Season structure of the NHL Season structure of the NHL The season structure of the National Hockey League (NHL) is divided into the regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the regular season, which generally runs from early October through early April, teams play 82 games which determine their standings. The three highest-placed teams in each division and two wild card teams per conference enter the playoff elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion. Since the 1995–96 season, each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 each of home and road. In all, 1,271 games are scheduled (480 of them
Vezina Trophy GAA not to be a member of the team that allowed the fewest goals. The Vezina continued to be awarded to the goaltender who started the most games for the team that allowed the fewest goals, but the Vezina winners of , , and did not have the lowest GAAs. The National Hockey League began allowing teammates to split the Vezina Trophy following the 1964–65 NHL season. The Toronto Maple Leafs allowed 173 goals against, barely beating out Montreal's 175 goals against and Chicago's 176 goals against. Terry Sawchuk played 36 games for the Leafs with a GAA of 2.56,