Because the new conferences and divisions had little to do with North American geography, geographical references were removed.

(Until 1926, the Stanley Cup was presented to the winner of a post-season playoff between the NHL and Western Hockey League champions.)

The names of conferences and divisions were changed for the 1993–94 season to reflect their geographic locations.

Then-new NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made the change to help non-hockey fans better understand the game, as the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) all use geographic-based names for their divisions.

Along with the Western Conference, the Eastern Conference was temporarily abolished for the 2020–21 NHL season after the COVID-19 pandemic in North America forced a realignment of the League to preclude the need for teams to regularly cross the Canada–United States border.

Prior to 1982, the NHL had a unique playoff system relative to the NFL, NBA and MLB.

[1] As a result, two teams from the same conference could meet in the Stanley Cup Finals, as happened in 1977, 1978 and 1980.

This format also raised the possibility of the strongest teams in the regular season being forced to meet in the first or second round rather than the conference finals.