2022-2023 NHL—What’s New?

2022-2023 NHL—What’s New

The NHL is going through a lot of changes, including new rules and divisions. This article will explain the new playoff system and realigned divisions for the 2022-2023 NHL schedule.

New Playoff System

The NHL has also made some changes to the playoff format. The top 16 teams in the league will qualify for the playoffs, with four teams from each division earning a spot in their respective conference matchup. The remaining teams will be seeded 5-16 based on points and then slotted into their respective matchups based on those seeds.

The top two seeds in each division receive a bye while they await their opponent—that team will have had to play yet another series before getting to them (e.g., if you’re seeded 1st and 2nd but your opponent is 3rd or 4th, there’s a good chance you’ll only need six games). This change rewards consistency throughout an 82-game season; if you want to make it far into May/June, then you better be consistently strong through October/November too!

Realigned Divisions

The NHL will be realigning its divisions for 2022-2023. The league currently has two conferences: the Atlantic and the Pacific. Each conference has three divisions, but now there will be four divisions instead of three. These new divisions are called the Central, Eastern, Western, and Atlantic Divisions.

In addition to this change in structure, the league is introducing a new playoff format that allows all 14 teams to qualify for postseason play—instead of just eight in previous years. Every team automatically qualifies for postseason play; however, only eight teams get a chance at winning the Stanley Cup (and avoiding an early vacation).

New Teams

In the 2022-2023 seasons, two new teams were added to the NHL. Each of these teams will play in its own division. The new divisions are:

• Pacific Division (Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver)
• Atlantic Division (Boston, Buffalo, Carolina and New York Islanders).

New Rules

• The NHL introduced some new rules for the 2022-2023 season.
• Rule 74.2, which covers player conduct and misconduct, now includes new language that says, “Any player who is involved in a fight shall be assessed an automatic game misconduct penalty, resulting in a one-game suspension for each fight.”
• This means that if you fight, you will be suspended for at least one game! It also means that if you start a fight with another player and he doesn’t throw any punches back at you (or vice versa), then it’s still considered “starting” a fight and will result in a suspension for both players involved.

You can watch the games by getting the DIRECTV STREAM package. As per their experts, “The National Hockey League package is available to DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS and DIRECTV Satellite TV customers.” The NHL has been making a lot of headlines recently, and hope this will continue as the league evolves for years to come.