teams are healthy and fresh... and hungry.  the number of overtimes in the first round is atypical for sure.  not to mention that sportsnet is making up for the lack of overtime commercials with massive intermission breaks and make-goods during other games. 

I'm certainly ready to buy a mac for my budding music career, or talk to the sportsnet life coach about how i tune out television commercials.

Interesting behind the scenes info Prod Guy. Thanks for posting.

Prod Guy wrote:

I have produced many games on radio.  Games have been roughly that for about a two decades.  In the late 90's when the NHL signed its infamous deal with Fox the league urged officials to speed up the amount of time between faceoffs and limited the number of commercials breaks to three 70 second stoppages per period after the 6, 10 and 14 minute marks.  There had been five or six 30 second breaks prior to that, but it took nearly a minute to drop the puck each time.  Also, no commercial breaks can occur during a power play or after an icing.  This is to keep the momentum going rather than to affect the actual length of the game.  The league has a commercial co-ordinator in each rink, whose job it is to flash a blue light near centre ice to let broadcasters know that they should should break within 10 seconds.  In the late 80's games averaged 2:36.  Now it's about 2:19. Intermissions are 17 minutes during the periods and 15 during overtimes, however the referees allow for a short break after the midway point of each overtime to allow problem areas of the ice to be touched up.  

That's very interesting. The "no-touch" icing was a good idea in my opinion.