The 2025 NHL playoffs: a series-by-series preview

This year’s NHL postseason represents a changing of the guard in the hockey world. For the first time ever, all four Original Six teams based in the United States will be missing when the action commences this weekend, as the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers will have to stay home and shine their collective 27 Stanley Cups instead.

North of the border, the game has rarely seemed more buoyant. Riding a wave of nationalistic fervour following the 4 Nations Face-Off championship victory earlier this year, Canada will be sending five teams to Lord Stanley’s annual dance for just the third time in the past 20 years.

While the past three winners in Colorado, Vegas and Florida may be among the top betting favourites this year, in the spiritual home of hockey, the hope of ending a 32-year Stanley Cup drought springs eternal.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

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Washington Capitals (1M) vs. Montreal Canadiens (2WC)

They may have received the last invitation to the playoff party, but the Montreal Canadiens have historically proved themselves to be crashers of the highest order. And Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals know it only too well, having fallen as the top seed to the eighth-seeded Habs in a seven-game opening round 15 years ago.

With the youngest roster in this year’s playoffs – average age 26.1 – as well as six returnees from the team’s last playoff campaign – when it reached the 2021 Stanley Cup final – Montreal, which was bottom of the NHL standings in November, will have nothing to lose heading into its second ever postseason matchup with the Capitals.

With a pair of 30-plus goal-scorers in Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, as well as rookie blueliner Lane Hutson, who tied the NHL rookie record for assists by a defenceman with his 60th in Wednesday’s win over Carolina, Montreal will also be buoyed by an ebullient Bell Centre. Hindered by pandemic attendance restrictions four years ago, the largest rink in the NHL is set to be full to capacity (21,105) for playoff games for the first time since 2017.

That crowd will also bear witness to the latest holder of the NHL career goals mark, a cherished record once held by Montreal icons Howie Morenz and Maurice Richard. Having overhauled Wayne Gretzky’s 894 goals, Ovechkin will now take aim at a second championship, looking to build on his 72 career playoff goals, the most among active players.

Opening game: Monday, 7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet

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Toronto Maple Leafs (1A) vs. Ottawa Senators (1WC)

For the first time in 21 years, the two biggest cities in Canada’s most populated province will trade blows in the NHL postseason. While many hockey fans across the world will be rejoicing in the renewed hostilities, those from the nation’s capital will simply be praying for a different outcome – the Ottawa Senators have lost all four previous playoff meetings against their long-time nemesis, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

No stranger to the Battle of Ontario, Senators head coach Travis Green – who played for the Leafs when they beat the Senators in a seven-game series in the 2002 playoffs – leads his squad into the postseason for the first time since 2017, ending the longest playoff drought in franchise history.

On the opposite bench is Craig Berube, who was brought to Toronto last off-season in the hope that he could replicate his success with St. Louis, where he led the Blues to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. That was six years ago, however. Since then he has just one playoff series win – which puts him in the same boat as the current Leafs squad, which has just one series victory in the past 21 years and hasn’t been beyond the second round since Green played for them a generation ago.

But that does little to dampen the expectation in one of the world’s most pressure-packed hockey markets. With one of the NHL’s best goal scorers in Auston Matthews riding shotgun with soon-to-be free agent Mitch Marner, who this week became just the fourth Leaf in history to register a 100-point season, the Leafs clinched their first full-season division crown in 25 years.

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However, a lot of that pressure will fall squarely on Anthony Stolarz, who won a Stanley Cup as a backup in Florida last year but has yet to make his first career playoff start. Still, the sense is that the Leafs are better equipped to play deeper into the spring than at almost any point since their last Stanley Cup triumph 58 years ago.

And while Ottawa’s squad boasts a lot of playoff newbies – star players such as Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot will be seeing their first postseason action – the Senators have owned the Leafs so far this campaign, sweeping all three games between the teams.

Opening game: Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, CBC

Tampa Bay Lightning (2A) vs. Florida Panthers (3A)

Unlike its northern counterpart, the Battle of Florida has been an almost annual event in the Sunshine State in recent years, with the winner of the first three in-state series going on to reach the Stanley Cup final each time.

Featuring a combined 25 Stanley Cup winners and almost 2,500 games of playoff experience, both teams know their way to the championship circle, with Tampa Bay holding an edge with two wins to Florida’s one in head-to-head series wins as well as Stanley Cups over the past five seasons.

Among active players, there are few better performers in the spring than Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov, who led the NHL in scoring for a second straight season. The Russian needs just four points to tie Peter Forsberg for 20th in playoff scoring history, while countryman Andrei Vasilevskiy, who won the 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, seems to grow a couple of inches this time of year, and was just this week named the best goalie in the league in an NHLPA poll.

The Panthers, the defending champions, are aiming to duplicate Tampa by making a third consecutive trip to the final. However, they’ve been banged up over the season’s second half, and lost star defenceman Aaron Ekblad to a substance ban.

Still, they boast some of the NHL’s best playoff performers in Matthew Tkachuk and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, not to mention trade deadline acquisition Brad Marchand, who is aiming for his first Stanley Cup since helping the Bruins triumph as a rookie in 2011.

Opening game: Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet 360

Carolina Hurricanes (2M) vs. New Jersey Devils (3M)

Back in the postseason for the sixth straight year as an NHL head coach, Sheldon Keefe will have his hands full to build on the solitary series win he registered during his five years in Toronto. Leading New Jersey into the playoffs after a one-year absence, Keefe and the Devils will lock horns with the Carolina Hurricanes, who have won four of the five all-time postseason meetings between the teams.

While the Devils won the first of those clashes – en route to the 2001 Stanley Cup final – Carolina has enjoyed the upper hand ever since, most recently two years ago when it ousted the Devils in five games to reach the Eastern Conference final.

Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who has led his team to the playoffs for the seventh straight year, will certainly have fond memories of matching up against New Jersey, having been involved in all five playoff series between the teams. As a Hurricanes player he went to the Stanley Cup final after beating the Devils in 2002, before overcoming them again in 2006 on his way to winning his first Stanley Cup after a 1,187-regular-season game wait.

Much like Brind’Amour, Hurricanes defenceman Brent Burns is also playing the waiting game, having taken part in almost 1,500 career games without getting to lift the precious chalice.

Standing in his way in the first round will be a Devils lineup featuring youthful forward Nico Hischier, along with the most experienced goaltending tandem in the postseason, with Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen the only pairing each with 20-plus playoff games.

Opening game: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360

WESTERN CONFERENCE

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Winnipeg Jets (1C) vs. St. Louis Blues (WC2)

After a first Presidents’ Trophy in franchise history, Winnipeg is waiting with bated breath to see what the Jets can do as an encore. This team is no stranger to playoff flops, having won just one series since it went to the Western Conference final in 2018, and has managed to win just two games over the past two springs, exiting to the Golden Knights and then the Avalanche in five games each.

Once again, a lot of the pressure will fall on Connor Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s best goaltender, and the presumptive favourite to do it again this season. The American goalie, who clinched a second straight William M. Jennings Trophy on Wednesday night after the Jets led the way with an NHL-low 191 goals against, led the NHL in wins with 47 and shutouts with eight, both career highs.

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However, worries over his extensive workload – which were a delicate subject after last year’s first-round loss – will be there until he shows otherwise, with Hellebuyck playing 63 games, tied for the NHL lead.

On the other side of the matchup, the Blues – who beat Winnipeg on their way to a first Stanley Cup in 2019 – will look to spoil Winnipeg’s party. Under new head coach Jim Montgomery, the Blues were one of the hottest teams after the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, going on a franchise-record 12 game winning streak down the stretch to finish 20 points back of the Jets in the standing to clinch the final wild-card spot.

Underpinning much of that success is 2019 Cup winner Jordan Binnington, who showed his big-game mentality in leading Team Canada to victory over Team USA – with Hellebuyck in net – at the 4 Nations earlier this year.

Opening game: Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, CBC, Omni

Vegas Golden Knights (1P) vs. Minnesota Wild (WC1)

Postseason success has been in short supply in the North Star state of late. Case in point: The Golden Knights didn’t even exist the last time the Minnesota Wild won a playoff series. You have to go back to the spring of 2015 for the last time the Wild advanced out of the first round – one of just four playoff series the franchise has won in its 25 years of existence.

Facing off against the Wild is a team that has known nothing but success since it first took the ice in 2017. One Stanley Cup, another final and almost three times as many series wins as its opponent this spring, with the highest playoff win percentage in NHL history (.600).

These teams met in the first round in 2021 – with the Knights triumphing in seven games – but the signs point to a far less competitive series this time around. A lower-body injury cost the Wild the services of their best player, Kirill Kaprizov, for half the season, and it remains to be seen if he can regain the Hart Trophy form he was showing earlier in the season.

While Marc-André Fleury retiring after 21 seasons is a nice feel-good hockey story, it will be Wild starter Filip Gustavsson that has to face down Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and the rest of a battle-tested Golden Knights squad that features 17 Stanley Cup winners.

Opening game: Sunday, 10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360

Dallas Stars (2C) vs. Colorado Avalanche (3C)

For the second successive spring, these two battle-tested squads will go head to head, meaning one of the favourites for this year’s Stanley Cup will fall at the first hurdle.

Colorado, who won the Stanley Cup three years ago, will naturally be looking to turn the tables on its Central Division rival, which has reached the Western Conference final in each of the past two seasons. In fact, Dallas, which owns a 4-2 record in the six playoffs meetings between the franchises, has emerged victorious in their past two meetings, having also beaten the Avs in 2020 in the playoff bubble, on its way to a losing appearance in the final.

The X-factor in this series will of course be Mikko Rantanen, who won a ring with Colorado three years ago and is fourth on the Avs’ all-time playoff point list. The Finnish winger was traded well in advance of the deadline when it became apparent that Colorado wouldn’t be able to match the free agent’s salary demands. But after landing in Carolina, the Hurricanes couldn’t come to a long-term agreement with Rantanen, so he ended up in Dallas, where he signed an eight-year deal.

But Rantanen will have plenty of help in the offensive firework department. Dallas has 10 players with more than 40 points this season, including Matt Duchene, who finished with 82 points. But the injury Wednesday night to star winger Jason Robertson is an untimely setback, particularly for a team already missing star blueliner Miro Heiskanen for at least the opening game.

The Stars will need all hands on deck to neutralize the high-powered Avalanche, led by Nathan MacKinnon, who just missed out on a first career Art Ross Trophy, finishing second behind Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov for the second straight year with 116 points. Cale Makar led all defencemen with 92 points this season, and his 1.11 career points per game average in the playoffs ranks second in NHL history behind only Bobby Orr.

And the Avs could get an X-factor of their own in the form of captain Gabriel Landeskog, who last weekend played his first competitive games since lifting the Stanley Cup in 2022 and could be in line for a Game 1 return on Saturday.

Opening game: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360

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Los Angeles Kings (2P) vs. Edmonton Oilers (3P)

If it’s Los Angeles against Edmonton at this time of year, it can only mean the NHL playoffs have started. For the fourth consecutive season, the two Pacific Division rivals will trade barbs and blows as they aim to advance.

Edmonton, of course, is desperate to go one better than last season, when it fell just a single win short of a sixth Stanley Cup in team history. But it’s a long road back to the final, and Connor McDavid and Co. won’t be overlooking the challenge posed by this year’s Kings.

Although they haven’t won a playoff series since 2014, when they beat the New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup, the Kings turned the tables on the Oilers this season, taking home-ice advantage for the first time in the four years they’ve run into this Edmonton roadblock. They’ve also held the upper hand against the Oilers this season, winning three of the four matchups between the sides.

However, Los Angeles hasn’t emerged victorious in this series since Wayne Gretzky helped knock off the defending-champion Oilers in the 1989 playoffs, with Edmonton winning each of the past six matchups. And McDavid, last season’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner, has always enjoyed playing the Kings in the playoffs, posting an otherworldly two points per game average across 18 contests against them.

But it has been anything but a smooth run for the Oilers this season. They’ve been blighted by injuries, with both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl missing time, while defenceman Mattias Ekholm is set to miss out on the first round and forward Evander Kane has been out all year after surgery. The Oilers haven’t been able to ice a full lineup since March 4.

However, Kane could be available for the first round, and both McDavid and Draisaitl ended the season well, with the Oilers captain recording his eighth 100-point season, while Draisaitl won his first Rocket Richard Trophy with 52 goals.

Opening game: Monday, 10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to remove a reference to Jack Hughes, who is out with an injury.