1987 Stanley Cup playoffs

The 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs, the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) began on April 8, after the conclusion of the 1986–87 NHL season. It concluded on May 31, with the Edmonton Oilers defeating the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Stanley Cup. In an attempt to reduce the number of first round upsets, the NHL expanded the Division Semifinals series from a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven series.^[1]

The 1987 playoffs marked the second consecutive year that all four former WHA teams made the playoffs in the same year. It would not happen again until 1999 by which time 3 of those teams had moved, the Quebec Nordiques to Denver, the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix, and the Hartford Whalers to Raleigh. For the second time ever, the first time being 1978, all of the Original Six teams made the playoffs in the same season.

At the time the Philadelphia Flyers set an NHL playoff record by playing in 26 games during the playoffs. This record was equaled by four other teams (2004 Calgary Flames, 2014 Los Angeles Kings, 2015 Tampa Bay Lightning, and 2019 St. Louis Blues), this remained the most under the four-round, 16 team playoff format before the 2020 Dallas Stars broke the record during the expanded 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs under the expanded format.