By Vincent Liu

The NHL is back and only with a few minor changes. There are no fans, but there will be crowd noise pumped through stadium speakers. There are big screens covering seats. The qualifying round for the Stanley Cup playoffs started on August 1, and the tournament layout is different. According to CBC kids news, “with the season starting up again so late in the summer, the NHL hatched a plan in an attempt to make things fair for all teams while getting to the playoffs quickly.” So, the top four teams in each conference don’t compete for the top spot because they are already in the playoffs. But, they have to face off in a round robin. The rest of the top 12 teams play a best-of-five series to determine who moves on to the playoffs.

Source:

https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/nhl-is-back-and-the-stanley-cup-playoffs-are-just-around-the-corner