Stanley Cup playoffs to open with Saturday tripleheader

The Stanley Cup playoffs won't have every seed finalized until later Thursday night, when the final batch of Western Conference games sorts out three remaining teams. But the NHL has revealed how the postseason will start.

Game 1 between the Ottawa Senators and Eastern Conference top seed Carolina Hurricanes will kick off a tripleheader of playoff games Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.

The Minnesota Wild and host Dallas Stars are scheduled to clash 5:30 p.m. ET, and in-state rivals are saved for prime time when the Philadelphia Flyers visit the Pittsburgh Penguins at 8 p.m. ET.

The entire Eastern Conference playoff bracket has been locked in, with the Hurricanes beating out the Buffalo Sabres by four points to win the top seed and the right to host the second wild card. The Penguins and Flyers finished with identical point totals behind Carolina in the Metropolitan Division, but the Penguins earned home-ice advantage by the tiebreaker of regulation wins (34-27).

In the West, however, the Stars and Wild have been locked into the Central Division's 2-versus-3 matchup the longest of any playoff pairing -- but only one other series is finalized. The Vegas Golden Knights are Pacific Division champions and will face the No. 1 wild card Utah Mammoth, with their series starting on Sunday.

Also Sunday, with all times TBD, the Boston Bruins will play Game 1 against the Sabres in Buffalo, the Montreal Canadiens visit the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Presidents' Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche will host the second wild card out of the West.

Finally, the second and third seeds from the Pacific Division will begin their series Monday.

Those teams are known, but their order is not. The Edmonton Oilers (40-30-11, 91 points), Anaheim Ducks (42-33-6, 90 points) and Los Angeles Kings (35-26-20, 90 points) all conclude their regular seasons Thursday night and will occupy those three spots in some order.

--Field Level Media