[2] Due to cross-border travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Canada, the league temporarily realigned this season into four divisions with no conferences.

This became the longest active streak in the four major North American professional sports after the NBA's San Antonio Spurs missed the playoffs for the first time in 22 years.

[7] For the second year in a row and third time overall since 1996, all California-based teams, the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks, missed the playoffs.

For the first time since 1992, three of the previous year's semifinalists, the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights, returned to the round for a second consecutive season.

[11] Back in Nashville for game three, Juuse Saros stopped 52 shots and Matt Duchene scored at 14:54 of double-overtime for the Predators to emerge victorious 5–4.

[12] In game four, Juuse Saros made 58 saves for the Predators, defeating the Hurricanes 3–2 in double-overtime on Luke Kunin's snap shot goal.

[13] The Hurricanes forced overtime in game five, and in the extra period, Jordan Staal scored during a 4-on-4 to defeat the Predators 3–2 and take a 3–2 series lead.

[14] In game six, the Hurricanes overcame a two-goal deficit to force overtime, where Sebastian Aho scored on a deflected shot to send Carolina to the second round.

This was also the first postseason match-up between two Florida-based professional sports teams since the National Football League's 1999 AFC Divisional playoffs where the Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Miami Dolphins.

[16] In game two, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves for Tampa Bay as they defeated Florida 3–1 to take a 2–0 series lead.

[18] The goaltending woes of the Panthers continued in game four when Sergei Bobrovsky allowed five goals on fourteen shots giving the Lightning a 3–1 series lead after a 6–2 rout.

In game one, with Semyon Varlamov out as goaltender for New York, Ilya Sorokin stepped in and made 39 saves for the Islanders, defeating Pittsburgh in overtime on Kyle Palmieri's goal.

[25] In game five, heading into double-overtime, Josh Bailey scored 51 seconds into the period for the Islanders to give his team a 3–2 series lead in a 3–2 victory.

In game one, with the teams tied at two a-piece after the third period, Capitals forward Nic Dowd scored at 4:41 of overtime to give Washington their first victory of the series.

I know Johnny pretty well and just hope he’s OK."[34][35] The Canadiens won the game 2–1 on Carey Price's 35 saves along with Paul Byron's shorthanded game-winning goal in the third period.

[39] Campbell continued his goaltending prowess into game four with a 4–0 shutout victory, stopping all 32 shots he faced and granting the Maple Leafs a 3–1 series lead.

In overtime, Toronto forward Alex Galchenyuk gave the puck away causing a 2-on-0 break for rookie Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki, the latter of which scored to spoil the Maple Leafs comeback and forced a sixth game.

In the final nine minutes, Toronto evened the score to send it to overtime where Maple Leafs defenceman Travis Dermott gave the puck up to Paul Byron who passed it towards Jesperi Kotkaniemi for the game-winning goal at 15:15, tying the series 3–3 with a 3–2 victory.

The Colorado Avalanche earned the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular season team with 82 points, winning the tiebreaker against the Vegas Golden Knights with 35 RWs.

[51][52] In Game 3, Avalanche defenceman Ryan Graves scored a goal and two assists and Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves to defeat the Blues 5–1 and take a commanding 3–0 series lead.

[53] In Game 4, the Avalanche offensively drained the Blues with 34 shots and, with two empty-net goals, Colorado defeated St. Louis 5–2 to advance to the Second Round.

However, his team ended up losing the game in an overtime shutout via Wild goalie Cam Talbot's 42-save performance and Joel Eriksson Ek's goal.

[63] The Hurricanes opted to start Petr Mrazek in game three, which paid dividends as the goaltender made 35 saves in Carolina's 3–2 overtime victory with Jordan Staal scoring the game-winning goal.

[65] Vasilevskiy made 29 saves in a 2–0 shutout victory in game five, advancing Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup Semifinals for the second consecutive season.

[71] Brock Nelson scored twice, including the series-winning goal, for the Islanders in game six defeating the Bruins 6–2 and advancing to the Stanley Cup Semifinals.

In the overtime period, Toffoli scored the series-winning goal at 1:39, completing the four-game sweep, and advancing Montreal to the Stanley Cup Semifinals.

[91] Carey Price made 37 saves and Artturi Lehkonen scored the overtime series-winning goal in game six, sending the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1993.

This was the second consecutive postseason match-up and the fourth overall playoff meeting between these two teams; with Tampa Bay winning all three previous series.

[111] Rounding out NBC's broadcast crew were play-by-play voices Alex Faust, Ken Daniels, and John Walton, and analysts Keith Jones, Dominic Moore, and Jody Shelley.

[115] Amazon Web Services debuted advanced shot and save analytics for the playoffs, taking data from the player and puck tracking technology that was first implemented at the start of the regular season.