Following your favorite hockey team as they make their way through the NHL playoffs, on their way to the Stanley Cup can be confusing. Keeping track of NHL playoffs tickets can be harder still. We’ve gone ahead and made it easy to follow your favorite NHL team’s tickets throughout the playoffs. We dropped the NHL playoff teams into an NHL Western Conference bracket and and NHL Eastern Conference bracket. They show playoffs matchups with a link to tickets for that matchup.

NHL Western Conference Bracket 2010

NHL Eastern Conference Bracket

Stanley Cup Finals Schedule

Also check out Stanley Cup Tickets by the Numbers

Which NHL Playoffs tickets are hottest?

The Canadians — just like the Olympics — are in the lead. The Canucks and Canadiens tickets are both averaging $293 for each team’s two home games. The Pens, Caps and Blackhawks round out the top 5. Team number six was a bit of a surprise. Sabres tickets are averaging $163, placing Buffalo fans at number six on the fan demand list.

That puts the Sabres tickets ahead of historically hot hockey tickets like Wings, Bruins, Avs and Devils. Sabres tickets are even outpacing Preds tickets — the NHL ticket with the biggest post-Olympic bounce.

Hottest NHL Playoffs tickets – Round 1

Vancouver Canucks (tickets) -   $293
Montreal Canadiens (tickets) -  $293
Pittsburgh Penguins (tickets) – $246
Washington Capitals (tickets) – $246
Chicago Blackhawks (tickets) – $210
Buffalo Sabres (tickets) -          $163
San Jose Sharks (tickets) -        $159
Philadelphia Flyers (tickets) –   $155
Los Angeles Kings (tickets) -    $142
Ottawa Senators (tickets) -       $137
Nashville Predators (tickets) -  $137
Detroit Red Wings (tickets) -    $127
Boston Bruins (tickets) -          $126
Colorado Avalanche (tickets) – $123
Phoenix Coyotes (tickets) –      $119
New Jersey Devils (tickets) -    $97

NHL Best Value Tickets(sm)

Hottest teams is interesting, but we took it a bit deeper. We’re seeing tremendous choice available right now — from roughly 1,000 to 5,000 ticket listings per game.  With that comes tremendous variability in price for comparable tickets. The biggest variations in Home Game 1 tickets are in Boston where comparable tickets vary by as much as 52%. Interestingly, we’re seeing the more searches for Bruins tickets than any other NHL team right now. Today, Bruins ticket searches rival what we are seeing for the Yankees and Twins Home Openers.

Which conference has the hotter tickets?

Eastern Conference            Average ticket price (home games)
1. WASHINGTON CAPITALS   $246
2. NEW JERSEY DEVILS           $98
3. BUFFALO SABRES              $163
4. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS     $246
5. OTTAWA SENATORS         $137
6. BOSTON BRUINS               $126
7. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS      $155
8. MONTRÉAL CANADIENS   $293

Average Eastern Conference ticket = $183

Western Confernece            Average ticket price (home games)
1. SAN JOSE SHARKS              $159
2. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS    $210
3. VANCOUVER CANUCKS     $293
4. PHOENIX COYOTES           $119
5. DETROIT RED WINGS         $127
6. LOS ANGELES KINGS         $142
7. NASHVILLE PREDATORS    $137
8. COLORADO AVALANCHE   $123

Average Western Conference ticket = $163.75

The fun thing about tickets is this will all be different tomorrow. We’ll stay on top of it and report back.

Christian