![]() This format delayed any possibility of cross-border travel until the third round. The league returned to the traditional 16-team playoff format, with the first two rounds of the playoffs also featuring intra-divisional matchups. Each team played 56 regular season games, all intra-divisional matchups. Consequently, the league temporarily realigned for this season into four regional divisions with no conferences, putting all seven Canadian teams into one of those divisions. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the league for the second straight year with the Government of Canada maintaining its cross-border travel restrictions. Main articles: 2020–21 NHL season § Impact of COVID-19 and temporary realignment, and 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs This record was previously held by the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals, which had a combined seed of twenty-three. ![]() This Finals matchup broke the Stanley Cup Finals record for highest combined seed between teams, with twenty-six (Tampa Bay eighth, and Montreal eighteenth). This was the first Finals since 2009 to be played entirely in the Eastern Time Zone, the first since 2011 to feature a Canadian-based team, the first since 2015 to end in a team winning the Stanley Cup at home, and the first since 2018 to require less than six games. However, under the temporarily realigned divisions, some had mixed conferences, which enabled this scenario. Under a normal playoff format, this finals matchup would be impossible, as both the Lightning and Canadiens compete in the NHL's Eastern Conference. The four divisional playoff champions were then re-seeded by regular season points in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, with the winners of the Semifinals advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals. Consequently, a divisional-based postseason format was held, featuring intra-divisional matchups in the first two rounds. The cross-border travel restrictions under the pandemic also forced the league to temporarily realign this season into four divisions with no conferences, putting all seven Canadian teams into one of those divisions. Tampa Bay had home-ice advantage in the series with the better regular season record.ĭue to the COVID-19 pandemic that both shortened and delayed the start of the regular season, the series began on June 28, 2021, and concluded on July 7, 2021, marking the first time that games in the Stanley Cup Finals were held in July. ![]() The Lightning won the best-of-seven series, four games to one, for their second consecutive and the third overall championship in franchise history. The series was between the Montreal Canadiens and the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The 2021 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2020–21 season and the culmination of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. (NBC/NBCSN) Kenny Albert, Eddie Olczyk (1, 3–5), Brian Boucher (1–2, 4–5), and Pierre McGuire (2–3) (CBC/SN) Chris Cuthbert and Craig Simpson
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