and again the NHL does weird things to simplify things for casual fans, so your info is about as convincing as mine next, to me the playoffs beging on Tuesday, you can stick with what ever your theory is, to me 16 teams that compete for the cup means playoffs to me, not qualifiers to get into the playoffsI haven't seen any commercials that say that, but the NHL does a lot of weird things to simplify for casual fans. Commercials are not what decides what the playoffs are. The NHL put out a press release specifically addressing this question, saying that it was the playoffs. The players are accumulating playoff stats. Team playoff streaks continued, and droughts were ended. Records have been recorded as playoff records. The page on NHL.com specifically about different playoff formats over the years includes the qualifiers. They have a line that specifically says their playoff format features 24 teams, and they have another line that specifically says "The 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin with the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers". You literally can't get more straightforward than that. Anybody saying that this isn't the playoffs is flat out wrong.