The NHL playoffs standings for 2014 has the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche as the top four teams in the league and the east/west matchups are set for series heading into the postseason and the first games are on Wednesday, as Pitt takes on Columbus, the Ducks play the Dallas Stars and the Montreal Canadiens face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The playoffs begin on Wednesday with three games and they will be airing on the NBC family of networks, with the Canadiens and Lightning playing on CNBC and that game starts up at 7 pm. The other two games on the schedule will be on the NBC Sports Network and that has the Pittsburgh Penguins hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7:30 pm, while the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks will start up the western conference playoffs at 10 pm ET on the west coast.
All the teams are looking to win 16 games to win the Stanley Cup and this year the Chicago Blackhawks are coming into things as the defending champions from last season after they defeated the Boston Bruins. The Penguins were second in the east behind the Bruins and they had 109 points to Boston's 117, while the Avalanche won the central division and the Ducks were the best team out west and got the number one seed for the playoffs.
The playoff matchups for 2014 have some great series coming, including the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, who have not played each other in 17 years and now they will renew that rivalry. The Detroit Red Wings were the second wild card and they are playing against the conference champions in the Bruins, while the Canadiens were the number three division team in their group and they will take on the number two in the Lightning.
The Metro has the Rangers and Flyers as the two and three team, while the Blue Jackets were the first wild card and they are playing the Metro champs in the Penguins. The western matchups has the second wild car in the Stars visiting the Ducks, while the Kings were the number three team in the Pacific and they will face off against the San Jose Sharks in an All California matchup. The Wild were the first wild card and they play against Colorado, who won the central division over the Blues and the Blackhawks.
The defending champions were the number three division team and they play against the St. Louis Blues, who have played great since trading for Ryan Miller. The Stanley Cup finals are in June and now the playoffs start on Wednesday.