🏒 1970-71 NHL season

Elo moves after every game by how surprising the result was, with an adjustment for home ice, a rest day and the playoffs. One pool per season, so ratings compare across the whole league but not across eras.

Week 0 is the preseason seed, carried over from last season with a pull back toward average. It is an input to the season, not a result of it.

One table per conference, side by side on a wide screen, each grouped by division where the league had them (divisions from 1927, conferences from 1975); one table before any split. In 2020-21 there were no conferences, only four divisions, so East and North share the left table and Central and West the right. The record is the regular season as it stood on the date, W-L-T while ties existed and W-L-OTL once overtime losses did, and Pts is how the league ranks it: two a win, one a tie or an overtime loss. The Playoffs column is blank for a team that was not in the postseason, which is not the same as 0-0. Back is points behind the last playoff place a team can still take (its division's third seed or the last wild card in the wild-card era, the last conference seed or its division lead before that); In means it holds a place, 0 that it is level on points and out on the tiebreak. Sd is the playoff place if the season ended on that date under that year's format: top three per division and two wild cards per conference since 2013-14, top eight per conference with division winners first from 1994, top four per division 1982-93 and 1968-74, top three per division 1975-79 and 1927-38, and the league table before and between. Ties on points go to the team that made it; the real tiebreaks are not modelled. The Elo column keeps moving through June, so a team can climb after its regular season has ended.

The field and the number of rounds have changed repeatedly: a Cup challenge against PCHA and WCHL champions until 1926, two or three NHL rounds through the Original Six years, four rounds of sixteen teams since 1980 (a play-in in 2020). The shape shown is whatever that season had; the earliest two-game series were decided on total goals and are marked where they were tied.