National Lacrosse League - Season and Playoffs

Season and Playoffs

Each team in the NLL plays sixteen games during the regular season, eight at home and eight away. The teams are divided into two divisions, the Eastern division and the Western division. Each team plays at least twelve of its sixteen regular season games against division opponents.

The regular season begins in late December and ends in April. At the end the regular season, the top three teams in the Eastern Division and the top four teams in the Western division make the playoffs. Either the fourth-placed Eastern division team or the fifth-placed Western division team, based upon regular season record, also makes the playoffs. The playoffs consist of three single-game elimination rounds. In the first round (the Division Semi-finals), each division winner hosts a fourth-seeded team, and the second-place team hosts the third-place team. In the second round (the Division Finals), the two remaining teams in each division play; the higher-seeded team hosts the game. Two weeks after the Division Finals, the division winners face off for the Champion's Cup.

All NLL games are played on weekends, save for the occasional Friday night game. Most NLL players have full-time jobs off the floor; notable examples include Toronto's Dan Ladouceur, a Durham Region police officer, and Buffalo's John Tavares, a high school teacher in Mississauga, Ontario.