NHL announces second round playoff schedule punishing teams who had their series go to 7-games

The Stanley Cup is the hardest Trophy in sports to win. It takes 16 wins over the course of 2 months, while fighting through extensive travel, very few days off and a multitude of injuries. That's why it's so important for a team to put their opponents away when they have a chance. Failure to do so can result in additional damage to your body and now it can even result into a more compressed schedule.

Despite the NHL not being on the same time crunch they've been on in other years, it now appears the league is taking teams going to a Game 7 seriously. Last season every series that ended in 7 games allowed the winning team on average of 3.5 days to recover from their series. This year though that is not the case.

After the Florida Panthers upset the Boston Bruins in overtime 4-3, ending their historic season the Panthers won't have much time to celebrate. So much so the Panthers won't even have time to return home, instead today they'll be forced to hop on a plane and head to Toronto for Game 1 of their 2nd round series, which will start tomorrow night.

The same goes for the Seattle Kraken, who upset the defending Stanley Cup Champions in 7 games. The Kraken held onto a 2-1 victory, but will also have no time to celebrate as they'll head directly to the airport and off to Dallas to face the Stars. The winner of tonight's game between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils will face similar conditions as they will fly immediately to Carolina to face the Hurricanes Wednesday night.




Both the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Knights who ended their series early will get an extra day off and start their series Wednesday as well. It's great to see the league finally rewarding teams who earned an early series victory instead of giving teams time to recover.