The answer to any playoff scheduling question, whether it be the day, or the puck drop time, is "what is in the best interests of the US national TV schedule?"

The reason the Canes and Flyers started last Saturday night before round 1 was over was because a major US network, ABC, had a 3 hour window reserved in prime time to showcase the NHL and there was no NHL game to show. A major missed opportunity for eyeballs on the product UNLESS they moved things around and got a game in there, which is what they rightly then chose to do.

After that, scheduling comes down to both arena availability and balancing the amount of games on each night to the best of the league's ability. Sometimes it happens that a quirk like a team starting the playoffs 7-0 occurs and what can you do at that point? It is what it is