For the past few weeks, something that many people have been looking forward to in America has been the return of professional sports. While professional sports such as baseball and basketball are back to their "regular season", the NHL (the National Hockey League) is jumping right into their playoff run starting on Saturday, August 1. With 24 teams competing for the Stanley Cup, it might be a little confusing.

24 Teams

For anyone who is an avid hockey watcher, it is normal for there to only be 16 teams that play in the playoffs, 8 teams from the west, and 8 from the east. This year though, because the season got cut about a month before playoffs were set to take place, the NHL was forced to take teams based on standings from March 12, when the season took a pause.

Hub Cities

Like most sports, many teams are reluctant to play in every stadium, especially with surges in COVID-19 cases in many cities where teams are present. So for this postseason, there will be no games to be played in America, but rather in 2 "hub cities" in Canada. The 2 cities are Toronto and Edmonton, the Eastern Conference games will be played in Toronto while the Western Conference games will be played in Edmonton.

The Best of 5 Series

Now, starting this upcoming Saturday there will be the "qualifying round" which will include 16 teams to play a 5-game series to make it to the next round. This will consist of 8 teams from the Eastern Conference and 8 teams from the Western Conference to compete against one another. It is based on the seeding that was determined on the number of points each team ended with from March. The qualifying round will last 9 days if needed.

The teams Eastern Conference teams to play each other will be the New York Rangers/Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders/Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins/Montreal Canadians, and Columbus Bluejackets/Toronto Maple Leafs.

The teams from the Western Conference teams that will play each other will be the Chicago Blackhawks/Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets/Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild/Vancouver Canucks, and Arizona Coyotes/Nashville Predators.

Round-Robins

For the other 8 teams, the NHL is holding a "Round-Robin", which is a one series game to determine the order of the playoffs after the qualifying rounds. While the "best of 5 series" are going on, there is set to be 4 of these "Round-Robins" and will affect the next rounds past the qualifying rounds.

The 2 Eastern Conference teams that are playing the "Round Robin" games are Tampa Bay Lightning/Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals/Philadelphia Flyers.

The 2 Western Conference Teams to play the "Round-Robin" games are St. Louis Blues/Colorado Avalanche and the Las Vegas Golden Knights/Dallas Starts.

Past the Qualifying Round

Of course, the qualifying round does not determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, so many people want to know what comes next. Well, based on what teams win the 5 game series and the teams that win the "round-robins" will determine the rounds to come after. Teams that win the 5 game series will then move on to play a team that wins the "round-robin" or another team that won a 5 game series. Unlike other years, this year's series will be based on the original seeding rather than a set postseason bracket.

After the qualifying rounds, the games will be 7 game rounds just as it usually stands.

Even though this season, just like every other sport, will be nothing short of different. With no fans and most teams not having their home-ice advantage, many teams see that as having added pressure during each game. With that said, there is nothing like playoff hockey and the postseason will still be exciting.