The Edmonton Oilers, the Dallas Stars, and the Carolina Hurricanes. Joining their ranks will be the Florida Panthers or the Toronto Maple Leafs. That’s a good look for the Conference finals, isn’t it? Truth be told, it’s looking quite tight. And any team can beat the other given a particular day, which makes for an absolutely thrilling end to the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. But the latest buzz among the fans is not regarding who can beat whom. It’s that they are not being able to make sense of the NHL’s latest scheduling decision. What’s it all about, you ask? Well, let’s first fill you in on the development, then.
The NHL has released the official communication notifying of the times for the 2 Conference Championship series. And it was NHL Insider Chris Johnston’s Twitter update on May 17 that has brought the fans out in numbers and unison. “The Eastern Conference Final begins on Tuesday: Carolina vs. Florida/Toronto The Western Conference Final begins Wednesday: Edmonton vs. Dallas”.
Did you see the issue? The ones who have been following it game by game immediately saw the problem. For starters, the Florida-Toronto Series is still not decided. Hours from now, they will face off in the Game 7 decider on May 18, 7:30 p.m. ET, at the Scotiabank Arena. And the winner will go on to start with the Conference Championship round on May 20, 8 p.m. ET.
The Western Conference series starts exactly a day later, on May 21, 8 p.m. ET, with the Oilers coming to the American Airlines Center hoping to make it to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals. The Eastern Conference round games are going to be played on Tuesday (May 20), Thursday (May 22), Saturday (May 24), Monday (May 26), and so on, with a day game between each game.
The Eastern Conference Final begins on Tuesday: Carolina vs. Florida/Toronto
The Western Conference Final begins Wednesday: Edmonton vs. Dallas
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) May 18, 2025
Same’s the process for the Oilers-Stars series, until one team gets 4 wins. Well, it looks alright, clean and neatly planned. But when it comes to the question of winning, and winning the Stanley Cup is at stake, every minute detail matters. And it’s apparent that the timetable has, at the very least, given the Hurricanes a major advantage against their opponents.
The deeper you try to analyze, the more wrong and clumsy it looks. The fans are confused, angered, and plain stumped by the NHL’s arrangement. And their response reflects exactly that.
Major Stanley Cup contenders start the Conference title round on a handicap
You know, there should always be a substantial rest period between 2 games, 2 rounds, likewise. And it’s also fair game that the 2 teams playing each other get similar periods of rest, at least comparable. Well, the Eastern Conference starts on May 20, just 2 days after the Panthers or the Maple Leafs have had the final say in the 2nd round 7th game. And their opponent, the Hurricanes, will be coming off almost 5 days of rest. That’s just uneven.
So, this tweet from a fan perfectly sums it up: “So no rest for Florida or the leafs disgraceful”. It just sets up the perfect scenario for a major upset. The Leafs and the Panthers are among the hot favorites for the Stanley Cup. Why set it up like this? Well, we are just scratching the surface. Do you know how much rest the Western Conference teams are getting before they go off on May 21?
The Dallas Stars will get 4 days of rest. The Oilers – almost a week. Just try to think of it. Both teams have finished way before the Panthers-Leafs play their decider. Couldn’t the NHL have started the West Conference title match first? That’s not just our ask, though? A fan sarcastically pointed out the flaw in the reasoning. “The east finishes later than the west but starts earlier??? Make it make sense”.
Well, one fan was just blunt in his reaction: “Makes zero sense lol”. And people are seeing that there were other ways it could have been done. One fan tweet gave both an alternate suggestion while also ridiculing how the NHL schedule made no sense. “Why would they not start Carolina vs fla/tor after the other 2 teams that are already done and resting .. da fk is this bs @NHL and I say that regardless who wins tn , thats a moronic scheduling. You want Leafs Saturday, thats fine, can still start Thursday you ”.
Many fans are saying the same thing. Sure, the Leafs or the Panthers playing on Saturday is big for viewership and revenue. But why not start on Thursday after ample rest for the teams? One fan tried to reason that Saturday 8 pm ET for the Eastern Conference game is not the same for the Western Conference teams and fans who follow the PT (ET is 3 hours ahead of PT).
So, the only way to maximize the Saturday benefits is by placing the Eastern Conference game on a Saturday. OK, we get it. And one fan’s tweet explained it. “Very easy reason for this. You can schedule the east for an 8pm start local time than you can the west. Which means the east will play Saturday night at 8pm no big change to the local time. Plus if Toronto wins you want leafs vs canes on a Saturday night so you have to start Tues”.
Well, we were with the fan until the end. In fact, most fans agreed with him until the last part. No, the Saturday plan could have been implemented without starting on Tuesday. Simple – start on Thursday. Is it rocket science? Are we missing something? As far as this fan goes, there is something missing: “Logic. The nhl doesn’t have it.”
Let’s see how the Panthers and the Maple Leafs navigate this situation. The scheduling will definitely test their Stanley Cup quest.
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