The Stanley Cup Playoffs have arrived, and with them comes the NHL’s starkest rule change: postseason hockey goes to sudden-death overtime, not the three-on-three format used in the regular season.
Last year’s playoffs produced 20 overtime games, up from 16 in 2024, and FanDuel has set a market around how many extra-session games the league will see this spring. The 16-20 range is the favorite at -125, which implies a 55.56 per cent chance, while 11-15 is priced at +210 and 21-25 at +380.
That betting line lands against a long postseason pattern. Since the 2005 lockout, there has been only one NHL playoff run with fewer than 15 overtimes, a stretch that shows how often the spring game turns into a grind that cannot be decided in regulation.
The tension is that the playoffs play by different rules than the regular season, but the recent numbers point to more of the same drama. The three-on-three format is designed to create quicker endings in the regular season, while playoff hockey drops that setup and keeps skating until someone scores, which is why overtime totals become part of the conversation as soon as the bracket opens.
For fans and bettors alike, the cleanest read is that overtime is not a side note in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It is part of the event, and this season’s market says the most likely outcome is another spring with plenty of games still undecided after 60 minutes.
