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 17 – June 13, 2023 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Defending champions | Colorado Avalanche |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Vegas Golden Knights |
| Runner-up | Florida Panthers |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Scoring leader(s) | Jack Eichel (Golden Knights) (26 points) |
| MVP | Jonathan Marchessault (Golden Knights) |
The 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2022–23 season. The playoffs began on April 17, 2023, three days after the end of the regular season, and concluded on June 13, 2023, with the Vegas Golden Knights winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, defeating the Florida Panthers four games to one in the Stanley Cup Finals.[1]
The Boston Bruins made the playoffs as the Presidents' Trophy winners after setting the league record for the most wins and points in a single regular season. The Pittsburgh Penguins failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2005–06 NHL season, ending the NHL's and major North American sports' longest active playoff streak at sixteen consecutive seasons. The new longest active playoffs streak in major North American sports belonged to MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, who qualified for the postseason every year since 2013.[2] The longest active Stanley Cup playoff streak moved to the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs at seven consecutive seasons after the Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals also had their eight-season playoff streaks end.[3] As a result, this is the first time since 1976 that the longest active playoff streak was less than ten consecutive seasons. The Seattle Kraken became the second fastest NHL expansion team since 1991 to qualify for the playoffs, after the Vegas Golden Knights, and the first to clinch their inaugural playoff appearance in their second season in the league since the Quebec Nordiques in 1981.[4][5] The Kraken also became the first NHL exclusive expansion team to make their first playoff appearance in their second season since the Atlanta Flames in 1974.[5] All three New York metropolitan area teams (the Devils, Islanders and Rangers) made the playoffs in the same year for the first time since 2007.[6] For the first time since 1990 and second time since entering the NHL as expansion teams in the 1967–68 NHL season, both Pennsylvania-based teams (the Flyers and Penguins) missed the playoffs in the same season.
This postseason marked the second consecutive and fourth time overall that the league played 50 or more games in the opening round of the playoffs since this round was changed to a best-of-seven format in 1987.[7] In addition, visiting teams in the first round went 31–19 overall to set a new league record for the most road wins in a single round.[8] Among these opening round road victories, the Florida Panthers overcame a 3–1 series deficit to upset the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in seven games,[9] the Seattle Kraken defeated the defending champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games to win their first playoff series,[10] and the Toronto Maple Leafs eliminated the Tampa Bay Lightning on the road in game six to win their first series since the 2004 Eastern Conference quarterfinals.[11]
For the fourth consecutive year, a Florida-based team reached the Stanley Cup Finals. For the first time, the conference finals consisted exclusively of teams located in the Sun Belt, with the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final, and the Dallas Stars and the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference final.[12]
Playoff seeds
This was the eighth year in which the top three teams in each division made 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:[13]
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
- Boston Bruins, Atlantic Division champions, Eastern Conference regular season champions, Presidents' Trophy winners – 135 points
- Toronto Maple Leafs – 111 points
- Tampa Bay Lightning – 98 points
Metropolitan Division
- Carolina Hurricanes, Metropolitan Division champions – 113 points
- New Jersey Devils – 112 points
- New York Rangers – 107 points
Wild cards
- New York Islanders – 93 points
- Florida Panthers – 92 points
Western Conference
Central Division
- Colorado Avalanche, Central Division champions – 109 points
- Dallas Stars – 108 points
- Minnesota Wild – 103 points
Pacific Division
- Vegas Golden Knights, Pacific Division champions, Western Conference regular season champions – 111 points
- Edmonton Oilers – 109 points
- Los Angeles Kings – 104 points
Wild cards
- Seattle Kraken – 100 points
- Winnipeg Jets – 95 points
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. Thereafter, it was awarded to the team that had the better regular season record.
| First round | Second round | Conference finals | Stanley Cup Finals | ||||||||||||||||
| A1 | Boston | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Florida | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Florida | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| A2 | Toronto | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| A2 | Toronto | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| A3 | Tampa Bay | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Florida | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| M1 | Carolina | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| M1 | Carolina | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | NY Islanders | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| M1 | Carolina | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| M2 | New Jersey | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| M2 | New Jersey | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| M3 | NY Rangers | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Florida | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Vegas | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| C1 | Colorado | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Seattle | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Seattle | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | Dallas | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | Dallas | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| C3 | Minnesota | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | Dallas | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| Western Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Vegas | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Vegas | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| WC | Winnipeg | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| P1 | Vegas | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| P2 | Edmonton | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| P2 | Edmonton | 4 | |||||||||||||||||
| P3 | Los Angeles | 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) Boston Bruins vs. (WC2) Florida Panthers
The Boston Bruins earned the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular season team with a record-setting 135 points. Florida earned 92 points to finish as the Eastern Conference's second wild card. This was the second playoff meeting between these two teams. Their only previous meeting was in the 1996 Eastern Conference quarterfinals, which Florida won in five games. These teams split their four-game regular season series.
The Panthers defeated the Bruins in seven games after being down 3–1 in the series. In game one, goaltender Linus Ullmark made 31 saves to backstop the Bruins in a 3–1 victory.[14] A four-goal third period, coupled with Brandon Montour's two goals helped the Panthers win game two 6–3.[15] In game three, Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist for Boston defeating Florida 4–2.[16] Hall scored twice and provided two assists in game four for the Bruins, giving Boston a 3–1 series lead with a 6–2 victory.[17] In game five, Carter Verhaeghe assisted on three goals including the Panthers' overtime goal scored by Matthew Tkachuk, keeping Florida alive in the series with a 4–3 victory.[18] Tkachuk scored twice and provided an assist in a high-scoring affair between Florida and Boston in game six, defeating the Bruins 7–5 to force a seventh game.[19] In game seven, after the Panthers rallied a late goal to tie the game, Verhaeghe scored in the subsequent overtime to send Florida to the second round.[9]
| April 17 | Florida Panthers | 1–3 | Boston Bruins | TD Garden | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | 05:58 – pp – David Pastrnak (1) | ||||||
| Matthew Tkachuk (1) – 06:34 | Second period | 03:41 – Brad Marchand (1) 17:32 – Jake DeBrusk (1) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Alex Lyon 26 saves / 29 shots | Goalie stats | Linus Ullmark 31 saves / 32 shots | ||||||
| April 19 | Florida Panthers | 6–3 | Boston Bruins | TD Garden | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Sam Bennett (1) – 01:42 Eric Staal (1) – 14:18 |
Second period | 12:13 – sh – Brad Marchand (2) 17:01 – pp – Tyler Bertuzzi (1) | ||||||
| Brandon Montour (1) – 00:22 Carter Verhaeghe (1) – 07:00 Brandon Montour (2) – 12:30 Eetu Luostarinen (1) – en – 17:35 |
Third period | 18:50 – Taylor Hall (1) | ||||||
| Alex Lyon 34 saves / 37 shots | Goalie stats | Linus Ullmark 24 saves / 29 shots | ||||||
| April 21 | Boston Bruins | 4–2 | Florida Panthers | FLA Live Arena | Recap | |||
| Taylor Hall (2) – 02:26 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Charlie Coyle (1) – 06:00 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| David Pastrnak (2) – 08:32 Nick Foligno (1) – 11:45 |
Third period | 14:41 – sh – Gustav Forsling (1) 15:59 – Sam Reinhart (1) | ||||||
| Linus Ullmark 29 saves / 31 shots | Goalie stats | Alex Lyon 23 saves / 26 shots Sergei Bobrovsky 8 saves / 9 shots | ||||||