- Score tied for 48 percent of playing time, the highest in the expansion era
- Twelve overtime games with at least one in every first-round series
- Read below for the full breakdown of how close the 2026 first round has been
The first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs is putting up numbers the NHL has never seen.
A stat dump from the league Thursday showed the score has been tied for 48 percent of playing time across the first 39 postseason games. That’s the highest mark of any opening round in the expansion era, going all the way back to 1967-68.
The other figures hold up just as well. The score has been tied or within one goal for 83 percent of all playing time, the highest rate since 2012. And 87 percent of the action has qualified as a close game, tied for the most ever through 39 games.
Twelve contests have already gone to overtime. Each of the eight first-round series has needed at least one extra session, just the fifth time in NHL history that’s happened. The other years on that list are 2001, 2013, 2017, and 2023.
All 12 OT winners have come from a different player. Four of them were defensemen, including Cam York’s series-clincher Wednesday night that sent the Flyers past the Penguins.
David Pastrnak owns the lone breakaway OT goal of the postseason, the dagger he buried Tuesday against Buffalo to keep Boston’s season alive.
The Flyers-Penguins finale captured the close-games theme as cleanly as any game has. Dan Vladar stopped all 42 shots for his second shutout of the series, and York settled a 1-0 marathon in overtime.
A few more nuggets from the NHL. Lane Hutson hit the hardest shot to result in an OT goal at 90.08 mph. Beckett Sennecke had the hardest third-period go-ahead shot at 90.49 mph. Frederik Andersen and Scott Wedgewood are both perfect on save percentage in close situations, sitting at 1.000.
The Lightning-Canadiens series has been the wildest of the bunch. Through five games, the score has been tied or within one goal for all but 5:37 of total time. Game 6 goes Thursday night in Montreal.
Round two starts soon. If the first 39 games are any indication, plan for late nights.
