You certainly know this if you’re reading this column, but just in case you’ve been living under a rock: the format has changed yet again. Instead of going all the way through once, there will be a single-elimination round where the 8th seed hosts the 9th seed in each conference, followed by a best-of-3 round where the higher seed hosts the 1st and 3rd. * game, with the bottom seed hosting the second game.
In the Wild Card and Best-of-3 series, there is no overtime – all games go straight to PKs if tied after 90, and a PK shootout win counts as a regular season win. Everything after Round 1 goes back to the old old format where, if it’s tied after 90, we get half an hour overtime (and if it’s tied after that, we have a PK. I’m sure you know this, but what which is).
I’ll be posting previews of each game throughout the playoffs. All data below is from TruMedia via StatsPerform unless otherwise noted. Let’s have fun!