Three periods
A game is three 20-minute periods of 5-on-5 hockey, with intermissions in between. The team that scores more goals wins.
Hockey · 2026–27
NHL, explained.
Thirty-two teams. Four rounds. One Stanley Cup. Here’s the quick guide.
The NHL is the top professional hockey league in North America: 32 clubs in two conferences, an 84-game regular season in 2026–27, and a four-round playoff that ends with the Stanley Cup.
League contact
Offices published by the NHL. For tickets, accounts, or a specific club, use that team’s site — not league headquarters.
- Headquarters
- National Hockey League
1 Manhattan West
395 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001 - Phone
- (212) 789-2000Fax (212) 789-2020
- Canada offices
- 50 Bay Street, Toronto, ON M5J 2X8 · (416) 359-79001800 McGill College Avenue, Montréal, QC H3A 3J6 · (514) 841-9220
A short history
The Stanley Cup is older than the league. Lord Stanley of Preston donated it in 1893 as a challenge trophy for amateur hockey in Canada. The National Hockey League was founded on November 26, 1917, in Montreal after the National Hockey Association broke up. By 1927 the Cup was awarded only to the NHL playoff champion.
From 1942 to 1967 the league was the Original Six: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, the New York Rangers, and Toronto. Expansion began in 1967 and has continued to 32 teams. The newest club is the Utah Mammoth, which began in Utah in 2024–25 after the Arizona Coyotes franchise stopped playing and took the Mammoth name for 2025–26.
The 2026 Stanley Cup champion is the Carolina Hurricanes. The 2026–27 season opens September 29.
Current teams
Sixteen clubs in each conference, eight per division. Open a team for scores, the next game, and news.
Eastern Conference
Atlantic
Western Conference
Central
2026–27 schedule
The regular season runs September 29, 2026 to April 10, 2027. Each team plays 84 games this season — two more than the long-standing 82-game slate — for 1,344 games in all.
How the league works
Five-on-five hockey, three periods, and a points race that feeds a 16-team playoff.
Standings points
A win is worth two points. A regulation loss is zero. If the game goes to overtime or a shootout, the loser still gets one point.
Overtime, two ways
In the regular season, a 5-minute 3-on-3 overtime is followed by a shootout if needed. In the playoffs there is no shootout — 20-minute 5-on-5 periods until someone scores.
Power play
A penalty puts the other team a skater up. That extra-man advantage is the power play; the shorthanded side is on the penalty kill.
Offside and icing
A player cannot enter the offensive zone ahead of the puck (offside). Icing is shooting the puck the length of the ice from behind centre; play stops and the faceoff comes back.
Conferences
The East is the Atlantic and Metropolitan. The West is the Central and Pacific. Each division has eight teams.
The season
Training camp in September, 84 regular-season games into April, then four playoff rounds for the Stanley Cup.
How the playoffs work
Sixteen teams. Four best-of-seven rounds. A set bracket — the NHL does not reseed after each round.
Who gets in
The top three finishers in each division (12 teams), plus two wild cards in each conference — the next-best records, regardless of division. One division can send five teams; the other, three.
First-round bracket
In each conference, the division winner with the best record plays the weaker wild card. The other division winner plays the stronger wild card. Second plays third inside each division bracket.
Four rounds to the Cup
Winners stay in their bracket through the second round, then the conference finals. The two conference champions meet in the Stanley Cup Final. First to four wins in each series advances.
Home ice: Through the first two rounds it goes to the team that finished higher in the regular-season standings. In the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final it goes to the team with the better regular-season record, no matter where it finished in its division.
For the live table that feeds these seeds, see the NHL standings.
Office addresses, 2026–27 dates, and playoff rules checked September 24, 2026. Use the official NHL links if an address, number, or date changes.