Before the standard 16-team NHL Playoffs begin this year, first there will be a qualification round featuring the teams that finished fifth to 12th in each conference. The decision to include eight more teams took Montreal from a club believing that the pandemic had brought about an early summer break to one now with a shot at winning the Stanley Cup.
For the Pittsburgh Penguins, one of only seven teams with 40 wins when the season was stopped, the announcement wasn’t so welcome. Instead of looking ahead to a run that could earn them a third Cup in five years, there’s now a chance that they won’t make the official post-season at all.