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throughout the playoffs, including the Stanley Cup Finals, where they play the winner of the opposing Conference's playoff series for the Stanley Cup. All playoff series are a best-of-seven match, the first team to get four wins advances to the next round, the losers go home to play golf.

The top four teams in each Conference are awarded home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The playoff match-ups are calculated by seeding the first and last place teams that qualified for the playoffs against each other, the second and seventh seeds, the third and sixth seeds, and the fourth and fifth seeds are matched up for the first round of the playoffs. For further rounds into the playoffs, the highest seeded teams play the lowest seeded teams remaining, and the second highest seeded teams play the third highest seeded teams remaining.

The first round of the playoffs is called just that, the first round of the playoffs. The second round is called the Conference Semi-finals, the third round is called the Conference Finals, and the fourth round is called the Stanley Cup Finals. This is where the winners of the Eastern and Western Conferences battle it out in a best-of-seven series for hockeys' ultimate prize, Lord Stanley's Cup. Champagne flows from bottles into the Cup, and from the Cup into the players mouths, hair, uniforms, you get, and probably have seen, the picture. A boyhood dream realized, from school boys playing road hockey to national heroes for a few days. And all for a mere two or six million dollars per year in salary. Not bad if you can get it, eh? And, amazingly, many players go their entire careers without playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, let alone wearing the ring that comes along with winning the Stanley Cup. Hold your heads high, boys.

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