The 16-team playoff field is set and most first-round matchups are locked in as the regular season wraps Thursday. The NHL postseason starts Saturday, promising controversial calls, thrilling overtimes, and underdogs advancing. Here's one burning question per team.
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Anaheim Ducks
Will unsustainable style be exposed?
Anaheim is the West's ultimate riding-the-vibes team.
The Ducks broke a seven-year playoff drought during Joel Quenneville's first season behind the bench - fun! Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, and Beckett Sennecke, the Big Three up front for the foreseeable future, are enjoying breakout seasons in their early 20s - fun! There's minimal pressure to win a playoff series - fun!
But the Ducks often play with fire, and they may finally get burned. Sure, they're highly entertaining - they notched a league-leading 11 comeback wins thanks to a relentless rush attack. But timely finishing and goaltending consistently bail out a skater group that loves to cheat for offense. The postseason has a way of humbling teams that are playing unsustainable hockey.
Boston Bruins
Will a lack of discipline prove costly?
Boston's front office has done a marvelous job of retooling in the post-Patrice Bergeron era. Back in the postseason after just one year away, the East's first wild card checks a couple of key boxes for any underdog: an elite offensive catalyst (David Pastrnak) and a game-stealing netminder (Jeremy Swayman).
However, another important box - discipline - has gone unchecked all season.
Boston took 316 minor penalties in the regular season, currently third most in the NHL, and averaged 12 penalty minutes per game - second most. Giant defenseman Nikita Zadorov leads the league with 41 minors in 81 games.
Boston also struggles to draw penalties. This mix yielded the NHL's worst special-teams time differential: The Bruins logged 75 more minutes on the penalty kill than the power play over 82 games.
Buffalo Sabres
Will the power play bounce back?
The Sabres snapped a 14-year playoff drought, captured the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic, and face a beatable Bruins team in the first round. It's hard to get too worked up about anything relating to Buffalo.
However, the power play has failed to score on 19 opportunities in April, allowing two shorthanded goals in the process. Scoring on the man advantage wasn't a concern from October through March, as the Sabres ranked 15th with a respectable 21.4% success rate.
Head coach Lindy Ruff's first unit features Josh Norris, Jack Quinn, and most importantly, Rasmus Dahlin, Jason Zucker, and Tage Thompson. Dahlin is the main distributor and occasional trigger man, Zucker buries loose pucks around the netfront, and Thompson blasts one-timers from the left flank.
Carolina Hurricanes
Will well-established identity propel deeper run?
The Hurricanes have now made the playoffs in all eight years of head coach Rod Brind'Amour's tenure in Carolina. They won at least one series in their past seven appearances and enter this postseason as the East's No. 1 seed.
Carolina is once again a well-oiled machine on the ice, which shows up in the underlying numbers. Once again, there are questions about the team's high-end finishing and goaltending health. Is this the year the script flips and the Hurricanes at last advance to the Stanley Cup Final, or will it be the same old story?
Colorado Avalanche
Will late-season tinkering come in handy?
Colorado's been the NHL's top team all year. Its only nagging problem (power-play scoring) became a non-issue over the past two months.
That security in the standings gave head coach Jared Bednar runway to experiment with line and pairing combinations down the stretch. The objective: identifying viable Plan B combos in case something goes awry in a playoff series.
The No. 1 forward line has for the most part featured Nathan MacKinnon between Artturi Lehkonen and Martin Necas. However, captain Gabriel Landeskog saw some late-season reps in Necas' spot.
The second line has usually slotted Brock Nelson between Valeri Nichushkin and Landeskog, but Necas and Nazem Kadri subbed in recently.
Longtime defense partners Cale Makar and Devon Toews have been separated at times, too, partly to experiment and partly out of necessity (while Makar was injured). Toews and Sam Malinski - a poor man's Makar in many ways - were dynamite together. The Avs outscored the opposition 18-8 and owned 68% of the expected goals in the duo's 242 five-on-five minutes.
Dallas Stars
Will Mikko Rantanen go off again?
The Stars would kill for a Cup Final appearance after losing in the third round for three years in a row. They face an especially challenging road to the West final this year, with Minnesota and Colorado standing in their way.
Glen Gulutzan's squad is deep. But Rantanen is the trump card.
The 29-year-old Finnish power forward is one of a handful of NHLers capable of taking over multiple games in a single playoff series. Just last year, he went off for 11 points in the final three games of an epic first-round triumph over Colorado. Rantanen, who previously starred for the Avs, is the rare player whose career points-per-game average is higher in the playoffs than the regular season (1.24 versus 1.09).
He missed a month of action after suffering an injury at the Olympics. Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston racked up 96 and 86 points, respectively, ahead of Dallas' final game Wednesday and have each appeared in 81 contests. Yet Rantanen still paces the team in primary assists with 34 in 63 games. He's the Stars' offensive engine.
Edmonton Oilers
Will Leon Draisaitl make a star impact?
Out with a lower-body injury, Draisaitl hasn't played since March 15. He came back to Oilers practice this week, but his return date is still to be determined. Head coach Kris Knoblauch said Draisaitl will play "sometime in that first round if things go well."
Translation: Even if the dominant center returns to the lineup early in the series, he won't be 100% healthy.
That said, Draisaitl is a proven warrior. The German star produced a whopping 32 points in 16 games in the 2022 playoffs while battling a high ankle sprain.
Edmonton's attack can't afford an unproductive Draisaitl. Running mate Connor McDavid has reeled off 134 points in 81 regular-season games. Draisaitl's second on the team with 97 points in 65 games. Third in the forward group is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, way down at 55 points in 71 games.
Los Angeles Kings
Will offensive struggles lead to early exit?
The Kings' opponent is undecided as of this writing, but the two options are Colorado or Edmonton. That's the Presidents' Trophy winner and the team that's beaten L.A. in the first round each of the past four seasons.
The Kings will be in tough no matter what. In fact, they could be swept.
The main reason for pessimism: The D.J. Smith-coached squad is horrendous offensively, scoring 2.7 goals per game in the regular season. Only Calgary, Chicago, and Vancouver - three bottom-feeders - have lower rates.
Artemi Panarin, Adrian Kempe, and Brandt Clarke are the Kings' most dangerous weapons. Anze Kopitar and Quinton Byfield are helpful. But things tail off from there. Secondary pieces Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko were ruled out for the season due to injuries in late February and mid-March, respectively.
Minnesota Wild
Will lack of flashy center matter?
Despite boasting arguably the second-best overall lineup in the Central portion of the bracket, Minnesota can't compete in the center department.
The Avalanche can send out MacKinnon and Nelson for a combined 45 minutes a night. The Stars can lean on Johnston and Roope Hintz (once he returns from injury). The wild-card Kings can call upon Kopitar and Byfield.
The Wild? They've got Joel Eriksson Ek and Danila Yurov, with Ryan Hartman and Michael McCarron filling out the group - underwhelming for a serious playoff squad.
To be clear, the underrated Eriksson Ek isn't the issue. A Selke Trophy-caliber defensive player with a commanding netfront presence in the offensive zone, he's a perfectly fine No. 1 center alongside star wingers. The problem is the club's lack of other good top-six options.
Or, to be more precise, the potential problem. The Wild employ three of the top play-drivers in the world: defenseman Quinn Hughes and wingers Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy. It's possible they won't need a flashy center.
Montreal Canadiens
Will blue line be OK without Dobson?
We're going to learn a lot about Martin St. Louis' ability to adjust.
The Canadiens head coach was dealt a bad hand ahead of the playoffs, with top-four defenseman Noah Dobson suffering a thumb injury last weekend while blocking his 188th shot of the season. The Habs' highest-paid player will likely miss the entire first-round series against Nikita Kucherov and the Lightning.
Tampa Bay finished ahead of Montreal in the Atlantic, which means St. Louis won't have the benefit of last change and favorable matchups until Game 3.
Dobson manned the right side on a shutdown pair with Mike Matheson for most of the season. Another right-handed Montreal defenseman, Alexandre Carrier, is sidelined as well. Carrier's timeline for return was two-to-four weeks as of March 31.
Ottawa Senators
Will Linus Ullmark rise to the occasion?
The Senators are one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, if not the best. The offense, while not overly threatening, is solid. A 30th-ranked goaltending room, led by Ullmark and his troubling .891 save percentage, is the chief reason Ottawa dropped to the second wild card in the East.
If Ullmark can merely draw even with the Hurricanes' goalie (either Brandon Bussi or Frederik Andersen), Ottawa will be in decent shape against Carolina.
Philadelphia Flyers
Will Porter Martone's high-impact play carry over?
Martone has been a breath of fresh air for Philadelphia.
Signed out of Michigan State in late March, the Flyers' top pick in the 2025 draft has been sensational through nine games. He's bagged four goals (including an overtime winner), added six assists (all primary), and registered 32 shots on goal while logging 17 minutes a night. The 19-year-old right winger has mostly skated alongside Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak.
Martone is listed at 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds. He plays a hard-nosed game. In other words, he should thrive in a playoff environment.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Will Cup-winning pedigree provide edge?
Penguins versus Flyers is a compelling matchup for several reasons. For one, both teams reside in Pennsylvania, and there's history. Two, Pittsburgh's notably strong offensively, and Philadelphia's notably strong defensively.
Another wrinkle: While the Flyers are quite young, the Pens are led by savvy veterans. Three-time Cup winners Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are 39 and 38, respectively. Two-time champs Kris Letang and Bryan Rust are 38 and 33. Future Hall of Famer Erik Karlsson is 35. That's four of the Penguins' top five scorers in the regular season, plus a 22-minute defenseman in Letang.
Does this pedigree move the needle given the opposition's relative youth?
Tampa Bay Lightning
Will Andrei Vasilevskiy return to dominant form?
Vasilevskiy is the betting favorite to win the Vezina Trophy after earning a 39-14-5 record and posting a .912 save percentage for the Atlantic's No. 2 seed. He's saved 38 goals above expected in 58 games ahead of a Wednesday start.
The 31-year-old Russian attained legend status in his 20s - not so much for his regular-season dominance, but for what he accomplished in the postseason. A two-time Cup champion and the 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy recipient, he's maintained a .918 save percentage in 120 playoff games even though Tampa Bay's bowed out early the past three seasons. Don't be surprised if this generation's greatest goalie becomes virtually unbeatable in the playoffs.
Utah Mammoth
Will young core thrive in new setting?
Utah has one of the brightest long-term outlooks in the league, and it should by no means be considered a walkover by the Pacific's No. 1 seed. The Mammoth are dangerous - at least theoretically. Playoff hockey is different than regular-season hockey.
While Utah isn't super young overall, the forward core is green. Take its six players with 20 or more goals: Dylan Guenther, JJ Peterka, and Logan Cooley have never competed in the postseason; Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse have nine career appearances each; and Nick Schmaltz has dressed for four games.
Other notable Mammoth players with limited postseason experience (25 games or fewer) or none at all: starting goalie Karel Vejmelka, forwards Jack McBain and Barrett Hayton, and defensemen MacKenzie Weegar, Sean Durzi, and Dmitri Simashev.
Vegas Golden Knights
Will the John Tortorella bump continue?
Vegas earned just 28 regulation wins in its first 74 games.
The Golden Knights also ranked concerningly low in team save percentage (.874, 30th out of 32 teams) and first-period goal differential (minus-18, 32nd). That's the definition of a suspect team.
An extremely late and bold coaching change appears to be working, though. Vegas is 6-0-1 under Tortorella. Over two weeks, the team's save percentage has skyrocketed (.921), and its first-period goal differential has jumped to a respectable level (even).
Some of the improvement can be attributed to weak competition and a basic willingness to impress the new guy. Some of it relates to Tortorella's usage, deployment, and hard-driving ways. It's hard to predict which version of the team will show up in the postseason - perhaps a mix of the Vegas good and Vegas bad.
John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter/X (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).
