The NHL revealed Thursday a few more details of its return to play plan for a postseason that would take place in summer.
• While the qualifying round to formally enter the playoffs will involve best-of-five series, all four rounds of the actual playoffs will be best-of-seven series. When the NHL announced ts plan last week, the length of the first and second rounds had not been determined.
• Each round will be reseeded. In all succeeding rounds, the highest remaining seed in each conference will face the lowest remaining seed, the second-highest remaining seed in each conference will face the second-lowest remaining seed, etc. Under normal circumstances, an established bracket is in place for the playoffs.
• For the round-robin round involving the top four teams of each conference, regular-season points percentage will serve as tiebreaker.
• While all games will be played at a hub city, there will be “home” and “away” teams for the purposes of determining which team has the last change prior to a faceoff as well as which net teams defend between periods.
• For the qualifying round, higher-seeded teams will be designated as the home team in Games 1, 2 and 5. Lower-seeded team will be designated as the home team in Games 3 and 4.
• In the first and second rounds as well as the conference finals, higher-seeded teams will be designated as the home team in Games 1, 2, 5 and 7. Lower-seeded teams will be designated as the home team in Games 3, 4 and 6.
• For the Stanley Cup Final, the team with the higher regular-season points percentage will be designated as the home team in Games 1, 2, 5 and 7. The team with the lower regular-season points percentage will be designated as the home team in Games 3, 4 and 6.
While these aspects of the postseason plan were agreed to by the NHL and NHLPA, they are subject to both parties formally agreeing to an overall final agreement on resuming play.
Should the NHL return to the ice, the Penguins, as the No. 5 seed of the Eastern Conference, would face the No. 12 Montreal Canadiens in the qualifying round.
