Mandatory Image Credit: John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Ottawa Senators

Kicking the playoffs off with a very unique matchup, as this is the first time in NHL history these two teams have faced off in a series. The Hurricanes prize for finishing atop the Eastern Conference in the regular season is one of the hottest teams across the league heading into the playoffs, the Senators.

The first half of the season didn’t go as planned for Ottawa, who were looking to build off of their playoff appearance last season and cement themselves as a true threat in the Eastern Conference. On January 1st, they were second last in the conference, although that’s a bit misleading, as they were only three points back of a playoff spot in a tight and competitive East. 

As other teams began to cool down, the Sens were just heating up. Over the second half of the season the Senators had a record of 24-11-6, and their +31 goal differential was third in the league. Like I said, they’re one of the hottest teams heading into the playoffs, and nobody wanted to run into them.

But as impressive as they’ve been in the second half of the year, the Hurricanes are a step ahead, with a better record (29-8-4), and the best goal differential at +46. I think people are slightly overrating the Senators in this series as the Hurricanes are a proven playoff contender and maybe a boring number one seed, but a number one seed nonetheless.

The players to watch in this series for Carolina are: Jaccob Slavin, a true shutdown D-man; Sebastian Aho, nearly a point per game in his playoff career (85P in 89GP); Andrei Svechnikov, coming off a career year with 31 goals and 70 points this season; and Seth Jarvis, who led the team in points in last year’s playoffs (16P in 15GP).

The players to watch in this series for Ottawa are: Brady Tkachuk, their captain and player most built for playoff hockey (four goals and 30 hits in 6 games against Toronto last year); Jake Sanderson, who is on the cusp of being considered one of the league’s best defensemen; Claude Giroux, who ranks second in games played among active players without a Stanley Cup; and Linus Ullmark, who has struggled in his playoff career but is the true X-Factor in the Sens chances of winning the series. 

Prediction: Hurricanes in 6

Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins

The Buffalo Sabres are finally back in the playoffs. Yes you read that right, ‘guy waking up from a 4 month coma’. Oh, sorry ‘guy waking up from a 15 year coma’, it’s been quite a while, believe me. 

What looked like another lost season in Western New York has turned into one of the greatest turnarounds in recent history. Not only did the Sabres get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011, they won the Atlantic Division, and their first game back is in their own building.

Coming into KeyBank Center is the Boston Bruins, who also haven’t been in the playoffs since… oh, 2024. Yeah, they’re pretty used to this. Although with Bergeron calling it a career a few years ago, and the team trading Marchand last season, it felt like a mini rebuild/retool was coming in Boston. But here they are again.

Led by an elite player in each position group with Pastrnak, McAvoy and Swayman, this Bruins team overachieved based on preseason expectations. Players like Arvidsson, Minten and Khusnutdinov really helped provide the depth scoring that was nowhere to be found last year when they missed the postseason.

Buffalo on the other hand blew past any expectation that anyone would’ve had for them preseason. As it felt like if this was the year they inevitably did break the drought, it would be in a wild card position. But over the second half of the season they proved to be just as dangerous as any team in the NHL. Led by Tage Thompson and Rasumus Dahlin, they made a point of wanting to stay in Buffalo and be there when they turned things around, and that they did.

The Sabres strength isn’t a single line, or the top powerplay, it’s a complete team that gets contributions all throughout the lineup. From their aforementioned top guys like Thompson and Dahlin, to lowkey guys like McLeod, Doan and Samuelsson. Everybody eats in Buffalo.

This series can’t be viewed as the experienced team (Boston) versus the team with no experience (Buffalo), because that’s simply not the case. A lot of key contributors for the Bruins have little to no playoff experience such as Minten, Mittelstadt (former Sabre), and James Hagens who only has two games of NHL experience period. Whereas if you take a closer look at this Sabres lineup, there are guys with games under their belt. Alex Tuch racked up 66 games with Vegas, McLeod 56 with Edmonton, Jason Zucker with 52 in his career, and Bowen Byram who won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022.

The players to watch in this series for Buffalo are: Rasmus Dahlin, the team captain and longest tenured Sabre who has been hungry to get his team into the playoffs and showcase his talent on the biggest stage; Tage Thompson, a three-time 40 goal scorer who is a threat to find the back of the net from anywhere on the ice; Zach Benson, a hustle player through and through who can get under your skin as well as make plays in the offensive end; and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, the projected starter making his playoff debut and needs to match the play of Swayman.

The players to watch in this series for Boston are: David Pastrnak, how could he not be a player to watch (87P in 90GP in his playoff career); Charlie McAvoy, an elite number one defenseman who will have his hands full all series long; Morgan Geekie, barely missed hitting 40 goals this season but heating back up at the right time (5 goals in his last 4GP); and Casey Mittelstadt, who played seven seasons in Buffalo and will look to get the best of his former team.

Prediction: Sabres in 7

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Montreal Canadiens

An ultra rare Stanley Cup Finals rematch in the first round of the playoffs. These two teams last met in 2021 when the Lightning completed their repeat and got to keep the Cup for another year. These teams are a bit different than they were in 2021, for starters, Corey Perry isn’t on Montreal anymore. 

Tampa Bay was the team of the early 2020s, winning back to back cups and making another finals in 2022, losing to the Avalanche. Since then they haven’t been able to get back to making deep playoff runs as we had come to expect from them. In fact, they haven’t won a single series over the last three years.

Montreal on the other hand, made the Final in 2021 on a bit of a Cinderella run. The shortened season format allowed them to make the playoffs with a 24-21-11 record, good enough for fourth in the North Division, composed of only Canadian teams. They fell back down to earth in the following three seasons, with three consecutive years at the bottom of the Atlantic Division. 

This allowed them to go through the rebuild that was necessary for the team, and accumulating high end talent through the draft. Last year they made the playoffs after a scorching hot second half of the season, but were outmatched by the Washington Capitals in the first round.

They carried their success in the second half of last season into this year, and nearly all season they were a top three team in the Atlantic Division, with their eyes set on the playoffs. It was a three team race up until the final few games between them, the Lightning and the Sabres. Unfortunately for them, two crucial regulation losses to Columbus and Philadelphia put them into third place in the division. They will have to begin the playoffs on the road, where they surprisingly have a better record than at the Bell Centre.

This Lightning team has been battered and bruised all season long, with many key players missing extended periods of time with injury, specifically on the blue line. While most of their lineup is back for game one, their most experienced player’s status is up in the air. Victor Hedman took a leave from the team a few weeks ago, and there has yet to be any real updates since. Hope all is well with him and we can see him in action soon.

This should be a tightly contested series and has tons of storylines beyond the Stanley Cup Finals rematch. Canadiens Head Coach played the majority of his Hall of Fame career in Tampa Bay, and Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper is seeking redemption from the loss in the Gold Medal Game. Both coaches will be as crucial to their team’s success as the players on the ice. 

The players to watch in this series for Tampa Bay are: Nikita Kucherov, second in the NHL in points this season and not beloved by the Habs faithful after his comments in 2021; Jake Guentzel, a key piece to the Penguins 2017 Cup win and a proven playoff performer (73P in 74GP); Darren Raddysh, having a career year with 22 goals and 70 points from the blue line; and Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in 2021 who has been bad by his standards in the playoffs since.

The players to watch in this series for Montreal are: Cole Caufield, fresh off a 51 goal season but questions surrounding his size being more of an issue in the playoffs; Lane Hutson, keeps getting better and was a standout in their series with Washington last year (5P in 5GP); Nick Suzuki, the potential Selke Trophy winner who also recorded over 100 points for the first time in his career; and Juraj Slavkovsky, hoping his success at the Olympics can translate to the Stanley Cup Playoffs (11 goals and 15 points in 13 total games at the Olympics). 

Prediction: Lightning in 6

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers

These are the two least exciting teams on the Eastern Conference side of the bracket, and they just so happen to be playing round one. However, they may have the most history of bad blood between them of any first round series given their instate rivalry. Awesome. Someone has to win this series and I for one am excited for the Battle of Pennsylvania in the Year 2026.

Both of these teams entered the season with almost zero expectations they would be in the playoffs. They were each welcoming a new head coach into town, Dan Muse for Pittsburgh, and Rick Tocchet for Philadelphia. It’s safe to say that they were both extremely successful in year one.

Muse’s Penguins obviously have a little more star power, as legends like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson are all still producing late into their careers. The thing was, they were still getting production from their veterans, yet the team hadn’t made the playoffs since 2022. This year’s team just continued to find a way night in and night out, even if it was just getting to overtime (16 OTL), those points added up and are a big reason why they are here.

Additionally, they had contributions throughout the lineup, Anthony Mantha was able to have his first healthy season in quite some time and registered a career high in goals (33) and points (64). Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust continued being great secondary pieces recording 24 goals and 28 goals respectively. Lastly, some youth interjection, rookie Ben Kindel making the team out of camp and recording 17 goals and 35 points, and midseason pickup Yegor Chinakov with a sneaky 36 points in 43 games.

Tocchet’s Flyers don’t quite have the high end scoring as the Penguins, Konecy and Zegras led the way with 68 and 67 points. But they do a good job not giving up goals, their 2.91 goals against per game was 10th best in the NHL. That’s all with a tandem of Dan Vladar and Samuel Ersson.

Goaltending for both teams is not necessarily a strength, despite Vladar’s numbers (29-14-7 record, .906 SV% and 2.42 GAA). The Penguins have rotated between Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner fairly evenly since trading Jarry earlier this season. Right now Vladar has the edge, although the Pens tandem both have experience in the playoffs while Vladar will make his first ever playoff appearance in game one, that experience could be a difference maker.

This series will have no shortage of hatred, antics, and everything that makes playoff hockey the best. Certainly when these two rivals go at it. Shockingly, the Penguins last series win was in 2018 against the Flyers. Philadelphia hasn’t been any more impressive as their most recent appearance was all the way back in the bubble where they lost to the Islanders in the second round.

The players to watch in this series for Pittsburgh  are: Sidney Crosby, the only active player with more than 200 career playoff points; Evgeni Malkin, number two in playoff points for an active player; Erik Karlsson, who had an incredible run in 2017 before the Penguins beat him (18P in 19GP); and Rickard Rakell, hungry for playoff hockey with only 2 playoff games played since 2018. 

The players to watch in this series for Philadelphia are: Porter Martone, huge addition down the stretch (10P in 9GP); Trevor Zergras, first taste of the playoffs after his best season as a pro (26 goals and 67 points); Rasmus Ristolainen, over 800 games played in the league making his playoff debut; and Travis Konecny, team leader whose game is built for the postseason.

Prediction: Flyers in 7