2017 Stanley Cup playoffs

2017 Stanley Cup playoffs

Tournament details
Dates	April 12–June 11, 2017
Teams	16
Defending champions	Pittsburgh Penguins
Final positions
Champions	Pittsburgh Penguins
Runner-up	Nashville Predators
Tournament statistics
Scoring leader(s)	Evgeni Malkin (Penguins) (28 points)
MVP	Sidney Crosby (Penguins)
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The 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2016–17 regular season. They began on April 12, 2017, after the regular season, and they concluded on June 11, 2017, with the Pittsburgh Penguins defeating the Nashville Predators four games to two in the Finals. The Penguins won their fifth overall Stanley Cup, and became the first team to win back-to-back championships since the 1998 Detroit Red Wings.

The Washington Capitals qualified for the playoffs as the Presidents' Trophy winners for the second consecutive year with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. The Detroit Red Wings failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 1989–90 season, ending the NHL's and the Major North American Sports longest active playoff streak at 25 consecutive seasons; the streak was also tied for the third-longest streak in NHL history. The San Antonio Spurs of the NBA now owned the longest playoffs streak at 20 years in Major North American Sports.^[1] The longest active playoff streak was assumed by the Penguins with eleven consecutive appearances.^[2] The Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs for the first time since 2006, ending a then-record-tying playoff drought for a team with ten years missed (the Florida Panthers also missed the playoffs between 2001 and 2011 inclusively. Buffalo set the record in 2022 missing eleven consecutive postseasons).^[3] For the first time since 2006, both Alberta teams, the Oilers and the Calgary Flames, qualified for the postseason in the same year. For the first time since 2013, and the fourth time since 2002, all three Eastern Canadian teams (Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Maple Leafs) qualified for the playoffs. In all, five Canadian-based teams made the playoffs, matching 2004 and 2015, after a season in which none of the seven teams in Canada contended. Five Original Six teams made the playoffs, with only the previously mentioned Red Wings failing to make it.

The first round saw eighteen overtime games, eclipsing the previous record of seventeen overtime games in the first round set in 2013.^[4][5] There were 27 total overtime games in these playoffs, one short of the record set in 1993. It was also the first time since 2001 that no first round series went the full seven games.

For the eighth season in a row (and the twelfth time in the last fourteen seasons), a California-based team advanced the Western Conference final.^[6]