{"id":605800,"date":"2026-04-14T07:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605800\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T07:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:39:17","slug":"key-dates-start-time-teams-clinching-for-top-spots-and-all-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605800\/","title":{"rendered":"key dates, start time, teams clinching for top spots, and all you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1398856_104025_updates.jpg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"686\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"NHL playoffs 2026: key dates, start time, teams clinching for top spots, and all you need to know\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The NHL postseason is fast approaching, with the 2026 playoffs set to begin on Saturday, April 18.<\/p>\n<p>The regular season will conclude on April 16, leaving teams just a handful of games to secure their positions before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 16 teams will qualify for the postseason, with several clubs already confirming their places. <\/p>\n<p>In the Eastern Conference, the Carolina Hurricanes, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins have already clinched playoff berths.<\/p>\n<p>In the Western Conference, the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Utah Mammoth, Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights have also secured their spots.<\/p>\n<p>Several more teams could clinch places in the coming days as the playoff picture continues to take shape.<\/p>\n<p>While the exact date of the Stanley Cup Final has not been confirmed, the last possible day for the championship series is June 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL postseason is fast approaching, with the 2026 playoffs set to begin on Saturday, April 18. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-605800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}