NHL OT Has No Clock - And That’s Where The Madness Starts

NHL playoff overtime strips away the safety net and turns every shift into a pressure cooker, which is why the league’s longest games live forever in hockey lore. The rules get simple in a hurry once the regular season ends, but the execution gets brutal because one mistake can swing a series and bury a team’s season. This piece walks through how postseason OT works and why the 2026 results already feel like a reminder that the extra frame in the NHL is its own animal.