell (1) – 18:37 | First period | 11:39 – Jesper Fast (1) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | 04:28 – Rick Nash (2) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Carey Price 30 saves / 32 shots | Goalie stats | Henrik Lundqvist 23 saves / 24 shots | ||||||
| April 20 | New York Rangers | 3–2 | OT | Montreal Canadiens | Bell Centre | Recap | ||
| Jesper Fast (2) – sh – 15:56 | First period | 12:07 – Artturi Lehkonen (2) 16:20 – pp – Brendan Gallagher (1) | ||||||
| Brady Skjei (2) – 18:28 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Mika Zibanejad (1) – 14:22 | First overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| Henrik Lundqvist 34 saves / 36 shots | Goalie stats | Carey Price 33 saves / 36 shots | ||||||