2014 Stanley Cup playoffs

2014 Stanley Cup playoffs

Tournament details
Dates	April 16 – June 13, 2014
Teams	16
Defending champions	Chicago Blackhawks
Final positions
Champions	Los Angeles Kings
Runner-up	New York Rangers
Tournament statistics
Scoring leader(s)	Anze Kopitar (Kings) (26 points)
MVP	Justin Williams (Kings)
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The 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2013–14 season. They began on April 16, 2014, and ended June 13, 2014, when the Los Angeles Kings defeated the New York Rangers four games to one in the Stanley Cup Finals. Prior to the season, the league realigned its teams into four divisions (two in each conference), and adopted a new modified divisional-based playoff structure: the top three teams in each division qualified for the playoffs, along with two wild cards in each conference.

The Boston Bruins made the playoffs as Presidents' Trophy winners with the most points (i.e. best record) during the regular season. The Detroit Red Wings increased their consecutive playoff appearance streak to 23 seasons, the longest streak at the time and the fifth-longest streak in NHL history. The Dallas Stars ended the league's third longest active playoff appearance drought, qualifying for the postseason for the first time in six years.^[1] For the first time since 1973, only one Canadian team qualified for the playoffs: the Montreal Canadiens.^[2] This was also the first time since the 1978 Stanley Cup playoffs that no playoff games were played in Western Canada. For the third time in four years, all three California-based teams again made the playoffs. The Columbus Blue Jackets won their first franchise playoff game on April 19, 2014, and their first-ever franchise playoff home game at Nationwide Arena on April 23, 2014, both against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Three Original Six teams reached the conference finals, the first time this has occurred since 1979.

The first round featured leads changing hands more so than any previous year. After the Anaheim Ducks rallied from a 4–2 deficit to defeat the Dallas Stars in game six of their first-round series on April 27, 2014, an NHL record was broken for most multi-goal comebacks by all teams in the opening round, with ten. In all four rounds combined in the previous year's playoffs, there were only eight such victories.^[3] The San Jose Sharks became the fourth team in Stanley Cup playoff history to lose a series after holding a 3–0 lead; as the Los Angeles Kings came back to win the series in game seven of the first round on April 30, 2014.^[4]

On May 29, 2014, the Rangers became the first team to ever advance past the conference finals after playing two seven-game series in the opening two rounds.^[5] The Rangers also became the first captainless team to reach the finals since the Chicago Black Hawks in 1973. That same seven-game mark was eclipsed on June 1, 2014, as the Kings became the first team to ever reach the Stanley Cup Finals after having played three consecutive seven-game series. Los Angeles played all three of their game sevens on the road. Game five of the Stanley Cup Finals marked the 93rd game of the 2014 playoffs, eclipsing the previous single-year record 92 established in 1991; this remains the record for the most games played using a sixteen team playoff format.^[6] The record for most games played in a single year was broken during the expanded 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Kings tied the 1987 Philadelphia Flyers and the 2004 Calgary Flames, for most games played (26) in one playoff year under a sixteen team playoff format (later matched by the 2015 Tampa Bay Lightning and 2019 St. Louis Blues). The record was subsequently broken by the 2020 Dallas Stars during the expanded 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.