2008 NHL Playoffs Standings

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are arguably the most exciting hockey games on the planet. It is essential that you purchase tickets in advance because most of the time they sell out months before the games start.

Ticket prices greatyly vary depending on the location of the seat. Tickets in the back of the arena can be purchased for around $40. Better seats go for $150-$200 and the really good ones are $500+. Private booths cost thousands of dollars.

With ticket prices skyrocketing it's not hard to imagine how the NHL is a multi billion dollar industry (not to mention revenue from ads).

The Internet is full of sites selling tickets. We did some reasearch and found that the best places to buy tickets are from TicketsNow or BuySellTix. More excellent NHL related information, schedules, news can be found on the NHL Playoffs 2008 website.

NHL Playoffs

The National Hockey League is a professional hockey tournament in North America. The NHL started in Montreal in 1917. There were only four teams competing then. The league has gone through many changes, expansions and rule revisions and currently has 30 teams - 24 from the USA and 6 from Canada.

Teams

The NHL is split into two so called "conferences", the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference - mainly because of the large distances between teams. Each conference has 15 teams.

NHL Game Highlight

After playing a zillion (82) of regular season games, the best 8 teams from each conference advance to the playoffs. The NHL playoffs are called the Stanley Cup playoffs and it is a seven-game elimination tournament between the best two teams. The winner becomes the sesons champion and wins the Stanley Cup.

Since the season is very long and many games are played it is hard to predict the outcome of the championships in the early stages of the season. This season for example the Ottawa Senators started with an amazing win streak but somewhere along the way they lost control and dropped into the middle of the rankings board. The Detroit Red Wings on the other hand has been playing a constantly good game. So be careful out there before you wager too much money on any team!

Although the majority of teams are located in the States, Canadian teams have a very solid fan base often traveling south of the border to cheer for their teams. The Americans seem to be more into (and better at) football. Fair enough.

The Stanley Cup

The Game

Each game is between two teams and the game is 60 minutes consisting of 3 x 20 minute periods. Whoever scored most during the game is the winner. The winner gets 2 points the loser gets zero. If the game is a tie then overtime is added. If, at the end of overtime, the game is still a time, the game will advance into shootouts. The winner of the overtime period or shootout still gets 2 points but in these cases the loser also gets 1 point.

The regular season start in the beginning of October and continues until early April the following year.

Players, Rules, Standings

If you are looking for more information about NHL Playoffs related stuff the Official NHL Playoffs 2008 website has frequently updated info available. To find general information about the NHL your best bet is the NHL - National Hockey League page on the NHL Playoffs 2008 site .

Information, schedule, tickets and new are available on the NHL Playoffs 2008 website.