[1] The Vegas Golden Knights became the first team to make the playoffs in their inaugural season in the league since the 1979–80 Hartford Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers.

For the fourth time in league history (2000, 2001, 2007), only two Original Six teams, the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, clinched a berth for the playoffs.

Although Taylor Hall scored his first playoff goal in game one, the Devils were beaten 5–2 as Ondrej Palat recorded three points for Tampa Bay.

[8] In game two, a four-goal barrage by the Lightning during the second period forced Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid to be pulled.

[17] In game five, Toronto prevented a come-back by Boston, fending off the Bruins 4–3 as Frederik Andersen made 42 saves for the Maple Leafs.

[19] In game seven, Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron scored a goal and recorded two assists in a 7–4 victory to advance his team to the second round.

Columbus came back from a two-goal deficit in game one to force overtime, during which Artemi Panarin scored 6:02 into the extra session to give the Blue Jackets their first lead in a playoff series.

[30] Matt Murray recorded his second shutout of the series in game four, stopping all 26 shots he faced in a 5–0 victory for Pittsburgh.

However, Jake Guentzel's natural hat trick, with four goals in total, including two within ten seconds of each other, sealed the series for the Penguins in an 8–5 victory.

[39] Andrew Hammond made 44 saves and Sven Andrighetto scored with 1:28 left in the third period to force a sixth game for the Avalanche in a 2–1 triumph.

The Jets defeated the Wild in five games and earned their first playoff series victory in franchise history after entering the league in 1999 as the Atlanta Thrashers.

[47] Even though Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick made 54 saves in game two, the Golden Knights topped Los Angeles in double overtime thanks to Erik Haula's goal at 15:23, taking a 2–0 series lead.

[52] Martin Jones made 45 saves as the Sharks routed the Ducks 8–1 in game three; eight different players scored for San Jose in the victory.

[53] Tomas Hertl broke the tie for San Jose, scoring the series-clinching goal midway through the third period of game four as the Sharks defeated Anaheim 2–1.

In game one, the line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak combined for eleven points in a 6–2 triumph.

This was the third consecutive year that these two rivals have met in the second round and was the eleventh overall playoff meeting with Pittsburgh winning nine of the ten previous series.

[64] During the game, Tom Wilson made an illegal check to the head of rookie Zach Aston-Reese who suffered a broken jaw along with a concussion.

[67] In game six, the Capitals fired 30 shots and Evgeny Kuznetsov's goal in overtime ended the series in a 2–1 victory, moving Washington to the Conference finals for the first time since 1998.

Mark Scheifele scored twice and Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 47 saves in game one to defeat the Predators 4–1.

His counterpart, Connor Hellebuyck, made 36 saves in the victory as the Jets won the game 5–1, advancing Winnipeg to the Conference finals for the first time in franchise history.

In game one, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 33 shots he faced and Vegas scored with seven different players to defeat San Jose 7–0.

[77] Game three also went into overtime; however, this time the Golden Knights' William Karlsson got the best of the Sharks, scoring the overtime-winner in a 4–3 victory for Vegas[78] Martin Jones shut out the Golden Knights in game four, stopping all 34 shots he faced, giving the Sharks a 4–0 victory to even the series 2–2.

In game one, Washington scored four consecutive goals across the first two periods forcing Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper to pull goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy; the Capitals won 4–2.

[87] Braden Holtby stopped all 29 shots and Andre Burakovsky scored twice in game seven for Washington, advancing the Capitals to the Finals for the first time since 1998 in a 4–0 victory.

Vegas made the conference finals in their inaugural season becoming the first expansion team since the St. Louis Blues in 1968 to advance past the second round of the playoffs.

[90] Fleury made an additional 35 saves in game four with Vegas forward Reilly Smith scoring the game-winning goal 13:02 into the third period.

Due to original programming commitments involving CNBC and USA Network, two first round games on April 18 were aired by Golf Channel.

[100][101] In a surprise move, Sportsnet did not give any on-air assignments to Bob Cole during the playoffs—an exclusion that caught the veteran commentator off-guard.

Instead, Sportsnet replaced Cole with Calgary Flames announcer Rick Ball, joining Jim Hughson, Paul Romanuk and Dave Randorf on play-by-play during the first two rounds of the playoffs.

[105] The Jets also contributed to strong viewership numbers in Canada, with Sportsnet reporting an average of 2.2 million across their second-round series.