Description
The 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League (NHL) began on April 16, 2014 and ended June 13, 2014 when the Los Angeles Kings defeated the New York Rangers four games to one in the Stanley Cup Final.
For the first time since 1973, only one Canadian team qualified for the playoffs: the Montreal Canadiens. The Detroit Red Wings increased their consecutive playoff appearance streak to 23 seasons, the longest current streak and the fifth longest streak in NHL history. The Dallas Stars ended the league’s third longest active playoff appearance drought, qualifying for the postseason for the first time in six years. For the third time in four years, all three California teams again made the playoffs. The Columbus Blue Jackets won their first franchise playoff game on April 19, 2014, and their first ever franchise playoff home game at Nationwide Arena on April 23, 2014, both against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Three Original Six teams reached the Conference Finals, the first time this has occurred since 1979.
The 2013–14 playoffs opening round featured leads changing hands more so than any other year. After the Anaheim Ducks rallied from a 4–2 deficit to defeat the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of their opening round series on April 27, 2014, an NHL record was broken for most multi-goal comebacks by all teams in the opening round, with ten. In all four rounds combined in the previous year’s playoffs, there were only eight such victories. It also marked just the fourth time in NHL playoff history that a team who led a series 3–0 in a seven-game series failed to advance, when the San Jose Sharks lost to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 7 of the opening round on April 30, 2014.
On May 29, 2014, the New York Rangers became the first team to ever advance past the Conference Finals after playing two seven-game series in the opening two rounds.The Rangers also became the first captainless team to reach the finals since the Chicago Black Hawks in 1973. That same seven-game mark was eclipsed on June 1, 2014, as the Los Angeles Kings became the first team to ever reach the Stanley Cup Finals after having played three consecutive seven-game series. Los Angeles played all three of their game sevens on the road. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final marked the 93rd game of the 2014 playoffs, eclipsing the previous single-year record of 92 established in 1991
