Our NHL regular season concludes this Saturday, June 25. I was going to have a single day off in between the end of the regular season and start of playoffs but I forgot that the AHL regular season ends on Sunday. I will be running Sunday's sim around 1pm ET. That will allow me to transition the simulator and the site over to the playoffs as soon as possible. I'm planning to begin NHL playoffs next Monday, June 27. You will still get your normal rest days count towards your player health, even with the quick turnover to the playoffs!
Right now the only series known in either league will be Nashville vs. Dallas. That series will begin on Monday night. Arizona and whomever they play will begin on Tuesday night because I can't resist the opportunity to say that the reason the Justin Bieber concert is postponed on June 30th is because of Game 2 of the Coyotes' playoff series.
AHL playoffs typically start 2-3 days after the NHL games begin, since the first-round is best-of-five. Geography is a major factor of AHL playoff format, so most first-round series are usually a 2-3 format.
I am planning to speed up the sim schedule once again in the later rounds to try to make up for lost time from last year. The first round will absolutely be run as one simulation per day, as normal. The second round might be sped up to two simulations on some days, like it was last year. The conference finals and the Cup finals will definitely be run with both leagues having a game each night. Of course, no team will have two games simulated on the same day and "off days" do still count in favor of your players' condition/health.
Now then, for the formalities...
As every year, teams in the playoffs are expected to always have valid lineups, since this is the reason you are playing sim hockey! You will have one warning for the entire playoffs if your lineups are out of compliance. Anything more than that will result in a fine, which will be double the regular season amount. Any games that lineups are not submitted at all for (blank lines) will result in an automatic fine, just as it was during the regular season.
Teams also have the ability to call up as many players as they want for the NHL playoffs -- However, the simulator still requires you to dress a 20-man team at both levels, even if you no longer have games. Be careful with this if you want to adjust your playoff rosters beyond the usual regular season limits.
Only players who met the AHL Clear Day requirements are permitted to play in the Calder Cup playoffs. Attempts to assign any other players will be rejected and do count towards the one lineup warning in the playoffs, so if you are not sure of a player's eligibility, look it up or ask first!
As alluded to earlier, the AHL playoff format does not necessarily follow a traditional 2-2-1 or 2-2-2-1 schedule. Because of this, our website can have trouble showing who is actually leading a series while it is being played. Please closely follow your game results to verify whether you have won or lost a series!
Now what about the non-playoff teams!
I currently have no date in mind of when the draft lottery will take place. This will be entirely based on my availability and the fact is, my availability really sucks in July. I'm certainly not talking about this pushing all the way into August but this might be a spontaneous thing that I get to record.
This will be the first year of the new lottery format to match the changes the NHL made. Numbers will be randomly drawn (1st, then 2nd) and matched up to the list of numbers that teams will be assigned to, based on their odds of winning, to determine which teams will own the first two picks in the draft. At that point, the draft order from 16 to 1 will be announced. It's looking like the Montréal Canadiens are going to have the highest odds of winning the draft lottery for the third straight year.
There is still a lot of fluctuation about the order of odds for the draft. A lot of teams are really bunched up! You are responsible for dressing a competitive lineup throughout the regular season and the playoffs. I have already had to issue warnings about tanking to two GMs. Don't make bad decisions with your lineup that costs you your chance to win the draft lottery and lose top picks!