2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Playoff Progress and Notes

Before you can tough Lord Stanley’s Cup, you must navigate the 2019 NHL playoffs bracket.

The time for playoff pictures are over: the field is determined, and it’s win or go home. Sixteen teams enter with a chance at history, but only one will drink from the Stanley Cup (which has hopefully been sterilized first).

Who made the playoffs this year, and what is the path each of the 16 playoff teams must take?

The 2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket – as of the conclusion of the postseason

The Blues Win The Stanley Cup

It went the full seven games, but for the first time ever, the St. Louis Blues are the champions of the National Hockey League.

St. Louis earned this by winning three games in Boston, including the decisive Game 7.

2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Stanley Cup Finals Schedule

2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Stanley Cup Finals Head-to-Head, Boston vs. St. Louis

BOS 1-0-1, STL 1-1-0 during 2018-19 regular season. Both teams won their home game in the series.

• January 17, 2019: STL 2 at BOS 5
• February 23, 2019: BOS 1 at STL 2 (SO)

1970 Stanley Cup Finals

The 2019 Stanley Cup Finals are a rematch of 1970, St. Louis’s only other prior trip to the biggest stage. Boston swept that series in four games. When Bobby Orr scored the Cup-winning overtime goal, he made his famous flying leap that is memorialized in statue outside the TD Garden in Boston.

2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Recapping the Conference Finals

Boston over Carolina in four. The Hurricanes, a surging “bunch of jerks,” were no match for the Bruins and finally saw their Cinderella story come to an end.

St. Louis over San Jose in six. San Jose went ahead two games to one in the series following a Game 3 overtime in Missouri. St. Louis then took the three remaining games — the last two in blowouts — to get to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 49 years.

2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Recapping the Second Round

Like in the NBA playoffs, the second round of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs was mostly competitive. Just one series was a sweep (Carolina-Islanders), one went six (Boston-Columbus), and two went seven (St. Louis-Dallas and San Jose-Colorado). The Islanders were the biggest flop, getting swept by the Hurricanes. Columbus gave Boston a better series, but one of the East’s wild cards went out in the second round.

As for the Western Conference, both series went seven games. Dallas and Colorado, also two wild cards, also dropped, but in highly competitive series. In the end, two 2nd seeds, one 3 seed, and a wild card made it to the conference finals.

2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Recapping the First Round

If you were the top team in a division, this was a terrible postseason for you. For one thing, all four of you lost. As if that were not bad enough, the wild card teams beat you 16 games to 6. One series was close, one was somewhat competitive, and the other two were blowouts.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, President’s Trophy winners by a mile, were swept in the first round by Columbus. How do you even begin trying to explain that? Aside from giving the Blue Jackets credit, call it what it is: a titanic choke by the Lightning.

They can take solace in the fact that they have company from every division champion. Calgary, another team seen as a Cup contender, barely put up a fight in their own series.

What we are left with is a Stanley Cup postseason that is as wide open as we can remember. Teams like the Islanders, Bruins, Blues, and Sharks may think they have the highest seeds and are favored, but you all saw how the wild cards did last round, right?

Division Finals Matchups

• Metro Division: Carolina vs. NY Islanders
• Atlantic Division: Columbus vs. Boston
• Central Division: Dallas vs. St. Louis
• Pacific Division: Colorado vs. San Jose

2019 NHL Playoffs Bracket: Field

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

The Washington Capitals are the defending Stanley Cup champions, and have entered the playoffs as the Metropolitan Division winners. Tampa Bay won the President’s Trophy, finishing 21 points better than the next closest teams. Their 62 regular-season wins tied an NHL record.

Division Semifinals Head-To-Head Records

• Tampa Bay vs. Columbus: TB 3-0-0, CBJ 0-3-0
• Boston vs. Toronto: BOS 3-1-0, TOR 1-3-0
• Washington vs. Carolina: WSH 4-0-0, CAR 0-3-1
• NY Islanders vs. Pittsburgh: NYI 2-1-1, PIT 2-1-1
• Nashville vs. Dallas: NSH 3-2-0, DAL 2-1-2
• Winnipeg vs. St. Louis: WPG 3-1-0, STL 1-2-1
• Calgary vs. Colorado: CGY 3-0-0, COL 0-2-1
• San Jose vs. Vegas: SJ 2-2-0, VGK 2-1-1